Litigation Friend?

keep_flyin

My son was involved in a car accident back in November. He was the front seat passenger in a taxi coming home from school. He suffered a broken rib and a sprained shoulder, for which he ended up attending hospital 3 times. I have just recieved the paperwork for his claim and have been asked to act as his litigation friend. Does anyone have any experience of this? Also the paperwork states that if the claim is in his favour then any money will be held until his 18th Birthday, which is fair enough as he is a child, but we have been told to include our out of pocket expenses (the 3 trips to hospital etc). It doesn't sound a lot but they are round trips of 80ish miles. It was not the taxi drivers fault.

InsideInsurance

As a minor in a potential court case he needs an additional representative (litigation friend) and that person will have to be approved by the courts (along with any settlement) should it get that far.

Its fairly straight forward and normal for a parent to do for their kids unless it is one of the parents that's being held liable for the incident

keep_flyin

Thank you for the clarification, shall send the form back.

BertTheRaccoon

Your child has no "legal identity" which is why an appropriate adult "litigation friend" needs to have conduct of the claim on their behalf.

It is standard procedure and you just need to sign the forms and let the lawyers do their thing.

A medical examination will be arranged so an independent medical report confirms the nature of injuries and the prognosis period for your child's recovery. This will be used to value the claim.

Once the child has recovered, settlement will be agreed between the lawyers and the compensating insurers. They will either then agree to deal with the payout by a Parental Indemnity form which would result in the compensation being paid to you to keep and invest on behald of your child, or to seek court approval on the settlement and the court will then invest the money in a special interest account until the child turns 18.