The horrific news that we have all been reading about surrounding the stabbings yesterday in Nottingham, really brings home the dangers that we all face in our day to day lives. The two young students and the 50 year old man were innocent victims of crime, in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It is always shocking when we hear about knife injuries and deaths caused by stabbings, as I criminal injuries lawyer I deal with a lot of cases involving knife injuries and come across lots of similar situations where innocent people are attacked. Occasionally, there is some connection between the victim and perpetrator but more often than not the assailant is not known to the victim.
Knife is not uncommon in today's society
It is only in more recent years that I have dealt with more cases involving non-sexual crime as an abuse and assault solicitor. I have specialised in sexual abuse and assault claims for over 20 years, dealing with both the recovery of compensation for institutional sexual abuse through the civil courts and also criminal injuries compensation for sexual assaults and the psychological effects. When I joined Winston Solicitors, I was really taken aback by the huge number cases resulting from stabbing injuries and fatalities being handled by our busy criminal injuries team.
Fatal Claims under the Criminal Injuries Scheme
Under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme a qualifying relative of someone who has died as a direct result of a criminal injury may be eligible for compensation. There are three types of award available:
- a bereavement payment;
- a child’s payment; and
- a dependency payment.
The Scheme also sets out who is considered a qualifying relative and includes spouses and partners who were living with the deceased at the time of the incident, children, parents and in some cases spouses and partners who may have not been living with the deceased but were financially dependent.
As with all awards under the Criminal Injuries Scheme, compensation will not be paid to ‘criminals’ so if an applicant has any unspent convictions themselves, they will not be eligible for an award. Spent convictions are not taken into account.
You can contact a criminal injuries specialist at Winston Solicitors on 0113 320 5000 or email cicamessages@winstonsolicitors.co.uk.
