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Court awarded compensation

If you are a victim or witness of crime, you may be able to get financial compensation in a number of ways…

If someone is convicted of a crime against you, the court may order them to pay you compensation. You can be compensated for a range of things, such as:

• Personal injury
• Losses from theft or damage to property
• Losses from fraud
• Being off work
• Medical expenses
• Travel expenses
• Pain and suffering
• Loss, damage or injury caused to or by a stolen vehicle.

If you want the court to consider awarding you compensation, you need to tell the police. You will need to give them details about the loss or damage you’ve suffered. The police will give this information to the Crown Prosecution Service, who will then make the request in court.

How compensation works

 If the court decides that an offender must pay you compensation, it will be limited to what they can afford and may depend on the sentence the court has given them.

For example, the court will not usually order an offender to pay compensation if they’re being sent to prison. The compensation may not cover the full cost of your damage or loss and often the offender will be able to pay it in instalments. The offender makes the payments to the court, which will then pass the money on to you.

The court has to make sure that the offender pays the compensation. If you have any questions about this, you should speak to the clerk of the court or the court manager – you shouldn’t discuss this with the offender.

Criminal injuries compensation

If you’ve been injured by a violent crime, you can apply for compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA). https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/criminal-injuries-compensation-authority

You will be eligible if the crime has been committed in the past two years, and if it was reported to the police as soon as possible.

The process can be complicated and take a long time, but your Voice support worker can explain how the system works and help you to make a claim.

If you want to make a claim, remember that you will have to go over the details of the crime again. You might find this upsetting, but we can give you emotional and practical support during the application process.

You can claim for both physical and mental injury but will need to provide medical evidence to support your claim.

You can get more information and application forms directly from Gov.uk: compensation for victims or by calling their helpline on 0300 003 3601.

Last modified 22nd November 2016