Evidence Needed for a Personal Injury Claim
Personal injury claims are won and lost on evidence. The strongest claims have organised, accessible documentation of what happened, who was involved, and how the injury has affected the claimant’s life. This guide explains what evidence is needed, who gathers it (you, your solicitor, or both), and how to preserve it from the moment of the accident through to settlement.
In this guide
- The Three Types of Evidence
- Immediate Evidence — At the Scene and First 24 Hours
- Medical Evidence
- Evidence by Claim Type
- Financial Loss Evidence
- How Long to Keep Evidence
- Common Questions About Evidence
- Related Guides
- Our Partner's Fees Explained
- Check If You Could Claim Compensation For Your Injury
The good news: a specialist solicitor obtains most of the evidence for you. But there are some pieces you alone can capture — particularly in the days immediately after the accident — and missing them weakens the case. This guide tells you what to focus on.
The Three Types of Evidence
Every personal injury claim relies on three categories of evidence:
- Liability evidence — proving the accident happened and someone else was at fault
- Injury evidence — proving the injury itself, its severity, and its prognosis
- Loss evidence — proving the financial impact (lost earnings, treatment costs, care)
Each requires different documents and is gathered at different stages of the claim.
Immediate Evidence — At the Scene and First 24 Hours
This is the evidence only you can capture, and which is hardest to recreate later:
Photographs
Take as many as you can manage — wide-angle shots showing the scene context, close-ups of the cause of the accident, photographs of vehicle damage, photographs of any visible injuries. Modern phones automatically date and geo-tag photos which adds significant evidential weight. Don’t worry about being a photographer — quantity helps more than quality. For a wet-floor slip, take ten photos in 30 seconds: the spill itself, the surrounding area, any warning signs (or absence), the distance to the nearest staff, your shoes, and your view as you approached.
Witness Details
Anyone who saw what happened can be a witness. Get their name and a phone number or email. A name without contact details is much less useful — strangers move on, change jobs, and disappear from the area. If they’re willing, a quick voice memo of their account in their own words is gold-standard. Don’t assume the official accident report will capture witnesses adequately; it often doesn’t.
Other Driver / Responsible Party Details
For road accidents: registration number, driver’s name, address, phone number, insurer name and policy number. For shop or workplace accidents: the manager’s name, the company name, the address, and a reference number for the accident report. Take a photo of any business card or letterhead they hand you.
CCTV Awareness
Note any CCTV cameras in the area — on shops, businesses, traffic lights, buses. CCTV retention is often short (28-90 days) so a solicitor will need to send formal preservation requests quickly. Tell the solicitor early. For supermarket and bus cases CCTV is often decisive.
Official Reports
Make sure something is on record:
- Road accident — call 999 or 101, get a police reference number
- Workplace accident — make sure it goes in the accident book, get a copy
- Shop or supermarket — ask the manager to complete an incident report, get a reference
- Medical issue — see your GP or A&E so the symptoms are recorded in your medical history
Medical Evidence
For any claim, medical evidence is essential. The components:
GP and Hospital Records
Your full records from before, during, and after the accident. Pre-accident records establish baseline health; post-accident records document the injury and recovery. Your solicitor obtains these via a formal medical records request — you do not need to gather them yourself, just consent to the request.
Independent Specialist Report
A medico-legal specialist (often an orthopaedic surgeon, neurologist, psychiatrist, or other consultant in the relevant field) prepares a written report on:
- The nature and severity of your injuries
- How they were caused (linking back to the accident)
- Your treatment to date
- The prognosis — likely recovery period and any permanent effects
- Recommendations for further treatment
This is the single most important document for valuing the claim. Until the specialist report is in, no settlement should be agreed. See our should I accept the first compensation offer? guide for why.
Imaging and Test Results
X-rays, MRI scans, CT scans, blood test results, and any other investigations. Your solicitor obtains these as part of the medical records request. For serious injury claims involving brain injury or spinal injury, scans are often the most powerful objective evidence.
A Symptom Diary
A simple day-by-day record of pain, sleep disturbance, functional limitations, and any treatment. This costs nothing to keep and significantly strengthens claims involving ongoing symptoms — particularly for soft-tissue injuries, where there is no objective scan to demonstrate the impact. Even a brief note (1-2 lines per day) is valuable.
Evidence by Claim Type
Road Traffic Accidents
Strongest claims include:
- Police report and any criminal prosecution outcome
- Dashcam from your vehicle or other vehicles
- CCTV from junctions, roadside cameras, or shops
- Damage photos of all vehicles
- The other driver’s admission of fault (if any) recorded at the scene
- Scene photographs showing road layout, signage, and lighting
- For HGV cases — tachograph data showing speed and driving hours
Workplace Accidents
Strongest claims include:
- Accident book entry from your employer
- Any RIDDOR report submitted to the HSE
- The employer’s risk assessment for the task (or proof none existed)
- Equipment inspection records (scaffolds, lifting gear, machinery)
- Training records — yours and your colleagues’
- Method statements for the work
- HSE investigation report or prohibition notice (if any)
- Toolbox talk records
Slip, Trip and Fall Claims
Strongest claims include:
- Photographs of the hazard before it was cleaned up or repaired
- CCTV showing how long the hazard was there before your accident
- The occupier’s cleaning and inspection records (these are often disclosed only when proceedings are issued)
- Witness statements from other customers
- Receipt or transaction record proving you were on the premises
- For pavement trips — measurement of the defect (often needs to exceed local council intervention level)
Medical Negligence
Strongest claims include:
- Full GP records (often years before the negligent event)
- Hospital records including operation notes, anaesthetic records, nursing notes
- Imaging and pathology reports
- Consent forms
- Any PALS correspondence or Serious Incident report
- Independent expert opinion from the relevant specialty
- A chronological note of the events as you experienced them
See our medical negligence claims hub for the wider framework.
Industrial Disease
Strongest claims include:
- A complete work history covering the period of possible exposure
- Names of colleagues who can confirm working conditions
- Description of substances handled, tools used, and PPE provided (or not)
- Medical records showing diagnosis and clinical course
- For asbestos cases — Employers’ Liability Tracing Office records of relevant insurers
Financial Loss Evidence
Special damages require documented proof of every financial loss. The categories:
Lost Earnings
- Wage slips for 3-6 months before the accident
- Wage slips during your time off work
- P60s and tax returns
- For self-employed claimants: bank statements, invoices, accounts, tax returns
- Letter from employer confirming earnings, role, and time off
Treatment Costs
- Receipts for prescriptions
- Receipts for physiotherapy, osteopathy, or other private treatment
- Travel receipts (taxi fares, parking, mileage at HMRC rates)
- Receipts for medical aids — crutches, wheelchairs, cushions
Care and Assistance
For care provided by family members — usually recovered at a non-commercial rate — keep a contemporaneous note of how many hours per day each person provided. This includes help with washing, dressing, cooking, household tasks, and lifts to appointments. Even where no payment changes hands, this care is compensatable.
Property Damage
- Photographs of damaged property
- Receipts for replacement items
- Repair quotes and invoices
- For vehicles — engineer’s report and repair estimate
How Long to Keep Evidence
Keep everything until the case settles — and then for a further 6 years for tax purposes. For serious injury claims involving lifetime needs, keep records indefinitely. Digital scans of paper documents (stored in cloud backup) protect against loss. Your solicitor will return original documents when no longer needed, but you should have your own copies of anything important.
Common Questions About Evidence
I didn’t take any photos at the scene. Does that defeat my claim?
No. Many claims succeed without scene photographs — though they always help. Your solicitor can usually obtain CCTV, witness statements, and other evidence to reconstruct what happened. Cases without scene photos are still routinely won. But if you can get photos at the time, do.
Should I get my own medical report or use the NHS records?
Both are used. NHS records show what was diagnosed and treated. An independent medico-legal specialist report explains the injuries, prognosis, and impact in a format designed for the legal case. Your solicitor instructs the independent expert — you should not arrange this yourself, as the report needs to comply with court rules on independent expert evidence.
The other side has CCTV of the accident. Can I get to see it?
Yes. UK civil procedure rules require all parties to disclose documents relevant to the case, including unhelpful ones. Your solicitor will demand disclosure of CCTV and other evidence during the Pre-Action Protocol period or after proceedings are issued. CCTV often resolves disputed cases either way.
My employer is refusing to give me a copy of the accident book entry. What can I do?
Under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR), you have a right of access to accident book entries about you. You can also make a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act 2018. If the employer continues to refuse, your solicitor will issue formal disclosure requests during the claim — at which point refusal becomes harder to sustain.
How important are witness statements?
Important but not always essential. Strong claims often have one or two clear witness statements, but many succeed on objective evidence alone (CCTV, vehicle damage, accident reports). For disputed liability cases, witness evidence can be decisive. Where you have potential witnesses, gathering their contact details at the scene is much more valuable than trying to find them weeks later.
What evidence does the other side typically rely on?
Defendants typically rely on: their own witness account, their own records (where favourable), expert evidence for their preferred interpretation of the medical position, and any contributory negligence evidence (such as no seatbelt, no PPE, alcohol or drug use). They also try to find gaps in the claimant’s evidence rather than building strong positive evidence of their own — meaning a well-organised claimant’s case usually has the upper hand.
Related Guides
How the Personal Injury Claim Process Works
Proving Liability in a Personal Injury Claim
How Long Does a Personal Injury Claim Take?
Should I Accept the First Compensation Offer?
The Personal Injury Pre-Action Protocol Explained
What to Do After a Road Accident
Personal Injury Time Limits Explained
Check If You Could Claim Compensation For Your Injury
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