Case type
Dental reports for CICA claims.
Independent dental evidence for applications to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, where teeth have been lost or damaged in a crime of violence.
How CICA differs
How to tell when a CICA application is needed
Compensation under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2012 is tariff-based. The scheme broke the link with common law damages.
An injury is matched to a description in the tariff of injuries at Annex E, and the tariff figure follows. A lifetime cost-of-care schedule, which drives the value of a civil dental claim, does not drive a CICA award in the same way. What the dental expert supplies is therefore different. The report must establish which tariff description the injury actually meets, how many teeth, which teeth, and whether the damage is permanent. The tariff turns on those facts, not on what restoration will cost across a lifetime.
Where the dental expert helps
The facts the tariff description turns on.
Establishing permanence
The tariff distinguishes damage that is permanent from damage that is not, so the opinion has to say plainly which it is.
Counting and identifying the teeth
Tariff descriptions turn on how many teeth, and which teeth, were damaged in the incident.
Distinguishing injury from disease
A tooth lost to caries is not a tooth lost to an assault, and the report separates the two on the records.
Treatment for special expenses
Where the applicant is eligible and dental treatment is not available on the NHS, the report can set out the treatment required.
The expert we match
Expertise matched to the structures damaged.
Restorative dentistry
For teeth lost or damaged in the incident, their permanence and the treatment required.
Oral and maxillofacial surgery
Where the jaw or facial skeleton is involved and a surgical opinion is needed.
The report you receive
A report the tariff description can be applied to.
Why solicitors instruct us
A report scoped to the scheme, not to a civil claim.
We write the report the scheme needs
A civil cost-of-care schedule does not fit a tariff-based award. The report answers the question the tariff actually asks.
Permanence is the pivot
The tariff turns on it, so we match a clinician who will say plainly whether the damage is permanent.
A named case manager
One point of contact coordinates the instruction from first enquiry through to delivery of the report.
FAQs
Commonly asked questions
The award is tariff-based. Treatment costs may be recoverable as special expenses in limited circumstances, and eligibility is a matter for the solicitor rather than for the expert.
By matching the injury to a description in the tariff of injuries at Annex E. It is not a common law damages assessment, so the value follows the description rather than a lifetime cost of care.
Generally two years from the date the incident was reported to the police, and that limit can be waived in exceptional circumstances.
Rarely well. A CICA application is tariff-based and turns on permanence and the teeth affected, while a civil claim turns on the cost of future care. We scope the two reports separately.
The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme covers England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland operates a separate scheme with its own rules.
Discuss an instruction