Three questions that usually decide it
Was someone else at fault?
Another driver, an employer, an occupier or a manufacturer. Shared fault does not end a claim, it reduces it.
Was it in the last three years?
Scotland allows three years from the accident, or from diagnosis for an industrial disease. Children have longer.
Did you need treatment?
A GP or hospital record from the time is the single most useful piece of evidence in any claim.
Lanarkshire is where the firm started
Bonnar Accident Law was founded in Airdrie in 1977 and our head office has remained in Lanarkshire ever since. We are not a national brand with a Lanarkshire postcode bolted on, this is where the firm has always been.
We are also the only firm of solicitors in Lanarkshire approved by Headway UK, the Brain Injury Association, which reflects the serious injury work we do here.
We cover both North and South Lanarkshire: Airdrie, Coatbridge, Cumbernauld, Motherwell, Wishaw, Bellshill, Hamilton, East Kilbride, Larkhall, Lanark and Shotts.
Claims we take on in Lanarkshire
Accidents at work
Unsafe equipment, manual handling, falls from height and inadequate training.
Read more →Road traffic accidents
Drivers, passengers, motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians.
Read more →Serious injuries
Head, brain and spinal injuries needing lifetime care and support.
Read more →Slips, trips and falls
Public places, shops, workplaces and defective pavements.
Read more →Industrial disease
Deafness, HAVS, dermatitis, asbestos and occupational asthma.
Read more →No win – no fee
We fund the claim. Nothing to pay unless we win it for you.
Read more →Two sheriff courts serve Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire is split between two sheriff courts, and which one hears your claim depends on where the accident happened. Airdrie Sheriff Court covers North Lanarkshire, Airdrie, Coatbridge, Cumbernauld and Kilsyth. Hamilton Sheriff Court covers South Lanarkshire and also takes Motherwell, Wishaw and Bellshill.
Getting the forum right matters, and it is not always obvious from the postcode. We will confirm which applies to your case.
Airdrie Sheriff Court
North Lanarkshire: Airdrie, Coatbridge, Cumbernauld and Kilsyth. On Graham Street, the same street as our head office.
Hamilton Sheriff Court
South Lanarkshire plus Motherwell, Wishaw and Bellshill. A busy court covering a large population.
All-Scotland Personal Injury Court
The specialist national court in Edinburgh, often the better forum for higher-value Lanarkshire claims.
How people get hurt in Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire carries the legacy of Scotland’s heavy industry alongside a modern logistics and distribution economy, with the M8, M74 and M73 all crossing it. Both the history and the present-day work show up in the claims we handle.
The M8, M74 and M73
Three motorways cross Lanarkshire, with heavy freight movements and the Raith and Eurocentral interchanges among the busiest in Scotland.
Logistics and distribution
Eurocentral and the surrounding estates form one of Scotland’s largest logistics clusters. Manual handling, forklift and loading-bay injuries dominate.
Industrial disease legacy
Steel, engineering and mining have left a long tail of deafness, vibration white finger and asbestos claims, often diagnosed decades after exposure.
Construction and regeneration
Extensive housing and commercial development across both council areas, with falls from height the leading cause of serious injury.
Retail and town centres
Slips, trips and falls in shops, supermarkets and on defective pavements across Lanarkshire’s town centres.
Serious and brain injury
As Headway UK’s only approved firm in Lanarkshire, we handle a high proportion of the area’s brain and spinal injury claims.
Three hospitals serve Lanarkshire
How we gather your medical evidence
NHS Lanarkshire runs three district general hospitals, Monklands in Airdrie, Wishaw and Hairmyres in East Kilbride, and which one holds your records depends on where you were treated. The most serious trauma is often taken to the Queen Elizabeth in Glasgow.
We request records directly from NHS Lanarkshire and your GP practice on your authority, so you do not have to chase anything.
For significant injuries we instruct an independent consultant to examine you privately at our cost.
Who would handle your Lanarkshire claim
Lanarkshire claims are run from our Airdrie head office. Veronica McManus, our Managing Director, is also a qualified nursing professional and leads our serious injury work.
Our record
A 99% success rate
Across personal injury claims, built on preparing cases properly and being honest at the outset about the ones that will not succeed.
Millions recovered
We have helped thousands of injured people win millions of pounds in compensation, from minor slips to catastrophic injury.
Referred by other solicitors
Firms in Scotland and England send us their clients’ personal injury claims, which is the endorsement we value most.
“From the very first phone call to the last they were friendly, courteous and very professional. What helped a great deal was the way they kept me informed.”
“They were so professional, courteous and diligent throughout the process. My compensation came through at the high end of my expectations.”
Scotland has its own rules and timeframes
Scots law differs from the rest of the UK in ways that matter to your claim, which is why a Scottish solicitor is worth having.
Three-year limitation
Most claims must be raised within three years of the accident, or from the date you knew an illness was work-related. Miss it and the claim is usually lost.
Pre-action protocol
Scotland operates a voluntary pre-action protocol for personal injury. It sets out timescales for insurers to investigate and respond before court is needed.
No win – no fee
We fund the cost of running your claim. If we do not win you pay nothing, and any success fee is capped and agreed with you in writing first.