I’m suing a work man who was drunk driving crashed into us in a van. Who am I actually getting compensation from?

I'm afraid that's not how it works, nor really within your control.

Firstly, the sentence -This is entirely within the remit of the criminal court and is unrelated to the civil claim you have for money. Forget about it. You cannot alter the sentence given (you can put in a victim letter but I've known them to actually affect the sentence and its more of a boo boo kiss for the victim by the Court then anything), and if he has not gone to jail previously I very much doubt he will be sent down.

As for your claim, you can only recover losses. If your car is damaged, you will be paid the value of it by the insurance, who then recover it from the other side insurance. You cannot double dip by both receiving a pay-out from the insurance and then sueing the other side, as your claim was satisfied once the insurance paid. Remember, this is losses (as in, things you lost) not compensation to reward you. The end goal is to put you in the position you were in prior to the loss, no better

You cannot recover the cost of a holiday to destress.

If you have a personal injury claim, you tell you reinsurance and they will run it as part of their claim against the other side insurance, but this would involve you going through medical examinations to determine the extent of you injury's, and you would receive damages based upon a set scale.

Psychiatric injury (including stress and mental harm) is a exceptionally high bar to meet for these claims and you will be very unlikely to claim it with a Pi claim. I believe the standard here is a person who had a severed head literally flung into their arms from a motorcycle crash

Realistically if your not injured you will recover the cost of your car and that's it.

/r/LegalAdviceUK Thread Parent