Court Compensation
A new scheme designed to ensure that officers who are injured in the line of duty receive the compensation they are due, goes live in Leicestershire from 2nd December 2019. It will allow the Force to compensate officers after a court ruling, before later claiming the costs back from the court.
The campaign for the scheme has been run jointly between Leicestershire Police Federation and the force and was inspired by Deputy Branch Secretary & Wellbeing Lead Joe Lloyd.
“When officers are injured, particularly when they’re assaulted on duty and the offender goes to court, sometimes the courts award compensation to the officer. What I’ve generally found, myself included, is that the officers very rarely see this money that they are awarded”, Joe said.
“I think a lot of officers get really frustrated. They get injured and…are actually awarded something and they don’t seem to see it. I thought about that and what a great idea it would be if the force paid initially and then recovered the costs themselves from the courts. I put that out on Twitter just as an idea because it was a bit of a dream I think I had.”
Joe later discovered that his dream had actually already been implemented by Wiltshire Police and says that after he discovered this he took the idea forward to Leicestershire Chief Constable Simon Cole who was also enthusiastic about the plan. Joe says that introducing this type of scheme will benefit officers and make the procedure of receiving compensation much more straight forward.
“I think the benefits are that it sort of gives that immediacy to the officer because they can claim it once the courts have determines what the outcome should be. It’s the force saying, ‘We’re going to look after you and we’ll sort the rest of it out, we’ll sort that money element out’. It’s a good thing. It should be done across the country, I think”, Joe added.
Joe stated that it is important officers take care of any compensation award letters that the court sends so that they will be able to receive the amount they are entitled to immediately.
The new policy becomes active from 2nd December 2019 but will be backdated to 1st April 2019.
If you believe that you are entitled to compensation, please see the below documentation:
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