Calculated by taking an employee’s age, years of service and average weekly pay to arrive at a figure. The weekly pay figure is limited to a maximum of £464 per week and the number of year’s service is capped at a maximum of 20 years.

People or institutions who benefit from a will or trust.

When you leave something in your will to a person or institution.

Sadness arising from someone close to you passing away.

The CICA will only award compensation to a “blameless” victim. This is means that the victim of the crime has not contributed to it at all, such as instigating the fight in which they suffered injury.

ccurs when either an employer or employee breaks one of the terms of an employment contract. For example, if an employer does not pay an employee’s wages, or if an employee does not work the agreed hours. Not all the terms of a contract are written down. The breach may relate to a verbally agreed term, a written term, or an ‘implied’ term of a contract.

Approval by the local authority on the design and materials.

‘Bumping’ occurs where an employee whose job is redundant ‘bumps’ another employee out of their job so that the one who is ‘bumped’ is the one who is actually made redundant. This tends to happen when a more senior employee is prepared to take a more junior role to avoid redundancy.

Someone who buys a property.

An office of Court and Family Services - who may be appointed by the Court to help the Judge carry out enquiries if there are Children Act proceedings.

See Preliminary Hearings.

A person who certifies a donor of an LPA has the mental capacity to make an LPA and has not been coerced into making one. They can either be personal (having known the donor for two years) or professional.

Where a seller is buying another property this leads to a chain of transactions, with some having many links.

An office within the Court building where court hearings can be held, but also used as a term to describe a barrister’s office.

On the day of completion the balance of the purchase price is paid by a transfer of funds between solicitors’ client accounts by electronic transfer. CHAPS means Clearing Houses Automated Payment System.

Gifts to a charity.

Otherwise known as personal property. Tangible movable or immoveable property that you own (but not land).

Court orders introduced by the Child Arrangements programme 2014 governing where children will live and how much time they will spend with each parent. Child Arrangement Orders replace orders for contact and/or residence.

The Child Support Agency/CMS are government bodies currently responsible for the collection and payment of child maintenance.

Cruel or violence treatment towards a child. In the context of a CICA claim this is specifically psychically or sexually violent.

See Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority.

Civil claims arise from disputes between individuals or companies which are resolved by the Courts. For example, somebody injured in a road accident may bring a claim for compensation against the individual who caused the accident. Such claims are dealt with by the Civil Courts as opposed to criminal matters such as drink-driving, theft, assault etc. which are dealt with by the criminal courts.

A legal union between two partners with similar rights and obligations to a marriage.

When a Claim form has been received by the employment tribunal office.