What the law requires
Cyclists are road users owed the same duty of care as drivers, and the 2022 revision of the Highway Code made the hierarchy of responsibility explicit: those who can do the greatest harm bear the greatest share of the duty to reduce danger.
Opening a vehicle door into the path of a cyclist is both a civil wrong and a criminal offence. So is passing too close. Neither requires the driver to have intended any harm.
What decides a claim like this
Liability is established on records far more often than on recollection. In this kind of claim the documents that matter most are:
- Helmet-cam or a following vehicle's dashcam, which is decisive in most close-pass cases.
- The damage to the bicycle, which shows the direction and force of impact.
- The Highway Code rules engaged — particularly the passing distances and the hierarchy of road users.
- Whether the driver was emerging, turning or overtaking, which changes who had priority.
What to do now
The evidence that decides these claims has a short life. If the accident was recent:
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1
Report it Tell the police if anyone was hurt or a driver failed to stop, and report it to your insurer even if the other driver was at fault.
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2
Get the details Registration, name, address and insurer of every vehicle involved, plus contact details for anyone who saw it.
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3
Photograph everything Final positions, damage to both vehicles, skid marks, road layout and any signage or signals.
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4
See a doctor A record made close to the accident is the strongest evidence that the injury came from it.
How long you have to claim
The general limitation period for a personal injury claim is three years from the date of the accident, or from the date you first knew the injury was significant and attributable to someone else. If you were under 18 at the time, the three years runs from your eighteenth birthday. Where the injured person lacks mental capacity, time may not run at all.\n\nThe practical deadline is shorter than the legal one. CCTV is overwritten, defects are repaired and records are archived, so a claim started early is almost always a stronger claim.
How we work
We assess the claim, obtain the records that decide it, instruct an independent medical expert and deal with the insurer throughout. Personal injury claims of this kind are run on a No Win, No Fee agreement: there is nothing to pay upfront, and nothing to pay us for our work if the claim does not succeed. A success fee is deducted from the compensation if it does, and we set that out in writing before you commit to anything.