Personal Injury Claim following a car accident - surely it shouldn't take this long?!

Dinah93

Hi, I was hoping for a bit of advice and I'm not entirely certain if this is the right place. In early May 2005 I was in a car accident when a girl reversed out of a parking space onto the main road and went into the side of my car, shunting me into oncoming traffic. I had whiplash injuries and sprained ankles and wrists. At the time my then insurer (Elephant) advised me to put in a personal injury claim as I had legal cover. I started this, did all the medical etc, then about a year into the claim my solicitor left the firm (no one told me this), it was only when I called up after a 3 month silence I found this out and was told who the new guy was. This has now clearly, dragged on a very long time. Before Christmas I got a letter saying it was time to put an offer to the other side of £2800. This was lower than the £6000 I had originally been told, but he had apparently decided we couldnt put in for loss of earnings as I had been a casual worker (seasonal museum assistant in summer holidays) and we had no proof of what I lost other than my boss saying there had been shifts available. The other side didnt respond, so we started court procedings, again, they didnt respond again so he said now the judge would automatically decide it my way since she had admitted fault and the medical evidence was very supportive, and it would be about 3 months till he got this date with the judge, I did not have to attend. Yesterday I receive a letter, same as I got in december - we now feel it is time to put an offer to settle to the other side so the matter does not go to court!!!!! ARGHHHHH!!!!! Why am I back here? Surely this is complete incompetance! From what I can gather ususally undisputed claims are usually settled a lot faster than this. Does anyone understand the legal system enough to be able to tell me what is going on?

Thanks for reading, Dinah x

KILL_BILL

i used to do personal injury claims and some are settled quickly of the person makes a full recovery or some take longer if the persons symptoms persist for a while. if oyu did not make a full recovery within the time period stated on your first medical report then a further report would be needed.

as there is a 3 year limitatioon period for pursuing pi claims then this needs to be done before the 3 year limitation date.

as it is your claim if the case goes to a final hearing then you would need to attend court so that the judge can ask you questions about your injury if he needs to . he has the medical report before him but they like to assertain if the claimaint(you) is recovering. you can claim for earnings and the judge will decide if you should beentitled to it.

if your not happy with the way yourt case is being dealt then complain to the senior partner of the firm in question.

mattymoo

Yes, the solicitor does seem to be going round in circles here. You need to establish the following:-

1) that procedings were issued against the other driver before May this year, the 3rd anniversary of the accident. If not, you will not be able to sue her but would have a good case against the solicitor for incompetence.

2) If the other side responded to the summons by entering a defence. this can be simply along the lines of "yes our driver is at fault but the amount (quantum) is still to be determined". If they have not entered a defence, he should be pushing for judgement in your favour by default (in other words, the defendant has failed to act).

3) If they have entered a holding defence, have they made an offer? I suspect not because he is supposed to take your instructions on any offer made? He should really be pushing them for an offer.

4) Whiplash and sprained ankles etc would normally resolve within 12-18 months so cannot really understand why case is dragging on this long. I reckon you might need to make a diary note to yourself to chase this solicitor every 14 days for an update, just to keep them on their toes.

Oscar_The_Grouch

Legal expenses solicitors, from my own experience, tend to have very large case loads. This means that the person that shouts loudest gets dealt with first.

I am not suggesting you shout at them, but there is no harm in using the following tactic:

Phone your solicitor and find out what is happening on the case. Be nice; ask him/her how they are, make small talk and be pleasant. Agree with them what is outstanding and then hit them with the following 2 questions:

Q1: "So can you summarise what you are going to do and when that will happen. Hold on whilst I get a pen so I can write this down".

Q2: "Just to confirm, you will do X by Y date and should have heard more by Z date. In that case, I'll give you a call on Z+2, so that we can get this moving and to save you having to write to me. I'm sure you agree that will be easier. OK?"

You then follow that up with an e-mail/letter confirming:

"Thanks for the information. As agreed, you are going to BLAH BLAH BLAH and I will call you on Z+2 to see how things are progressing".

This works best as an e-mail, because then you can add in a delivery and read receipt.

Phone the solicitor on Z+2 and Z+3 (he'll probably be "in a meeting on Z+2). If you don't get through, send him an e-mail saying:

"As agreed, I contacted you on Z+2, but you were not available. I also tried you on Z+3, but could not get through to you. I'm sure you are very busy at the moment and I really don't want to be any bother. Can you confirm receipt of this e-mail and a time tomorrow when I will be able to call you? Thanks very much for your time".

If after a couple of months time you are no further on and have no more information, ask the solicitor for the name of his senior partner. When he asks why, say:

"I get the impression that you have too much work on the go, so I thought if I were to write to your senior partner he may be willing to reduce you workload so you can give more time to concentrating on my case".

The best bit is that none of this is threatening and you are being very nice so they have nothing to moan about. You are just being a complete git to them by being so considerate. Believe me, it works!!!! I've been on the receiving end of a similar trick and I did everything I could to get rid of the extremely nice person who would not leave me alone!!

Dinah93

Thank you all very much for your advice, it's cleared things up for me more than talking to the solicitor ever does! I have a few more queries though that I would appreciate any help you could give me in answering.

Firstly the 3 year limitation period, I assume this does not apply once he has lodged the forms with the court? I know he did that before the 3 year period expired.

If the other side responded to the summons by entering a defence. this can be simply along the lines of "yes our driver is at fault but the amount (quantum) is still to be determined". If they have not entered a defence, he should be pushing for judgement in your favour by default (in other words, the defendant has failed to act).

They did not enter a defense, my solicitor previously told me I would get a judgement in favour by default, however it would require him attending but definitely not me. I am confused now that the judge has requested all parties to attend, which apparently is his perogative. Why would he want me to attend?

Whiplash and sprained ankles etc would normally resolve within 12-18 months so cannot really understand why case is dragging on this long. I reckon you might need to make a diary note to yourself to chase this solicitor every 14 days for an update, just to keep them on their toes

.

Yes, they were indeed resolved a while ago, the medical report gave it up to 18 months, and the medical examiner commented on what a 'honest, forthright and likeable' young woman I was!

My solicitor is trying to get a telephone settlement from them today, but if it does go to court (which I hope it doesn't as I am due to fly to Ireland 6 hours before I'm due in court!) will the judge know the ammount we previously offered to settle for? And if so which ammount as it keeps going down! If he doesn't will he take into account things like they fact they admitted fault, the medical examiner was 100% supportive of my injury claim, but still the other side have almost entirely ignored proceedings for 3 1/2 years dragging it out for me and eventually taking up the judge's time?

I just don't know if they come back with a lowish offer of say £2000 today, should I take it or at this point should I just accept it going to court?

Thanks all again, Dinah x

Quentin

If you cannot attend the court hearing you ought to say so now so that the date can be changed - especially as the judge has insisted on your attendance. This won't preclude an out of court settlement, but it could jeopardise your case if you fail to attend the hearing if it does take place!