Personal Injury Claims ???

LazyD

Hello,

I was involved in a traffic accident as a cyclist and suffered a long lasting injury. I have already received payment from the motorists insurance company for the damage to my property (bike and items that were broken in my bag) but would now like to persue him for a personal injury claim since this injury I have is not going away (it's been almost a year now and the doctors think it will be permanent).

It's no problem to get the doctor to write a letter or liase with the insurance company, I'm just wondering what's the best way to go about doing this. The doctor herself advised getting one of the "no win, no fee" companies to do it, they seem like a scam though, does anyone have experience with using them? If not them how else would one start a claim for personal injury?

There seems to be a lot of these companies about, many of them claiming that they don't take a penny of your award (how do they get paid then???), are any of them reputable?

Thanks.

dacouch

I would avoid a lot of the no win no fee companies especially tv advertised ones.

Do you have Home Insurance as a lot of these have Legal Protection Cover and it will pay the legal costs to deal with this and source a suitable solicitor. If you do not have it on your home you may have it with Union Membership or membership of a cycle club. If you have none post on here and we will further advise.

How do the tv no wins no fees make money, some will get you to take an insurance policy too cover their potential costs. Their costs are normally paid by the other party but they will almost certainly make the same as you receive in compensation or as much as double as you get. (They will charge massive fees for each letter etc etc) A lot of Insurers do not like dealing with them so can purposely delay the claim.

BodyShopBabe_2

Hi

I am a personal injury claims handler so hope I can help.

You do not need a solicitor to act on your behalf. If you are confident enough approaching the insurance company on your own then you can do this. Just write them a letter explaining that you were injured and they will then organise an independent medical examination for you. You will be able to claim for "miscellaneous expenses" such as postage and phone calls as part of your injury claim.

If you would prefer a solicitor to help you, then do not worry about payment. As the other party's insurers have paid the damage to your bike, liablity has been accepted which means that they will have to pay for your legal fees in full. You would not be asked to sign an insurance policy in your case as there is no liability dispute. If any solicitor asks you to do so then you should refuse as there is absolutely no need for you to sign one.

Most of the No Win No Fee solicitors advertised on the TV are absolutely fine I deal with them a lot day in day out as with all other things some are better than others. I don't know if I'm allowed to say on here which firms I'd recommend if you would like some names to avoid etc then please PM me.

Finally, just a reminder that you must make your claim for personal injury no later than 3 years from the date of the accident for it to be valid. After 3 years you cannot make a claim.

Hope this helps.

LazyD

Hello, thanks for both your replies, very helpful.

I will pm you BodyShopBabe to ask about firms (I don't want to get stung on letter charges and things like that as dacouch mentioned) but I might well go with your advice of doing it myself. I do not hold any kind of policy that would have legal fees covered for me initially, no union or bike club insurance or anything.

Thanks.

lisyloo

I might well go with your advice of doing it myself.

I don't have the experience of the others, but I would advise getting some professional help.
I'm sure you can write the letters etc, but you probably have no idea what it a reasonable fee for your injuries and you need a professional on your side as the other sides insurer will try to get away with as little as possible.

I do not hold any kind of policy that would have legal fees covered for me initially, no union or bike club insurance or anything.

If you have legal cover on your home insurance then this should cover pursuing someone in this case.

Crazy_Jamie

I've sent you a PM LazyD, but I'm going to reply to some points generally as well.

I might well go with your advice of doing it myself.

Don't do this. If you have a permanent injury as the result of someone else's negligence as you claim, then you need a professional solicitor to value it accurately. Doing this yourself is the worst possible thing you could do bar not doing anything at all. There is confusion here about how 'no win no fee' firms make money when you don't have to pay them anything. Allow me to clarify.

In litigation it is very common for the losing side to pay the costs of the winning side on top of whatever is won in judgment. This is nearly always the case, bar some exceptions that I'm not going to go into. 'No win no fee' applies to the majority of personal injury cases, and such cases are governed by Conditional Fee Agreements. If you go to a solicitor, you will be signing one of those. What CFAs mean is that if your solicitors lose you won't have to pay anything to them (they quite literally get nothing if they lose), but if they win they will get an 'uplift' which multiplies their fees by up to 100%, the uplift being determined by how risky the case was. Realistically firms will only take on cases that they are fairly sure of winning (nothing below 50% usually), and even if they lose the odd one the uplift through cases that they win will more than cover it. And of course, if they win the other side pays their costs.

So what about the other side's fees if you lose? That is what you need insurance for, but it should be provided by the solicitors that you go through. You should never have to claim on legal cover through your home insurance or anything similar.

BodyShopBabe_2

I agree with some of the points raised by Crazy Jamie, particularly about you seeking legal advice if your injury is of a more severe nature. However, there is nothing to stop you pursuing the claim yourself if you feel confident enough to do so.

There is a legal case called Horry v Tate & Lyle which insurers have to abide by which basically means that an insurer cannot take advantage of an unrepresented Claimant simply because he has no legal representation. In fact, many insurers will cover themselves for this by offering slightly more money than they would if you were represented by a solicitor. An insurer will always start at a lower offer if a solicitor approaches them whereas if an unrepresented Claimant approached them they are legally obliged to offer the best offer.

Whilst the comments about costs are true, there is no need for you to worry about solicitor's costs if that's the route you have decided to go down. Liability has been accepted as damage to the bike has already been paid out so costs will automatically be paid by the other side's insurers.

It is true that sometimes the solicitors receive more in costs than you may receive in damages, but why should that concern you when you're not the one paying the costs anyway?

McKneff

Most solicitors give a half hour free consultation, i would suggest you try this with a local solicitor and take it from there. And take on board what the other posters have said about representing yourself, you could lose thousands and thousands of pounds all for the want of paying a solicitor a few hundred.

Crazy_Jamie

BodyShopBabe wrote: »

I agree with some of the points raised by Crazy Jamie, particularly about you seeking legal advice if your injury is of a more severe nature. However, there is nothing to stop you pursuing the claim yourself if you feel confident enough to do so.

There is a legal case called Horry v Tate & Lyle which insurers have to abide by which basically means that an insurer cannot take advantage of an unrepresented Claimant simply because he has no legal representation. In fact, many insurers will cover themselves for this by offering slightly more money than they would if you were represented by a solicitor. An insurer will always start at a lower offer if a solicitor approaches them whereas if an unrepresented Claimant approached them they are legally obliged to offer the best offer.

Whilst the comments about costs are true, there is no need for you to worry about solicitor's costs if that's the route you have decided to go down. Liability has been accepted as damage to the bike has already been paid out so costs will automatically be paid by the other side's insurers.

It is true that sometimes the solicitors receive more in costs than you may receive in damages, but why should that concern you when you're not the one paying the costs anyway?

Whilst you are right about litigants in person, surely you recognise that it is still better for him to seek legal advice? The court will look after him if the insurers don't, but litigation is complex for someone who is not legally trained, and he will have to spend a long time dealing with the various ins and outs of procedure. Whilst he will more than likely be protected, litigants in person can and do fall foul of procedure and law irrespective, and when there's the possibility of being covered by a CFA and insurance (which there will be here) there is just no need to take that risk. That's why you hardly ever see litigants in person in court in fast track personal injury claims- solicitors use CFAs at that point and affording legal advice is a non issue because you don't have to pay. This is even more true if his injury is of a permanent and serious nature and reaches multi track level, because then he would have to go through extended case management and multiple hearings. If he is absolutely determined to go it alone then power to him, but there's honestly no reason not to seek legal advice when it isn't going to cost him anything and the solicitors will do all the work. Yes, he can physically do it by himself. But it is not in any way advisable.

BodyShopBabe_2

I work for a large insurance company dealing with Fast Track and Multi Track cases. I would estimate around a third of those are unrepresented Claimants. More often in Fast Track admittedly but I have a number of Multi Track cases also. 2 of those are catatsrophic injuries but they feel happier doing it themselves as they get a much faster response than through a solicitor.

If the claim gets too complex our procedure is that we send out a Claims Inspector to advise them to seek legal advice.

Unless the claim is particularly complex on liability or the injury is of the very most severe I stand by my opinion that a claim can be dealt with without the need for representation.

I have already sent LazyD a PM with info about solicitors too so have given both sides of the argument. I was simply pointing out that if they didn't want to involve a solicitor they don't have to.

Crazy_Jamie

At no point have I said that it is not possible to conduct Personal Injury Litigation as a litigant in person. My point is and always has been that in this scenario it is advisable for the OP to instruct a solicitor rather than go it alone. Your insistence on presenting both sides is admirable, but you can still do that and come down on one side of the fence. The OP has no litigation experience whatsoever, and I would therefore think no legal training either. In such a situation it is clearly more advisable for legal advice to be sought, especially when such instruction can be done under a CFA. I'm not saying that one route isn't possible. I'm saying that one route is more advisable.