being sued for personal injury claim by no-win no-fee solicitor

mrsdee

geri1965 wrote: »

You need to get this sorted - have you instructed solicitors? How are you going to defend the proceedings otherwise?

When did you report it to your insurers - at the outset or now? Do you have it in writing that they will meet any judgement made against you, because you may have prejudiced their position by letting it get this far without involving them and they could in theory refuse to indemnify you. This means that if you lose the case, you will have to pay the damages and the other side's costs personally.

If you don't instruct solicitors to enter a defence, the other side will get a judgement by default - this means they have won the case regardless of any defence you might have, because you haven't told the court what your defence is!

I filed my own defence.

geri1965_2

mrsdee wrote: »

My question really is why the pressing need for the other party to keep insisting on demanding I hand over my insurance co details and to get legal representation. Why not just go to Court and each party state their side of the story and let the court decide who, if anyone, is to blame? Then sort out damages if it comes to that.

OK, well I can answer that - most solicitors prefer to deal with insurance companies, who know what they are doing (sometimes ) rather than an unrepresented person who may not (in your case it sounds as if you are doing a good job yourself, but not everyone would be able to deal with it themselves).

I know in my job I would rather deal with a solicitor most of the time rather than an unrepresented claimant, as members of the public can sometimes be difficult to deal with (so can solicitors but less so in my experience).

dmg24

geri1965 wrote: »

Fine, let the OP get on with it and make a mess of it then.

The OP is clearly very articulate. There is nothing that a solicitor can do that the OP cannot do herself.

mrsdee, the very best of luck to you. Too many people are scared of the legal system, and that fear is largely unfounded. The great majority of judges and court staff want the legal system to be more accessible, and will make your experience as uncomplicated as possible. Let us know how you get on!

Errata

mrsdee wrote: »

My question really is why the pressing need for the other party to keep insisting on demanding I hand over my insurance co details and to get legal representation. Why not just go to Court and each party state their side of the story and let the court decide who, if anyone, is to blame? Then sort out damages if it comes to that.

Because most people have pet insurance which would cover this kind of thing. I hope you have the ability to not be tied up in knots by the other party's solicitor. Many people don't.

mrsdee

dmg24 wrote: »

The OP is clearly very articulate. There is nothing that a solicitor can do that the OP cannot do herself.

mrsdee, the very best of luck to you. Too many people are scared of the legal system, and that fear is largely unfounded. The great majority of judges and court staff want the legal system to be more accessible, and will make your experience as uncomplicated as possible. Let us know how you get on!

Thank you very much! The OP's aggressive tactics do make you think, god, maybe I should just say ok. I dread to think if my mother had received these sort of letters from solicitors - she would have worried herself sick by now. I am pressing forward on the principle that the truth will be heard! What's also somewhat annoying (although also amusing) is that in our village the rumour mill has now turned the story into a) my dog attacked the lady! and b) that I knocked her over myself!

geri1965_2

dmg24 wrote: »

The OP is clearly very articulate. There is nothing that a solicitor can do that the OP cannot do herself.

mrsdee, the very best of luck to you. Too many people are scared of the legal system, and that fear is largely unfounded. The great majority of judges and court staff want the legal system to be more accessible, and will make your experience as uncomplicated as possible. Let us know how you get on!

Yes, I agree. A lot of people are not as savvy though, so generally I would recommend getting a solicitor, especially if they have insurance which would pay for it.

zzzLazyDaisy

Your neighbour may have legal insurance on her house policy, or may be covered by legal aid (if that is the case, you should have been notified). Either way, the only way the solicitors can make these cases pay is to get a quick turnaround. They do that by negotiating an agreed settlement with the insurer, so they don't have to go to the time and trouble of preparing court proceedings and spending time in court.

Litigants in person (ie people who represent themselves) are often very difficult and time consuming to deal with, so they will be keen to persuade you to involve professionals so that, hopefully, they will be just as keen to avoid going to court, and so put pressure on you to settle out of court.

EDIT just saw that it is a no-win-no-fee solicitor - but the comments above are the same - in order to make these cases pay, they need to close them as quickly as possible, get some money for the claimant and take their cut. They are normally not at all keen to go to court unless there is a prospect of a big payout, because their cut is not going to make it worth their while on a smallish claim

dacouch

The reasons the solicitor wants your Insurance details as in these types of cases they normally do not take the case on unless they believe you have Insurance. The simple reason is that when / if they receive a judgement in their favour the Insurers will pay it out, if there is no Insurance in place the solicitor often cannot recover any compensation and more importantly for them their fees.

I woudl guess the solicitor thinks he has a fairly good case as they tend to only take on cases they have a good chance of winning as these types of cases are generally on "No win no fee"

If you were my client I would have got you to pass it over to the Insurers to deal with as they would pay solicitors costs to deal with it and would meet any damages. By dealing with it yourself there is a chance they will not pay the damages as they could say you prejudiced their case.

mrsdee

It may come to that and should we go to court I will engage a legal representative (and as you say, my insurance co may insist that I do).

I just feel that by engaging a solicitor it is simply fuelling and perpetuating this ridiculous claim. And consequently solicitors continue to benefit from this no-win, no-fee type of activity.

I have done some research online. Plenty of advice about how to file a personal injury claim, nothing for those of us innocents who are accused!

mrsdee

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

Your neighbour may have legal insurance on her house policy, or may be covered by legal aid (if that is the case, you should have been notified). Either way, the only way the solicitors can make these cases pay is to get a quick turnaround. They do that by negotiating an agreed settlement with the insurer, so they don't have to go to the time and trouble of preparing court proceedings and spending time in court.

Litigants in person (ie people who represent themselves) are often very difficult and time consuming to deal with, so they will be keen to persuade you to involve professionals so that, hopefully, they will be just as keen to avoid going to court, and so put pressure on you to settle out of court.

Thanks. I will speak to my insurance co and get their input prior to filing my questionnaire. I feel certain that the OPs solicitor is applying this pressure on me (the language they use in their correspondence is quite threatening and heavy) in the hope that I will settle out of court with them. I am sure the OP does not want to go to Court. I, however, after all this time, am almost pushed to the point of "bring it on"!