Solicitor Advise needed Court action

alistair.long

Hi,
I have a claim I have issued in the fast track for personal injury.

I have got to the situation that the defendant have offered me a part 36 offer, and I refused.

I am wondering if I can claim for my general damages first through court, then put forward my special damages at a later date or future loss of earnings and future expense. e.g fuel cost as I cant walk anymore so have to drive,so want future fuel costs aswell.

or is it the case that once I get paid in court I am statute barred from making a claim for special damages in court.

If I am going to get statute barred, how should I go about it to make my claim for more before trial.

I have not got a trial date yet, but have filled a allocation questionaire.

Crazy_Jamie

Any settlement you agree will be 'full and final', and equally any Judgment from a Court will not distinguish between general and special damages. As such you need to put in your claim for special damages at this stage.

Future loss of earnings can be complicated to calculate depending on what lasting effect you expect your injury to have on your employment, but you do have to calculate them in some manner so that the Court can place a value on them. It is not the case that you have to wait for them to be incurred. What do you expect your future loss to be in general terms (e.g. how do you think that your employment is going to be affected)?

You go about making the claim by filing a Schedule of Loss, encompassing both losses that you have already incurred (past loss) and losses that you expect to incur in future (future loss). However, this is the sort of thing that a solicitor would normally handle for you. Reading between the lines it appears that you may not have instructed one. If that is the case, is there any particular reason why?

alistair.long

Crazy_Jamie wrote: »

Any settlement you agree will be 'full and final', and equally any Judgment from a Court will not distinguish between general and special damages. As such you need to put in your claim for special damages at this stage.

Future loss of earnings can be complicated to calculate depending on what lasting effect you expect your injury to have on your employment, but you do have to calculate them in some manner so that the Court can place a value on them. It is not the case that you have to wait for them to be incurred. What do you expect your future loss to be in general terms (e.g. how do you think that your employment is going to be affected)?

You go about making the claim by filing a Schedule of Loss, encompassing both losses that you have already incurred (past loss) and losses that you expect to incur in future (future loss). However, this is the sort of thing that a solicitor would normally handle for you. Reading between the lines it appears that you may not have instructed one. If that is the case, is there any particular reason why?

I do not have a solicitor and have filed a claim in the county court myself for 10k.
My future loss of earnings is not exactly what I want to claim, but the fact that I have to drive more then if I wasn't injured.
My costs per year are about £4k extra in fuel costs, parking tickets. I want to claim future fuel costs.
There are other things like I have to drive a automatic as I am unable to drive a manual car because of my knee.

My concerns are that the claim will easily be more then £40k, how do I make changes to my court docs so that I get the correct amount,

I dont have a Solicitor because they dropped the case, the defendants were saying I was fraudulant, but now that I am going alone they have offered me a part 36 of £6.5k

dacouch

Alister don't forget to "thank" Jamie as it's forum etiquette and he really knows his stuff as he is a PI solicitor so he can give you good advice.

Crazy_Jamie

dacouch wrote: »

Alister don't forget to "thank" Jamie as it's forum etiquette and he really knows his stuff as he is a PI solicitor so he can give you good advice.

I've never actually confirmed that I am a solicitor; it's just an assumption that people make based on my posts. It's safe to assume that I am involved in the legal industry (I can hardly suggest that my knowledge base comes from a casual interest in the law), but it's not safe to assume that I am a solicitor.

alistair.long wrote:

I do not have a solicitor and have filed a claim in the county court myself for 10k.
My future loss of earnings is not exactly what I want to claim, but the fact that I have to drive more then if I wasn't injured.
My costs per year are about £4k extra in fuel costs, parking tickets. I want to claim future fuel costs.
There are other things like I have to drive a automatic as I am unable to drive a manual car because of my knee.

My concerns are that the claim will easily be more then £40k, how do I make changes to my court docs so that I get the correct amount,

I dont have a Solicitor because they dropped the case, the defendants were saying I was fraudulant, but now that I am going alone they have offered me a part 36 of £6.5k

I think we need to get some basics out of the way first. Whilst there is scope for evidence from you personally in relation to your injury and how it affects you from day to day, the starting point will effectively be the prognosis and other views of a medical expert. Have you been assessed by a medical expert, and has that expert produced a report? If so, what is the prognosis for your knee? Is there any prospect for your condition to improve with surgery or other treatment?

In relation to future losses, as well as what you've stated there you have also stated other things via private message to me as well. You have to realise that there will come a point at which 'losses' become too remote to claim. Depending on the specifics of your condition extra costs in getting to and from work may not be, but certainly some of the things that you mentioned in your private message to me are.

Personally I really do think you need to instruct another solicitor and have them assess your claim, and specifically your schedule of loss. A solicitor will be able to go through the details with you far more effectively than I can over an internet forum, and they will be able to give you solid advice as to the value of your claim as well. It is possible to increase the probable value of your claim, indeed on what you've said you would need to alter the value on the claim form to in excess of £25,000 and the case will have to be re allocated to the multi track, but my concerns are that there may well be inaccuracies in how you are valuing your claim, and/or you may need to gather more evidence than you currently have to value your case accurately.

Even if one firm of solicitors has dropped the case, I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to instruct another on a Conditional Fee Agreement. Have you made any other approaches to other solicitors?

alistair.long

I have had 3 medicals, 1 done with my original solicitor, then when I almost was statute barred , I issued the claim in court.
I then did a MRI to see why I was feeling the pain, and then saw the same doctor but he adviced in the report for me to see how I recover after a steroid inject.
The Steroid injection made my knee worse and as a result I am unable to walk far, and the doctor has adviced me and I will let him know to put his advice into the 3rd report which has not been received. He said "if walking causes you pain, then dont walk, if riding a bike causes you pain then dont ride your bike...."
I have approached a few firms in Birmingham, and was adviced that they do not want to take on the case, as they suspect something, if the last solicitor stopped acting. I took my files of papers, but they assumed that I was misleading them, the truth was that I got angry and shouted at them, and they wanted me to settle with £1800. This was all before I received the part 36 offer from the defendants.

1 question I just thought of, is it the case that if I take the claim and increase it to over £25k then if in court I get paid £6.5k will I be liable for the defendants costs from the offer date?

I am prepared to give the case to a Solicitor as I am getting stressed out with no insurance so will be liable for the third party costs if my case gets struck out, or if I loose. If you know any good solicitor please guide me into the light, I would much appreciate it.

Regards