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Claiming for personal injury

My wife was involved in a car accident this week. She is adamant she is innocent and the police have already part-confirmed this.

Our car has been written off , and Im currently trying to get Tesco to pay out more that the minimal sum they have offered (another story)

My wife , thankfully , didnt suffer any major injuries, but has suffered bad brusing to her ribs and chest. Plus some cuts from glass. She is also very traumatised bt the event.

I want to progress a claim for this, but want to ensure we do it correctly. She has been to see a doc at the hospital , who confirmed some bruising , but I got the impression as long as nothing was broke he was a bit blase and just told her to take some pain killers and it will go. No discussion about mental issues were discussed I believe.

. Im not going to go gung ho for stuff that she hasnt got (altho Im major pssd off that were going to be out of pocket for an accident not our fault).

Tesco have said she doesnt have to see her own GP before we put the claim in , which they will then pass to their solicitor if needs be.

I just wonder if anybody can offer any advice on what we should try and claim for. I want to make sure we get it right , from the start.

Thanks in advance.
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Comments

  • pyjamafan
    pyjamafan Posts: 245 Forumite
    The way the law stands at the minute, solicitors can recover all of their fees from the third party insurers when dealing with an injury claim. If you instruct a reputable firm, you should not need to pay their fees and will have nothing deducted from your compensation.

    Instructing a solicitor tends to result in you recovering more compensation than you would if you try to deal with it yourself directly with the third party insurers. They will try to offer you the lowest amount possible.

    The Law Society keep listings of reputable firms of solicitors you could try. Just make sure they are willing to deal on a 100% cost-free basis which most of the good ones do.
  • Quentin
    Quentin Posts: 40,405 Forumite
    Mr_Benn wrote: »
    Tesco have said she doesnt have to see her own GP before we put the claim in , which they will then pass to their solicitor if needs be.

    I just wonder if anybody can offer any advice on what we should try and claim for. I want to make sure we get it right , from the start.

    Thanks in advance.

    Presumably Tesco are the third party's insurer.

    If that is the case, get your own PI specialist to deal with them on your wife's behalf.

    A specialist PI solicitor will ensure your wife "gets it right" - and should be able to assist on all other aspects of your claim (including negotiating the write off amount for you)
  • Mr_Benn
    Mr_Benn Posts: 371 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    Sorry if it wasnt clear - Tesco are our insurers ( I dont know who the insurers are for the other party).
    Tesco have told us if they think there is a case , they will hand it over to a solicitor company called Carpenters.

    I am hoping that Tesco or the solicitor will be more pro-active in telling us what we should claim for. But I am just trying to get as much ammo before I make the call to them (we have told them we will be making a claim , but not given them any details yet).
  • Mr_Benn
    Mr_Benn Posts: 371 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    So maybe my first question is are we better going off thru our own insurer Tesco , who will then instruct their own solicitor to take up the case for us.
    Or if we pick one of these independant companies , will they be more aggresively pro-active for us ?
  • pyjamafan
    pyjamafan Posts: 245 Forumite
    I would personally go for an independent solicitor and one that specifically mentions that they don't work for insurance companies.

    A lot of solicitors which are appointed by insurers work for more than one insurance company and you can never be sure where their loyalties lie.

    You might even discover that you and the third party are with the same insurer which muddies the waters further. Even insurance companies with different names can turn out to have their policies underwritten by the same firm.

    My advice - independent solicitor.
  • Mr_Benn
    Mr_Benn Posts: 371 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    Thanks Pyjama ... jsut wonder if we go dont that route if you , or anybody else, can recommend an independant company / solicitor ?

    Thanks
  • InsideInsurance
    InsideInsurance Posts: 22,460 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    pyjamafan wrote: »
    A lot of solicitors which are appointed by insurers work for more than one insurance company and you can never be sure where their loyalties lie.
    A rather low opinion on the professionalism of solicitors!

    You do have to off set the "loyalties" issue with actual experience though.

    Back when I dealt with PI claims there was a table of solicitors and what loading/ reduction to make on the settlement offer based on which firm it was you were dealing with (along with a number of other criteria). If you were dealing with a no body independent firm there was a significant deduction made.

    With some small family solicitors firms, they meant well, they fought a lot more but you could tell their last experience was probably 20 years ago in law school and even junior claims technicians were able to run rings around them.
  • mikey72
    mikey72 Posts: 14,680 Forumite
    A rather low opinion on the professionalism of solicitors!

    You do have to off set the "loyalties" issue with actual experience though.

    Back when I dealt with PI claims there was a table of solicitors and what loading/ reduction to make on the settlement offer based on which firm it was you were dealing with (along with a number of other criteria). If you were dealing with a no body independent firm there was a significant deduction made.

    With some small family solicitors firms, they meant well, they fought a lot more but you could tell their last experience was probably 20 years ago in law school and even junior claims technicians were able to run rings around them.

    So choose the scummiest, bottom feeding ambulance chasers, and at least you know they'll be speaking the same language as the insurer, and you'll get the best payout?
  • WestonDave
    WestonDave Posts: 5,154 Forumite
    Rampant Recycler
    A rather low opinion on the professionalism of solicitors!

    You do have to off set the "loyalties" issue with actual experience though.

    Back when I dealt with PI claims there was a table of solicitors and what loading/ reduction to make on the settlement offer based on which firm it was you were dealing with (along with a number of other criteria). If you were dealing with a no body independent firm there was a significant deduction made.

    With some small family solicitors firms, they meant well, they fought a lot more but you could tell their last experience was probably 20 years ago in law school and even junior claims technicians were able to run rings around them.

    So the answer out of that is to choose a firm with significant experience and things like APIL and Law Society Personal Injury accreditations. I don't doubt you had a list - the other side of your tale is that there were clearly firms that you knew had you bang to rights and so it wasn't worth bothering trying to knock them down.

    If you are instructing a qualified solicitor with those accreditations then you stand a much better chance than if you go via some claims factory with one solicitor and 20 unqualified claims handlers who just want the claim off the desk quickly to get some sort of fee out of it.
    Adventure before Dementia!
  • WestonDave wrote: »
    I don't doubt you had a list
    There was, and it was one of my first projects to roll it out further after leaving claims.

    In fact later they were trying to build their own custom software to handle Small & Fast Track level cases which would factor in injury, duration, solicitor, location etc so to deskill and accelerate handling because of the success of the paper version.

    There were off the shelf solutions too but you had to agree to release your settlement data into the common dataset it used (obviously without any names attached so no DPA issues)
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