Legal problem

jafsie

Has anyone any experience of this type of situation that may be able to advise my wife and I.

Three years ago she was knocked down by a careless car driver and sustained serious injury, we sued his insurance company and three years on there hasn't even been a court date set.

The solicitor dealing with this has just told me that it could be another 18 months or so which means by the time it gets to court it will be 4 and a half years or more since the accident.

How long can this be drawn out for? Do you have any experience of this type of case?

Advice would be appreciated, Thanks

montyrebel

it can be drawn out as long as the solicitor is making money out of it

garth549

Might be time to get a new solicitor, if they haven't managed to get a court date set after 4.5 years then they are pretty hopeless and/or don't care.

somethingcorporate

PI cases take a loooooong time to sort out. I was knocked off ten years ago, it was quite simple and nothing serious in terms of injuries and it took 18 months to sort out. By the sounds of your case it would be a lot more complex and it is not surprising it is taking a long time.

My advice would be to give another solicitor a quick call and ask them (for the severity of your accident) what time frames they would expect to get it resolved in. I agree with you and the others that 4.5 years is unacceptably long.

Good luck!

esuhl

somethingcorporate wrote: »

I was knocked off ten years ago...

The wonders of modern medicine, eh...?

Crazy_Jamie

Whilst it may not be the norm for a case where serious or catastrophic injury has been sustained to last four and a half years, I wouldn't consider it to be unusual either. Quantum in these sorts of cases can necessarily take a long time to establish due to the Claimant undergoing surgery or other treatment. For the case to be settled or a determination made in Court, the injuries need to have reached a stage where medical experts can determine an accurate prognosis going forwards. The simple fact of the matter is that it can take years for that to happen in cases involving serious or catastrophic injury. And crucially, it is important to note that a case lasting this long is not inherently a sign that your solicitor doesn't care or isn't good at their job, so don't worry about that at this stage.

In order to assess whether or not four and a half years is too long for this case, I'd need to know something about your wife's injuries, the current view of medical experts involved in the case, and whether she is due any surgery or similar soon that could impact on the long term effect of the injury. Though in any event if you ask your solicitor why it would take that long to get to trial, he or she should be able to provide you with an answer.

In the mean time, if liability is not disputed I would hope that any financial burdens caused by your wife's injury have been dealt with by way of an interim payment. It's not something that you have mentioned specifically, but I thought I should mention it out of completeness.