advice invloved in road accident

ketz91

Hi, my son was knocked off his scooter and now has broken knee and bike written off. The car driver accepted resposibilty. Need advice on where we go from here, have had solicitors call that have been recomended by my son's insurers, do we have to go with these, we have had froms in to sign and send back but they have what looks like high charges, with wording that says if gets less than 10,000 charges will be no more than 4,000 and that this figure is an estimate.

forgotmyname

Your insurance have probably passed the details onto a no no fee type company.

You dont need to use them, You can contact the 3rd parties insurance directly.

They will probably hope you do, Save them a fortune.

vaio

your insurance company will be selling your case to the solicitors, google "cash back injury lawyer" and you'll find companies who will give you (rather than your insurer) the referral fee. (£300-£500)

Whilst you have google open also try "Conditional Fee Arrangements" this is how your solicitor should deal with the case, basically...... "Conditional Fee Arrangements means that if you do not win your accident claim, you do not have to pay your solicitor a fee. Insurance will cover you against the other party's costs and expenses. If you win your case you would receive your compensation free of any deductions, as your solicitor's costs should be paid by the other side"

Don't even think about dealing direct with the other insurer, you need proper legal advice where injuries are involved

there is a guy called crazy Jamie who is very knowledgeable in this area, if he doesn't spot this thread maybe send him a PM to alert him

jamhun

Just deal diirect with the other tp's insurer, then if you are not happy with the offer get a sols. It can save a lot of hassle and money, you could potentially get more, as there will be no sols fee's to pay.

James

InsideInsurance

vaio wrote: »

your insurance company will be selling your case to the solicitors, google "cash back injury lawyer" and you'll find companies who will give you (rather than your insurer) the referral fee. (£300-£500)

Whilst you have google open also try "Conditional Fee Arrangements" this is how your solicitor should deal with the case, basically...... "Conditional Fee Arrangements means that if you do not win your accident claim, you do not have to pay your solicitor a fee. Insurance will cover you against the other party's costs and expenses. If you win your case you would receive your compensation free of any deductions, as your solicitor's costs should be paid by the other side"

Don't even think about dealing direct with the other insurer, you need proper legal advice where injuries are involved

there is a guy called crazy Jamie who is very knowledgeable in this area, if he doesn't spot this thread maybe send him a PM to alert him

Don't even know where to start to correct all the errors.....

If the OP has legal expenses insurance they wont have passed the details to a "cashback solicitor" but will have passed the details to one of their panel solicitors. These solicitors buy postcode sectors up front and don't actually pay a case by case fee.

If you enter into a "conditional funding agreement" with a solicitor rather than acting under your legal expenses insurance (in which case it isnt a conditional funding agreement) then your insurance will not pay the solicitor if you lose. The solicitor themselves will buy/ have an after the event policy which covers the external & TP legal costs should you not win and the solicitors themselves suck up their own manpower costs.

Dealing directly with a TPI for an injury claim is a contentious matter, depending on your background you'll either support the idea or slam it. Personally when I used to defend injury claims we would pay out more to direct claimants than those with solicitors to try and block out solicitors joining in later but other insurers could try and screw you over (even my former employer may have changed their strategy and now be trying to screw you)

Crazy_Jamie

jamhun wrote: »

Just deal diirect with the other tp's insurer, then if you are not happy with the offer get a sols. It can save a lot of hassle and money, you could potentially get more, as there will be no sols fee's to pay.

James

I entirely disagree with this. Without legal training the OP's son will have no idea of an accurate valuation for the injury that he has sustained. Whether or not you are 'happy' with an offer is a poor basis on which to accept or reject it when you don't have any idea what the injury is actually worth. The OP's son may be happy with an offer that is half as much as the injury is worth, or equally be be unhappy with an offer that is entirely reasonable. Legal representation (from solicitors, not a claims management company) with injuries such as this is essential.

Inside_Insurance wrote:

If the OP has legal expenses insurance they wont have passed the details to a "cashback solicitor" but will have passed the details to one of their panel solicitors. These solicitors buy postcode sectors up front and don't actually pay a case by case fee.

It should be clear from the face of the document that the OP has been provided with whether it is a Conditional Fee Agreement or not. If it is, then as had already been said the OP does not have to choose that solicitor, and indeed has a choice of solicitor generally. Though if you have actually paid money for legal expenses insurance, it would seem logical to use it if you find yourself in a situation like this.

ketz91

hi thank you all for your replies, what we have is a conditional fee agreement. The company is Bromiley Halcroft, has anyone had dealings with them. Are any of the ones that advertise on tv any good, can anyone recommend any solicitors that will be able to help us get all what my son is entitiled to. Reading through all the paper work has my head spinning.

InsideInsurance

Many of the companies that advertise on TV are not solicitor firms but simply handlers that vet your case and then sell you as a warm lead to a solicitor for circa £800

As has been mentioned, you can find some firms that will give you a referral fee as well (though normally sub £500)

"In my day" I dont think there was a single firm that was always good or always bad, it comes much more down to the individual fee earner/ solicitor that handles the case.

Personally given the choice I would most likely want to go for a small specialist firm or medium sized general one. The big boys treat things too much like a production line and small local firms may not actually have looked at a PI case since they were in law school 30 years ago.

vaio

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Don't even know where to start to correct all the errors.....

thanks....

InsideInsurance wrote: »

.....If the OP has legal expenses insurance they wont have passed the details to a "cashback solicitor" but will have passed the details to one of their panel solicitors. These solicitors buy postcode sectors up front and don't actually pay a case by case fee......

However you slice it solicitors pay for cases, either individual cases or as blocks. Go with the one "recommended" by your insurance company/garage/recovery firm etc and they get the fee, go direct to one of the "cash back" firms and the injured person gets the fee

InsideInsurance wrote: »

.....If you enter into a "conditional funding agreement" with a solicitor rather than acting under your legal expenses insurance (in which case it isnt a conditional funding agreement) then your insurance will not pay the solicitor if you lose. The solicitor themselves will buy/ have an after the event policy which covers the external & TP legal costs should you not win and the solicitors themselves suck up their own manpower costs......

I thought CFA was "conditional fee" rather than "funding" but in any event perhaps I didn't make myself clear...the insurance I referred to in my post that will pay the other parties costs if the OP loses is the ATE policy that comes virtually as standard with CFA

InsideInsurance wrote: »

.....Dealing directly with a TPI for an injury claim is a contentious matter, depending on your background you'll either support the idea or slam it. Personally when I used to defend injury claims we would pay out more to direct claimants than those with solicitors to try and block out solicitors joining in later but other insurers could try and screw you over (even my former employer may have changed their strategy and now be trying to screw you)

Dealing direct with a TPI is fine as long as the TPI is fair, the FOS workload shows that lots (most?) firms can't even manage fair where their own customers are concerned so would I trust them to be fair to a young unrepresented third party PI claimant?

Not in a million years.

OP....get proper legal advice from a firm does this sort of thing day in and day out and as a bonus it's easy to find one that will give you a pile of pound notes just for letting them take your case