RTA insurers/solicitors personal injury

DUTR

Mark_Mark wrote: »

I haven't missed the point, he'll clear about £1500 for his injuries.

Which is what I doubt for self medication recovery.

davendebs wrote: »

my point is the solicitor didnt want to proceed until they had everything in together,
all info about the car accident,
and all info about the personal injury, because they had to proceed the claim as one,
then now they tell me they are 2 separate claims and because i was only injured for a week, they cant get enough to cover their costs for the injury claim to give me more than about £100,

going by what they originally said this is one claim, one set of fees, car damage and personal injury now its two sets of fees two claims

Which is what I said in post #8

Mark_Mark wrote: »

So basically they're saying you weren't injured so move on.

Which is what I said in post #8

OnanTheBarbarian

A soft tissue whiplash type injuries where a full recovery is made within a week is worth about £500.

A solicitor is going to struggle to get the PI claim to be worth £1000+, and because of this, they are not pushing you to pursue the PI aspect as it won't earn them any costs as it would end up being a small claims court matter, which would pay the solicitors about £80 at the end.

The maximum deduction they can take is 25% of your compo if they are acting for you on a no win-no fee arrangement.

But the bottom line is that the claim ain't a cost bearing adventure for the solicitors, so they are not pushing the injury aspect.

Oh and if the car you were driving is in your name etc (so the losses are yours) then it all counts as 1 claim.

davendebs

OnanTheBarbarian wrote: »

Oh and if the car you were driving is in your name etc (so the losses are yours) then it all counts as 1 claim.

ultimately im not asking for the world, but i was injured, i was off work, i did go to my doctor who told me not to go to work that week as i do a manual job, he told me i have to rest it, i couldn't lift my children.....

anyway Onan, you have answered my question, how sure are you of that?
because yes it was my car, yes they are currently going for my insurance costs back and uninsured losses, so why wouldn't the personal injury be part of the same case? or should it be? are the solicitors just trying to get more cash?

Mark_Mark

When you were off for the week did you get full pay?

InsideInsurance

davendebs wrote: »

this all sounds like get as much cash out of a case as possible to me!!

surely this is one case, one set of fees, if they win the "the 3rd party hit me" case they have won the personal injury case (with the details from my doctor)

The solicitors are ultimately a company not a charity or public service.

The courts are divided up into a number of tracks (small, fast and multi). There are a number of factors which determine which track a case goes into but predominately its is the value of the claim, small track can deal with up to £1,000 of injury and £10,000 of non-injury.

Which track a case goes into determines how much money the losing side can be made to pay for the other sides legal fees, expert reports etc. Generally in Small track you are talking tiny amounts and then its by exception.

Your insurers may be willing to fund the legal action on the liability side because its very cheap action, there is little risk of being stuck with the third parties legal fees and they generally have agreements with solicitors that they wont actually be charged for the work in exchange for getting Personal Injury claim referrals.

Adding a tiny PI claim vastly increases the work for the solicitors, medical reports will be required and their costs probably wont be reimbursed and for all of this the solicitors can only charge 25% of your claim from you (assuming this is a no win no fee crew rather than acting under Legal Expenses cover on your own insurance)

BethanyD

Some solicitors are charging the 25% of the compensation award and telling their clients to take outan Ate policy (which they probably do not need) which will be around £150 - this also comes out of the compensation award.

InsideInsurance wrote: »

The solicitors are ultimately a company not a charity or public service.

The courts are divided up into a number of tracks (small, fast and multi). There are a number of factors which determine which track a case goes into but predominately its is the value of the claim, small track can deal with up to £1,000 of injury and £10,000 of non-injury.

Which track a case goes into determines how much money the losing side can be made to pay for the other sides legal fees, expert reports etc. Generally in Small track you are talking tiny amounts and then its by exception.

Your insurers may be willing to fund the legal action on the liability side because its very cheap action, there is little risk of being stuck with the third parties legal fees and they generally have agreements with solicitors that they wont actually be charged for the work in exchange for getting Personal Injury claim referrals.

Adding a tiny PI claim vastly increases the work for the solicitors, medical reports will be required and their costs probably wont be reimbursed and for all of this the solicitors can only charge 25% of your claim from you (assuming this is a no win no fee crew rather than acting under Legal Expenses cover on your own insurance)

InsideInsurance

BethanyD wrote: »

Some solicitors are charging the 25% of the compensation award and telling their clients to take outan Ate policy (which they probably do not need) which will be around £150 - this also comes out of the compensation award.

Since when can individuals buy ATE? Its the solicitors that buy ATE to cover the costs in the event of losing the case and is only payable if you win - its premiums are effectively self insured

OnanTheBarbarian

davendebs wrote: »

ultimately im not asking for the world, but i was injured, i was off work, i did go to my doctor who told me not to go to work that week as i do a manual job, he told me i have to rest it, i couldn't lift my children.....

anyway Onan, you have answered my question, how sure are you of that?
because yes it was my car, yes they are currently going for my insurance costs back and uninsured losses, so why wouldn't the personal injury be part of the same case? or should it be? are the solicitors just trying to get more cash?

The personal injury is part of the same case, but because your injuries are not worth over £1k in value (because of the very short period of symptoms) the claim is not desirable for the solicitors to run as they will only get the same costs for running the injury claim as they will if it was just a straight forward recovery of your excess.

So the solicitors are using excuses to deter you from bothering with the injury claim.

They have to act in your best interests, so if you do instruct them to claim injury, they should really consider dealing with it in your interests, rather than their own commercial interest.

There are some hurdles that may appear though, such as how your case is funded. If there is a legal expenses policy, there may be a restriction of cover for a case that is considered not "economically viable" - i.e the costs are disproportionate to the sum being claimed etc.

You have a valid claim by the sounds of it, but because the value of the PI aspect is below £1000, the solicitors won't make any money and even taking 25% from you (which is the max they can deduct) will be 25% of not much, so it isn't an earner for the solicitors.

I deal with insurance claims litigation for a living.

davendebs

Mark_Mark wrote: »

When you were off for the week did you get full pay?

yes i get full sick pay equal to normal pay

Some solicitors are charging the 25% of the compensation award and telling their clients to take outan Ate policy (which they probably do not need) which will be around £150 - this also comes out of the compensation award.

they kept asking if i had some kind of legal insurance, which i did have with swinton - the broker, who weren't interested from the start about the accident at all (they said if the 3rd party haven't admitted liability they won't deal with it - basically i paid swinton for a no win no fee service, but thats another issue) i had to go direct to the insurance company who took it up and it is them who are proceeding with solicitors/courts.

davendebs

OnanTheBarbarian wrote: »

The personal injury is part of the same case, but because your injuries are not worth over £1k in value (because of the very short period of symptoms) the claim is not desirable for the solicitors to run as they will only get the same costs for running the injury claim as they will if it was just a straight forward recovery of your excess.

So the solicitors are using excuses to deter you from bothering with the injury claim.

They have to act in your best interests, so if you do instruct them to claim injury, they should really consider dealing with it in your interests, rather than their own commercial interest.

There are some hurdles that may appear though, such as how your case is funded. If there is a legal expenses policy, there may be a restriction of cover for a case that is considered not "economically viable" - i.e the costs are disproportionate to the sum being claimed etc.

You have a valid claim by the sounds of it, but because the value of the PI aspect is below £1000, the solicitors won't make any money and even taking 25% from you (which is the max they can deduct) will be 25% of not much, so it isn't an earner for the solicitors.

I deal with insurance claims litigation for a living.

would you suggest just not bothering then.....?