advice on injury claim after non fault car accident

vaio

Judges/government (helped by skilled lobbying from insurers and lawyers) set the compensation levels and allowable costs.

My post is just highlighting that some law firms get costs and want 25% of any injury compensation whilst other law firms are happy with just costs and so the injured party gets to keep all *their* compensation for the injuries *they* have suffered.

tberry6686

Had a similar sort of thing last summer with the missus. We just claimed directly from the TPI and were very happy with the outcome. Agreement and payment were pretty quick after she had recovered. It was pointed out to me that they will often give a higher settlement as there are no legal fees inflating the claim.

redpete

Mark_Mark wrote: »

She has three years in which to make a claim so why not wait until she has recovered?

It can be helpful to get early diagnosis of injuries by starting the claim process early. The process takes long enough that longer-term symptoms can be recognised and covered even if the claim process starts early.

AdrianC

What sort of "various soft tissue injuries" do you mean? A little superficial bruising? Or something more serious? What do their doctors say?

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

AdrianC wrote: »

What sort of "various soft tissue injuries" do you mean? A little superficial bruising? Or something more serious? What do their doctors say?

If you've had a serious collision especially where airbags have fired, then you've got all sorts of minor injuries, including burns from the bag running along your arms, being hit by the bag, or being restrained by the seatbelt. These devices are not designed to leave you injury free - they are designed to allow you to survive and be fixed with a significantly reduced chance of life changing injuries.

While apparently superficial, if she is feeling that she can't move around freely, it is worth getting some physio, because you tend to get consequential problems. For example, impact on your chest tends to affect your back because of how the ribs attach, then you get back muscles tightening up, then your spine gets frozen joints which cause pain which cause the muscles to tighten up - vicious circle.

Another minor point, remember that it is easy to overdose on paracetamol if she is taking them to help with discomfort over a number of days.

Crazy_Jamie

arcon5 wrote: »

Ye, these are usually the companies that get you a couple grand compensation and charge the insurer 3x that in legal fees! No better than slimeball claims management companies!

Nothing personal in this one arcon, but I'm afraid you're wrong about this for a number of reasons. First of all, low value personal injury claims (which this is likely to fall in to) where liability is admitted are now subject to fixed costs, so chances are the solicitors firm cannot charge what they want. In any event, even if for whatever reason this case drops out of the portal, insurers will not just pay whatever the firm of solicitors asks for. If the profit costs are not reasonable, the insurer will not pay them and will push the case to disposal.

The main reason why firms don't take a portion of general damages is purely down to competition reasons. Many have no or limited sources of regular work compared to the larger national companies, and therefore tempt new clients with the promise of not taking any of their compensation. There is nothing untoward about that approach; firms that don't take any portion of damages come in all shapes and sizes, but the reason behind that is normally a straightforward business reason. Indeed, many local and smaller firms (which tend to take either no or a lesser percentage of damages) are more than competent to handle personal injury claims such as this. They're certainly often far better in every respect than 'slimeball claims management companies', of which we seem to hold a similar opinion.

In practice there is nothing wrong with instructing a firm that doesn't take a percentage of your damages because a firm not taking any portion of damages as a success fee is not in and of itself any indication of their quality.

For example, the first non ad listing in the search that vaio posted is for Resolution Law, which are actually the Claimant arm of DWF, a firm best known for representing insurers in cases such as this. I imagine Resolution Law don't take a portion of damages because they don't need to, as DWF's business model was not based or dependent on the old success fee regime. But either way Resolution Law is run by perfectly competent solicitors who would do a perfectly good job in a case like this, as would many others in the same position, and would in any event be a far superior option to going to a claims management company.

Anyway, whilst there will always be those that tell you to deal directly with the third party insurer, in cases involving personal injury I have always advocated quite strongly that the best approach is to instruct a solicitor (not a claims management company), at least for the purposes of the personal injury element of the claim. Quite simply, you cannot know whether or not an insurer is offering a fair valuation for your injuries unless you have the benefit of advice from a solicitor. It really is that simple.

cootuk

First thing should be to see her doctor to assess and record the injuries. Something else that's related may crop up at a later date.

If she is getting sick pay from her company, this might later be reclaimed from any compensation payment...she should read her employment contract as this might also need to be included in a claim.