How to make personal injury claim without solicitor

shrub100

Hi,

I recently had a motorcycle accident which although not serious, has left me with a painful lower back and now pain in my right shoulder. As the collision was at 10mph I don't think this will be a difficult issue to resolve, but it isn't going away naturally and my Dr has suggested that I get some Physiotherapy to fix it.

The question I have is whether I need a solicitor to make a claim for the physiotherapist costs?

The third party has admitted full liability, the police attended and concur and the third parties insurance company (who have been amazing) are not challenging the claim. I am actually renting a motorcycle through them (to save them cost) and they are about to make me an offer for damages to the bike.

I therefore don't really see why I would need a solicitor for this as I believe all I need is:

1. Get my injury assessed (is that by a physiotherapist or a different professional?)
2. Submit this to the insurance company
3. Get physiotherapy
4. Make a claim - for Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary damages (I understand a simple back injury is worth about 3k)
5. Negotiate a little
6. Settle the claim

It seems like making the claim myself, even though I would likely get a lower settlement, may actually yield me more money as I would save significantly on fees.

So the questions are:
Does anyone have experience of doing this?
Can it actually be done?
Who do I need to assess my injury for the claim?

Thanks in advance,

Jon

Quentin

shrub100 wrote: »

The question I have is whether I need a solicitor to make a claim for the physiotherapist costs?

You should be claiming compensation for the injury (as well as all your costs for attending physio).


A specialist solicitor would sort this for you, and you should end up with far more than just your out of pocket expenses!

sithemadmonkey

A solicitor would be able to advise you on what you're able to claim for, and how much. They would also arrange the necessary medical examinations etc, handle the paperwork and negotiate on your behalf.

If you're worried about fees, do you have any legal cover on your insurance? Your situation is basically what it's for, so use it! If not, then there are still some no-win-no-fee sols out there that won't take a cut of your award (although some do - they can take up to 25% if I recall correctly).

Whatever happens, make sure you are either fully recovered or know the full extent of your injuries before you accept anything in full and final settlement - you don't want to have something else come up and have no recourse to further damages.

InsideInsurance

If you didnt want to use a solicitor, for whatever reason, then the TPI would deal with you directly.

Some certainly do have the practice of giving you an immediate offer of cash without any medical examination etc which is pretty much shut up money. Obviously for some this is a good trade for not having to go through the hoops and could well overvalue their claim but obviously for some it will undervalue their claim. Whilst I am supportive of direct claimants I do believe a fair valuation for an injury is better than a immediate cash sum.

If they did offer it then its probably best to reject it on the grounds of you needing to get better first. Unlike your first post saying a back injury is worth £3,000 the reality is the injury is worth is assessed by its severity, duration and how much it impedes you. Until you're better or as good as you'll get you cannot accurately judge duration and so cannot accurately judge appropriate settlement.

Once you get past the shut up money they would either arrange for you to be assessed by a "consultant" or may simply request your GP records. Either way if the GP has recommended physio then they would be able to arrange this for you.

OnanTheBarbarian

Personally, to ensure you get a fair crack of the whip, I would recommend you use a solicitor, but try to get one who does not charge you as "success fee" of upto 25% under the terms of their conditional fee agreement (no win-no fee).

This is assuming you do not have motor legal protection cover? if you do, then use that as the solicitor appointed should not deduct anything.

If you google for no success fee deduction it should give you some hits.

If you decide to continue with the insurers directly yourself, ask them to sort the physio for you. Insurers always have relationships with healthcare and medico-legal agencies and will be able to get you private treatment without you having to fund any of it.

The right should injury will be more problematic and higher in value than the back injury. Each case is valued on it's own merits, so it's not just a case of back injury = £3k.

shrub100

Hi All,

Thanks for all your replies, I thought I would give some feedback as to where I am on the claim and what my approach has been. Sorry for the long post, but this is what I wish I would have had prior to embarking on my claim journey.

Set yourself up for success
Firstly, before thinking about a claim think about ways that you can bring the third party insurer onto your side. I found that my insurer wanted me to use their hire vehicle company, assessor and repair shop. These organisations will try and charge 3x the amount than if you use the third parties own suppliers and will usually pay your insurer a referral fee. As the fees are so high, the costs are usually disputed causing a lot of pain and aggravation for all parties including you.

Using the suppliers from the third party insurer also does not really affect you, so you can show willingness and benefit to the third party insurer by using their suppliers. They may then be more willing to give you a fairer payout if they have seen that you have tried to help them keep costs in check.


Solicitors
I did call some solicitors to understand their terms and fee rates. From the two that I talked to they were both trying to make the hard sell and being really slippery with fees. The long and the short of it was this:
- The third party will pay the first £500 of legal fees
- If the fees from a solicitor are below that, you do not pay anything
- Solicitors will only send you the details of their hourly rates, and bonus charges if you really push them - make sure you do.
- On a case where liability is clear and where you are willing to be pragmatic about the compensation for injury paying hourly fee rates is probably the best option if you want a solicitor.
- No win no fee rates are not as good as they make out. You should note that the solicitor will often say that if their hourly fees are lower than the 25% then you will only be charged the hourly rate plus a bonus to them for winning.
- The bonus is usually 25%!!!!!!
- Finally you will maximise your claim if you make claims for your vehicle, hire vehicle and expenses direct to the insurer. If you do it through the solicitor then it falls within the 25%.

Think about this for a second with a test example. If I were to do everything through the solicitor my claim may have been:
- £3,750 motorcycle
- £1,500 out of pocket expenses
- £3,000 injury claim
Total : £8,250
25% would be £2,062

This would mean your personnal injury claim would only yield you £938 (remember all the other items were properly lost or costs you have paid out for). If you just made the injury claim via a solicitor you would only have to pay 25% of £3000 so £750. If my claim for out of pocket expenses and motorcycle had been over£3750 higher then I would actually be losing money from the claim as 25% would have exceeded £3000!

Seeing all this I thought that I would prefer to try and make the claim myself without a solicitor. As both liability and my injury are not in dispute I thought the case would be easy for me to resolve. In addition, as long as I do not approve or agree to a payout for injury then I can always bring in a solicitor at any point - hence I have a little more leverage with the insurer should they be unwilling to play fair.

My learning from doing this myself

- Build a strong relationship with the claim handler. They will give you lots of useful information and help you through the process. Building trust with them also makes things simpler for you.
- Don't be greedy but be willing to negotiate and use fact based research to back-up your claim.

Vehicle Claim
- My motorbike was seen as a write off so I researched similar second hand bikes and made my claim.
- I wanted to buy back the bike, Scrap value of a motorcycle is 28% of the value - that is on a Cat D (i.e. roadworthy but not worth repairing).

Expenses Claim
- If you are claiming for clothing etc that was damaged then you will not get 100% replacement cost as the value is depreciated with age. The rough rules are:
--Motorcycle helmet 100% irrespective of age
--less than 1yr old (proven with receipt or bank statement) 100%
--1-2yrs old 80%
--2-3yrs old 75%
--4yrs old 60%
- Make sure you claim for all other expenses, being collected from the accident, medication, travel to and from health professionals etc.

Personal Injury Claim
- For a medical claim see your GP and get their advice
- Speak with the person handling the claim and get them to arrange for medical treatment and a medical assessment of your injuries.
- Speak to friends etc to get ab idea about what sort of value would be placed on your medical claim. The payouts for different injuries are now well known and standard across the industry, knowing it will help you ensure that you get the right level or claim.
- Now be pragmatic about that claim, with a solicitor you would likely lose 25% of whatever you get. So if your injury is usually worth £3,000 then anything over a payout of £2,250 means you have done better than with a solicitor. Both the handler and you know this fact so don't be greedy about it. Agreeing on a figure of between £2,500 and £2,750 will mean that both you and the insurer are benefiting and this will help you get to a resolution quicker.

Overall, I am finding that not using a solicitor works if you are willing to be pragmatic and make it mutually beneficial for both you and the insurer.

InsideInsurance

Now waiting for someone to say shrub100 is my alter ego

OnanTheBarbarian

Come on, we know he is your love child with somebody from the Ministry Of Justice who was on a secondment to the ABI at the time