How to claim compensation?

Ebe_Scrooge

Thanks all.  I guess a no-win-no-fee solicitor is the way forward - they certainly can't afford to pay for a solicitor.  And thanks for the reassurance regarding "compo" versus legitimate claims - as I say, it just makes my blood boil when I hear of these ridiculous claims that some people make, so I'd want them to avoid doing that at all costs.  Thanks again :-) 

KimJongUn88

You ned to get specific legal advice about this claim.  The loss of earnings would only make up a very small proportion of the claim.  As others have said, the claim for the actual injury itself would make up the bulk of the valuation. 

The JSB Guidelines which are the starting point to value claims for general damages put's the bracket for a fractured femure at between £6000-£9200.  Then you've got loss of earnings and other financial losses on top.  

Get yourself to a local No Win No Fee solicitor to have a look at the claim.  

Sandtree

As mentioned, No Win, No Fee solicitors success fees do vary though, so she should speak to a couple and take a balanced view on fee -v- having to work with this firm for potentially a couple of years. You'll also find a number advertising themselves as legal representatives are just marketeers who sell your details onto the actual law firms

MEM62

Sandtree said:

MEM62 said:

Ebe_Scrooge said:

Taxi driver wasn't drunk or speeding or anything, it's just one of those things.  

This suggests that you do not hold the taxi driver responsible.  In that case your daughter-in-law will have no claim against either the driver or his insurers.  If my assumption is incorrect and your daughter-in-law does consider him responsible then her best course of action would be to engage legal counsel (as in a proper lawyer not one of the no-win-no-fee bottom feeders of the legal world) and pursue a PI claim.     

If the OP is on NMW and only pursuing loss of earnings then its very possible a "proper lawyer" would eat up all of the compensation and more. Plus no win no fee is not the sign of a bottom feeder, just a company that buys ATE cover etc and is the bases of 95%+ of all PI claims outside of LE cover (and basis of a good proportion inside LE cover too)

I disagree.  They are absolutely the bottom feeders.  Most no-win-no-fee will only take slam-dunk cases.  Cases are often managed by individuals that are not properly legally qualified or experienced.  If the case turns complex the claimant is often pressured into taking a low settlement as their legal representative will not be capable of, and has no interest in, preparing and arguing the case in court effectively.  And a proper lawyer will not eat up 95% of your claim.     

Sandtree

MEM62 said:

Sandtree said:

MEM62 said:

Ebe_Scrooge said:

Taxi driver wasn't drunk or speeding or anything, it's just one of those things.  

This suggests that you do not hold the taxi driver responsible.  In that case your daughter-in-law will have no claim against either the driver or his insurers.  If my assumption is incorrect and your daughter-in-law does consider him responsible then her best course of action would be to engage legal counsel (as in a proper lawyer not one of the no-win-no-fee bottom feeders of the legal world) and pursue a PI claim.     

If the OP is on NMW and only pursuing loss of earnings then its very possible a "proper lawyer" would eat up all of the compensation and more. Plus no win no fee is not the sign of a bottom feeder, just a company that buys ATE cover etc and is the bases of 95%+ of all PI claims outside of LE cover (and basis of a good proportion inside LE cover too)

I disagree.  They are absolutely the bottom feeders.  Most no-win-no-fee will only take slam-dunk cases.  Cases are often managed by individuals that are not properly legally qualified or experienced.  If the case turns complex the claimant is often pressured into taking a low settlement as their legal representative will not be capable of, and has no interest in, preparing and arguing the case in court effectively.  And a proper lawyer will not eat up 95% of your claim.     

If we assume the OP is only claiming loss of earnings as they state... NMW is £327 gross and £292 net per week on 37.5hr contract. SSP is £95.85 per week net so the OP claim is just under £200 per week. Broken femur in a young healthy person could be 4 months off work and possibly less depending on if their duties can be changed to something seated so claim is going to be in the region of £3,400 which means its a small track claim as there is no claim for injury being made which means no costs can be recovered from the other side. 

If you are wanting a proper solicitor dealing with it rather than a paralegal you are talking £250-£300/hr... even doing just 5 hours on the case and you've lost half the compensation.

Given all the Magic Circle law firms do no win no fee its amusing that you think they are all bottom feeders.... the only ones that don't typically are your quaint little family law firms that any experienced RTA specialist can run rings around because its been 30 years since they last even looked at any case law on motor accidents.

Manxman_in_exile

MEM62 said:

Sandtree said:

MEM62 said:

Ebe_Scrooge said:

Taxi driver wasn't drunk or speeding or anything, it's just one of those things.  

This suggests that you do not hold the taxi driver responsible.  In that case your daughter-in-law will have no claim against either the driver or his insurers.  If my assumption is incorrect and your daughter-in-law does consider him responsible then her best course of action would be to engage legal counsel (as in a proper lawyer not one of the no-win-no-fee bottom feeders of the legal world) and pursue a PI claim.     

If the OP is on NMW and only pursuing loss of earnings then its very possible a "proper lawyer" would eat up all of the compensation and more. Plus no win no fee is not the sign of a bottom feeder, just a company that buys ATE cover etc and is the bases of 95%+ of all PI claims outside of LE cover (and basis of a good proportion inside LE cover too)

I disagree.  They are absolutely the bottom feeders.  Most no-win-no-fee will only take slam-dunk cases.  Cases are often managed by individuals that are not properly legally qualified or experienced.  If the case turns complex the claimant is often pressured into taking a low settlement as their legal representative will not be capable of, and has no interest in, preparing and arguing the case in court effectively.  And a proper lawyer will not eat up 95% of your claim.     

It's posts like this that really annoy me.

I'm no particular fan of NWNF lawyers, but the sad truth is that if they weren't providing a service then at least 95% of the population in this country would have NO ACCESS AT ALL to legal redress in personal injury claims.  I'm a retired middle-class reasonably well off individual (who happens to have two law degrees and a wife who is a practising solicitor*) but I'm pretty sure we would not be able to self-fund a personal injury claim and would have to rely on NWNF.

I think Sandtree's estimate of £250 - £300 per hour is a bit of an underestimate about what would be available to a member of the public, and I'd be budgeting for a minimum of £500 per hour plus court fees, plus expert medical reports, plus counsel's fees if it gets to court etc.  Twenty hours of work and that's ten grand down the plughole straight away.  Not many people have £10k to spare.

Believe me, 70% of a compensation award that you do win is better than 100% of an award you don't win - and then have to pay all your costs on top of that!

"If the case turns complex the claimant is often pressured into taking a low settlement... "  This is probably exactly when the claimant needs to be thinking of accepting a settlement and not crashing on regardless.

"And a proper lawyer will not eat up 95% of your claim."  And neither will a competent NWNF lawyer.  And again, would you rather have 5% of something or 100% of nothing plus costs?

*Unfortunately she specialises in public law not tort.

Sandtree

Manxman_in_exile said:

I think Sandtree's estimate of £250 - £300 per hour is a bit of an underestimate about what would be available to a member of the public, and I'd be budgeting for a minimum of £500 per hour plus court fees, plus expert medical reports, plus counsel's fees if it gets to court etc.  Twenty hours of work and that's ten grand down the plughole straight away.  Not many people have £10k to spare.

In my defence I wanted to lowball it to illustrate that even then if the claim is just LoE, as originally stated, that large proportions of the monies go in fees... though fee inflation seems to have been more than I realised in recent years.

Conditional Funding, I personally have little issues with it, at least is capped at 25% + VAT and there are reasonable firms at a lower percentage. I've a meeting with Slaughters next week (my first in person meeting since March!) and would be interested in if they feel its justified to call them bottom feeders... but as "I'm" paying about £5k an hour for them to be there... maybe not - I'd say one for the pub afterwards but that'll more likely be 2021

Manxman_in_exile

Ebe_Scrooge said:

Thanks all.  I guess a no-win-no-fee solicitor is the way forward - they certainly can't afford to pay for a solicitor.  And thanks for the reassurance regarding "compo" versus legitimate claims - as I say, it just makes my blood boil when I hear of these ridiculous claims that some people make, so I'd want them to avoid doing that at all costs.  Thanks again :-) 

I'm glad you appreciate now that not all compensation claims are bogus* or fraudulent in some way.  A fractured femur is a serious injury (that could have serious long-term complications) and your DiL needs to claim everything that a court could award her - and that includes a lot more than just loss of earnings.

If she can't afford to self-fund a claim and her car or house insurance don't include free legal cover for personal injury claims, then she pretty much has no coice but to go down the no win no fee route.  I'm no fan of NWNF lawyers but they aren't necessarily the vermin that some people would have you believe - they provide a service that people need.  (Even bottom feeders are there for a reason).

If your DiL does go down the NWNF route, it's absolutely essential that she understands what "no win no fee" actually means!  Once she signs up with them she is probably pretty much committed to following it through, and if she decides to withdraw the claim for any reason, she may still end up with a hefty bill for their expenses etc.  She needs to ask them about After the Event insurance which covers these sort of costs.  Also, as others have suggested, she needs to shop around.

Good luck to her.

*It all started to go downhill in this country 20 - 30 years ago when insurance companies started to settle "whiplash" claims without challenging them, and bumping up everybody's premiums.  Claims management companies grew out of that whereas what should have happened is that insurance companies should have stamped down on the claims at the outset, and not settled anything without supporting medical evidence.  It may have been cheaper in the short term, but it had long term consequences not necessarily to eveybody's advantage...

It's claims management companies that are the real ambulance chasers and bottom feeders.

Manxman_in_exile

Sandtree said:

Manxman_in_exile said:

I think Sandtree's estimate of £250 - £300 per hour is a bit of an underestimate about what would be available to a member of the public, and I'd be budgeting for a minimum of £500 per hour plus court fees, plus expert medical reports, plus counsel's fees if it gets to court etc.  Twenty hours of work and that's ten grand down the plughole straight away.  Not many people have £10k to spare.

In my defence I wanted to lowball it to illustrate that even then if the claim is just LoE, as originally stated, that large proportions of the monies go in fees... though fee inflation seems to have been more than I realised in recent years.

Conditional Funding, I personally have little issues with it, at least is capped at 25% + VAT and there are reasonable firms at a lower percentage. I've a meeting with Slaughters next week (my first in person meeting since March!) and would be interested in if they feel its justified to call them bottom feeders... but as "I'm" paying about £5k an hour for them to be there... maybe not - I'd say one for the pub afterwards but that'll more likely be 2021

You could legitimately argue that Magic Circle firms and other tax and corporate specialists are less of a benefit to society as a whole than NWNF firms are.  (Excluding any pro bono or NWNF work they may do themselves).

When I hear people moaning about NWNF firms I think about the night soil men in Georgian and Victorian London emptying people's cess pits and clearing the !!!!!! of the streets.  I've no doubt they were shunned and vilified, but if they hadn't been there, people would have been complaining quickly and would have had to reinvent them.  (Or a proper sewage system.)

Sandtree

Manxman_in_exile said:
*It all started to go downhill in this country 20 - 30 years ago when insurance companies started to settle "whiplash" claims without challenging them, and bumping up everybody's premiums.  Claims management companies grew out of that whereas what should have happened is that insurance companies should have stamped down on the claims at the outset, and not settled anything without supporting medical evidence.  It may have been cheaper in the short term, but it had long term consequences not necessarily to eveybody's advantage...

It's claims management companies that are the real ambulance chasers and bottom feeders.

Ok, there are some companies that do a £750 off the bat full and final settlement type offer to shutdown claims but outside that I've never known a PI claim be settled without medical evidence in the last 20 years. Now, some of the medical evidence is fairly poor because the claimant self managed their condition and by the time the medical examination has happened they are fully healed  but if your in a rear end shunt at 30 mph and can convince a medical expert that you did have an injury at the time insurers don't have much choice but to settle.

I know two people that have withdrawn PI claims because the Dr's report contained falsehoods (eg one stated she'd been unable to go dancing due to her neck injury whereas she said she hadn't gone dancing for two decades before the accident) and they were told just to sign the report. Trying to prove a medical expert is dishonest is difficult and my previous clients had a surprisingly short list of Drs they really didnt want to deal with.

There have been various attempts to try and legislate against minor soft tissue claims but they've never gotten anywhere and until they do the claims will keep coming.

What really caused the explosion in claims however was the withdraw of legal aide for these types of claims and the creation of no win no fee as its replacement. Suddenly all those people that earn just enough not to qualify for legal aide could pursue a claim with minimal risk to their pocket if they lose and so they may as well have a punt.