Serious Incident - Legal Strategy - Stood next to car and hit by an elderly driver at speed

Dr_Crypto

AdrianC said:

Does this even need to go legal? Surely it's a simple open-and-shut claim for injuries from the driver's insurer?

The only question is the ultimate severity of the injuries, and that's something that time alone will reveal.

It still needs to be managed and quantum agreed. Experts need to be instructed and potentially the case opened with the court so it doesn’t become time barred. 

Aretnap

Utorcin said:

Petriix said:

You don't need to use a 'no win no fee' solicitor. You will win. Appoint an expert right away so that you maximise the compensation without signing away a huge part of the settlement.

thanks for this - does it not matter that if I go for a normal solicitor - as provided by car insurance that they wont be incentivised to maximise payout? i.e. they wont be getting 25%? Is it still best to stick with standard motor legal deal usually?

It's a fallacy to assume that the fact that a percentage fee structure must incentivise the solicitor to push for the maximum payout possible. It can just as easily have the opposite effect - if they are not being paid by the hour it creates an incentive to process lots of claims as quickly as possible, even if this means getting a slightly lower amount for each claim.

Example: In a given amount of time a solicitor can do a thorough job on one claim and get £2500 compensation. Or they can rush through two claims and get £2000 for each. What does the fee structure incentivise them to do?

Sandtree

You have to be realistic about the incentivation that the fee is going to be and that in part is going to be driven by how much work they have in the pipeline....

If you take a reasonable value claim and the TP offers £10,000 but you feel your claim is worth £12,000... the solicitor can either advise you to take the offer and they get £2,500 “today” or they can spend another load of time to try and get you an extra £2,000 which means £500 to them which they may or may not get for the extra time at some point in the future.

Alternatively, instead of spending that extra time in trying to get that extra £500 from your claim for themselves they could make significant headway in dealing with their next client’s £10,000 claim and so another £2,500 plus the fees they get from the TP. 

Whilst there is more in it for solicitors than estate agents the reality is if you have a good pipeline of cases coming through its typically more profitable to maximise the volume of cases you get through than maximise the settlement on each case.  Obviously this is somewhat tempered by the fact that solicitors, like many other professions, have a code of conduct that they are required to follow and must consider their clients interests.

born_again

caprikid1 said:

"Extract of the motor legal wording from Direct Line."
If you or the other party have insurance with Direct Line I suggest get a very good solicitor and avoid anything they offer like the plague, I was hit by a direct line insured driver and it cost me £1000s as they refused to repair the car correctly I had to get someone else to do it, their assessor's lied , changed their minds and use all manner of blackmail, and bullying tactics to get the quote down, Pay Cheap !! Get ...
I suspect if it is not your fault just get a good specialist solicitor, don'rt trust direct line or the like, their primary goal is to dismiss claims / keep the costs down, they will bully you to settle ASAP as the settlement goes up as the length and extent of the injury is known / increases.

Which would be fine, BUT...
angrycrow only mentioned direct line as a Quote on "Choosing an appointed representative" Nothing more...

No actual insurance co for either party has been named. 

Point is this case will take years to resolve. Due to the seriousness of the injuries (hope she recovers well in the mean time) so while there maybe interim payments. The final outcome is years away.
As to which way to go. It's a hard choice. Either option is fraught with a bad chance of a mess up. But someone that is used to dealing with this type of claim is a must.

Utorcin

born_again said:

caprikid1 said:

"Extract of the motor legal wording from Direct Line."
If you or the other party have insurance with Direct Line I suggest get a very good solicitor and avoid anything they offer like the plague, I was hit by a direct line insured driver and it cost me £1000s as they refused to repair the car correctly I had to get someone else to do it, their assessor's lied , changed their minds and use all manner of blackmail, and bullying tactics to get the quote down, Pay Cheap !! Get ...
I suspect if it is not your fault just get a good specialist solicitor, don'rt trust direct line or the like, their primary goal is to dismiss claims / keep the costs down, they will bully you to settle ASAP as the settlement goes up as the length and extent of the injury is known / increases.

Which would be fine, BUT...
angrycrow only mentioned direct line as a Quote on "Choosing an appointed representative" Nothing more...

No actual insurance co for either party has been named. 

Point is this case will take years to resolve. Due to the seriousness of the injuries (hope she recovers well in the mean time) so while there maybe interim payments. The final outcome is years away.
As to which way to go. It's a hard choice. Either option is fraught with a bad chance of a mess up. But someone that is used to dealing with this type of claim is a must.

OP here - provider for us is Admiral and the driver that ran us over is LV.

Appreciate all the comments so far - think I need to start with Admiral by sounds of it (but no rush) and see what they can do and if we can change the solicitor if unhappy etc.

williamgriffin

Utorcin said:

born_again said:

caprikid1 said:

"Extract of the motor legal wording from Direct Line."
If you or the other party have insurance with Direct Line I suggest get a very good solicitor and avoid anything they offer like the plague, I was hit by a direct line insured driver and it cost me £1000s as they refused to repair the car correctly I had to get someone else to do it, their assessor's lied , changed their minds and use all manner of blackmail, and bullying tactics to get the quote down, Pay Cheap !! Get ...
I suspect if it is not your fault just get a good specialist solicitor, don'rt trust direct line or the like, their primary goal is to dismiss claims / keep the costs down, they will bully you to settle ASAP as the settlement goes up as the length and extent of the injury is known / increases.

Which would be fine, BUT...
angrycrow only mentioned direct line as a Quote on "Choosing an appointed representative" Nothing more...

No actual insurance co for either party has been named. 

Point is this case will take years to resolve. Due to the seriousness of the injuries (hope she recovers well in the mean time) so while there maybe interim payments. The final outcome is years away.
As to which way to go. It's a hard choice. Either option is fraught with a bad chance of a mess up. But someone that is used to dealing with this type of claim is a must.

OP here - provider for us is Admiral and the driver that ran us over is LV.

Appreciate all the comments so far - think I need to start with Admiral by sounds of it (but no rush) and see what they can do and if we can change the solicitor if unhappy etc.

Changing solicitor once one has started work could prove costly.