CAR ACCIDENT - NO UPDATES FROM SOLICITOR?

jlg1

Hi everyone - hoping for a bit of advice.

Myself and wife (from N Ireland) had a car accident back in April.  Man ran into the back of us - admitted liability immediately at the scene - even said he had a "few accidents"   My car was damaged (£800 worth) and repaired in 2 weeks.

Both myself and wife had neck injuries and have had a medical completed 24th September.  Dr agreed the injuries are in line with whiplash. We were with LV insurance at the time.  They sorted a law firm in England then we were appointed someone in N Ireland. 

The (NI) solicitor working with the claim then left her job - no one even advised us!  Only by chance I phoned to check on progress of the claim.  The firm had to hunt down who was now working the case.

The solicitor we originally had mentioned 2 things:

We might be charged a fee for the work (have yet to be advised of this) and that his insurance Axa (have a reputation for playing "hardball" as she put it).

The case was then transferred to another firm (again we werent told) in Belfast.   In fact we have not had one single hardcopy letter since this all started. Every email sent has been by myself bar one.

I have been chasing the solicitor constantly and am constantly told "we havent heard back, when we do blah, blah" apparently the password for the medical report pdfs was lost and - that was 3 weeks ago - still nothing - its just been one thing after another.

So Im wondering should I complain?  Speak to the CEO of the firm or what can we do to get some proper service?.

I'd really like to know if we will be charged a fee (and will it come out of any compensation) for the work as we live in N Ireland - apparently the law here is different..? 

We were even told by the solicitor who moved jobs that after the medicals this would be straightforward - his insurance accepted he was at fault and should be sorted in 2 weeks.  That was early September there was a mess made of the medical date and we had to "re book" those as well.

With the third party admitting liability - whats the problem with sorting this? 

Could the other side be messing about not wanting to pay out and if so how long can they do that for - is there a time frame where they have to decide..?

We are both very frustrated.  I could understand if liability was an issue.

Thanks for any help or advice...:)

The_Fat_Controller

Accident in April, medical 5 months later, really ?

jlg1

Yes the accident was 9th April and we only had the medical end of September - they said they wanted to wait 4 months to see how our syptoms were..?  Is this not standard..?

Ectophile

jlg1 said:

Yes the accident was 9th April and we only had the medical end of September - they said they wanted to wait 4 months to see how our syptoms were..?  Is this not standard..?

Seems reasonable to me.  It makes a big difference to the claim whether any injuries are short term or long term.

born_again

jlg1 said:

Yes the accident was 9th April and we only had the medical end of September - they said they wanted to wait 4 months to see how our syptoms were..?  Is this not standard..?

Did you not attend any hospital A&E or doctors prior to this?

ontheroad1970

born_again said:

jlg1 said:

Yes the accident was 9th April and we only had the medical end of September - they said they wanted to wait 4 months to see how our syptoms were..?  Is this not standard..?

Did you not attend any hospital A&E or doctors prior to this?

From my experience a SHO report would be insufficient for evidence.  When I was involved in a RTI, and injured through no fault of my own, some of the medicals were done a year after the incident. 

Sandtree

jlg1 said:

Yes the accident was 9th April and we only had the medical end of September - they said they wanted to wait 4 months to see how our syptoms were..?  Is this not standard..?

Given Covid etc its actually fairly quick. 

Did you have Legal Expenses cover on your LV policy? If so its worth double checking if its also underwritten by LV as some insurers dont write this themselves but add on a DAS policy or other specialist LE provider. You should raise a complaint with whoever the underwriter of your LE cover is with about the service being received from their panel solicitors. 

There will always be potential circumstances where you may become personally liable for legal fees but the insurers should also be able to confirm that if you stick to the rules, are honest etc what they will and wont cover.

If you didnt have LE cover then any referral is just a guesture of goodwill (and fee earner) and there is little/no comeback on LV. The lawyers will confirm in what circumstances you may need to pay something, NI has its own legal juristiction and other than knowing a few bits (Whiplash Reforms dont apply, no injury cases can go through Small Track etc) its not my area of knowledge.

jlg1

born_again said:

jlg1 said:

Yes the accident was 9th April and we only had the medical end of September - they said they wanted to wait 4 months to see how our syptoms were..?  Is this not standard..?

Did you not attend any hospital A&E or doctors prior to this?

Hi..

Yes we went to A and E the nxt day as we were both sore and were checked out.