Medical report for personal injury claim in employment / tribunal the MSE way??

turnitround

I dont think the OP is going to give any details as to what he is claiming for, or why. He seems to avoid any pertinent questions.

74jax

turnitround said:

I dont think the OP is going to give any details as to what he is claiming for, or why. He seems to avoid any pertinent questions.

OP hasn't been online since yesterday afternoon. Maybe away for Easter or just not checked back yet. 

JCS1

74jax said:

turnitround said:

I dont think the OP is going to give any details as to what he is claiming for, or why. He seems to avoid any pertinent questions.

OP hasn't been online since yesterday afternoon. Maybe away for Easter or just not checked back yet. 

Seems to be a system glitch, as he posted 7.41, but his profile says a time a few hours earlier

SChitmehard

Thanks for the comments so far, they've given me something to think about...

JCS1> Has the ex-employer admitted liability?

No you're right, the just offered some money to get rid of me I guess.

MalMonroe> If you google 'private psychiatrist employment tribunal' or something similar, you can see if there's one in your area who would book an hour's assessment and then do a report

Thanks, I did see some doing remote interviews for around this amount. Will give them a call. Maybe solicitor meant £3k for interview, report and attendance at hearing....? 

MalMonroe> I used https://www.lawworks.org.uk/ and found a local qualified solicitor

I have a no-win no-fee solicitor that has taken the case, but I have to pay "disbursements" and I guess a medical report is one of these things. I am hoping there won't be too many "disbursements" going forward. She must have some confidence if she is willing to work on NWNF basis on the case although I feel like I am doing quite a lot of the work.

Jillanddy> So what exactly is your employment claim?

Can't say too much on an open forum, but there is a basis for a claim - it could be one of the automatically unfair ones.

Jillanddy> Regrettably there are still solicitors who are able to see a train wreck coming and exploit it to their own advantage. And do so quite legally. Your solicitor appears to have advised you to get a report from a GP without knowing that no GP would provide such a report. And if they had any medico- legal knowledge they would know exactly where to send you and have a dozen possibles on a list ready to use.

It's a NWNF solicitor. I've done quite a bit of the work myself and she just seems to put it through. She said she has people to refer me to (psychiatrist or GP (Occ Health doctor I guess)) but teh prices are quite steep and I want to keep the cost down. The Occ Health doctors on the web are quoting around £350-450 to do this so I will ask solicotor if it is essential to do this. Maybe I don't need to do it yet and can wait until after judicial mediation and if we can't settle it at this time then get it as the case will be progressing?? Can I put off getting the medical??

Jillanddy> I will lay you bets that the only winner here will be your solicitor, and I'd guess they will walk away with any money - one way or another

You're right with that. At first I wanted justice etc, but I have already been quite stressed by it all and think I will try to settle before it goes too far. It just depends on the NWNF solicitor and whether she WANTS to settle at this early stage or whether she thinks she can get more by taking it down to the wire. Is there anyway I can convince her to thrown in the towel without running afoul of the NWNF agreement?

74jax> When you say 'accepted it', accepted what exactly? And is this in writing?  Usually it's just a payment offered as it will save them having to pay legal costs to fight it.

Yes, they just want me to go away and take some hush money and drop the case. They didn't admit anything but atleast they had to sit uo and take notice.

74jax> Who has your solicitor advised you use? Reading this, your solicitor seems to have left you high and dry. Isn't it the solicitor who gathers the evidence?

She has put some names forward, but I wanted to see if I could get it done any cheaper in case she has a kickback arrangement with one of the medical professionals! Don't want to spend 3k if I will be settling in a few weeks for £7k (if she'll let me!). It's early days so solicitor hasn't really done much besides sending in the claim form and getting the response from the employer (which is the standard = denied everything). So she has not evidence collected yet. I have been looking through my previous papers to find evidence, but neither she or I have written to the employer as yet for evidence. Should she/I have done this at this stage? I guess she is waiting until after mediation and I guess (hope) she'll put in a bit more effort after that.

74jax>I really don't see how this report can go in your favour. Surely having evidence saying you will be able to work in the future is positive for the other side not you?

Yes, but I guess it will say I was too unwell to get a job for past 8-9 months or 18 months depending on how long the case takes to get to court so I will be able to get some money for that. I guess this is the plan.

74jax>What are you claiming for? Can we maybe help you with that?

I can't say too much, see reply to Jillandy

74jax>>What %of success has your solicitor given you? Is it an employment solicitor? 

She's not said any %, but since she's NWNF she must have some confidence or she should be able to cover what she's done already if they up the settlement to 3-4 months I guess. She takes 35%. She is employment but not very impressive, but beggars can't be choosers. I called a few private solicitors and they wanted £2k there and then just to assess the case and draft a claim form.

GrumpyDil>Your solicitor asking you to arrange a private report yourself sounds really odd as if it was an area they had experience in I would expect them to have details of specialists they have previously worked with

Yes they have provided me with details of their medical people but I wanted to do it a more MSE fashion. Don't want the costs to spiral. If we settle for £10k and I have spend, I won't get much if it all gets spent on "disbursements".

Jillanddy> And probably charge the OP for making the referral.

Yes this is what I am afraid of. But no way to get the monkey off my back now, it's a NWNF solictor that charges £250 per hour. I am afraid to even stop it here as she may say she's spent 10 hours on it which is 2.5k and I do not know how to handle the case/not sure I will be able to as even with her doing the processes I am still quite stressed by it all. I am hoping she'll want to settle (I hope it's earlier than later) or will drop out and let me settle/make a drop hands offer to employer. Is there any way to make her drop the case without me running afoul of the NWNF agreement?

TBagpuss> Of course, they may still be prepared to settle but the longer it continues, the less benefit there is to them in doing so. And of course even if they think that your claim  may have some merit, they may take the view that their prospects of success are good enough that it is worth holding out , once they've spent the money on representation.

Yes I can see this that the longer it goes on, the less likely they may be to settling as they will have done a lot of the hard work but I'm sure that employer even at the last stages will settle because they can't be sure it'll go their way on the day in which case they've spent loads on legal rep, they have to pay out comp and they get bad press to boot.

TBagpuss>how much they believe that your claim is worth

The rough sums she has worked out are £30k

pinkshoes>As for having to pay for your own medical report - this is normally something your legal team would pay for then add it to your claim.

My NWNF agreement says I have to pay disbursements, I guess this would be one of them?? I doubt the NWNF solicotor would want to add it to the bill as it would reduce their share too if it came out of the total amounnt I got awarded.

 turnitround>I dont think the OP is going to give any details as to what he is claiming for, or why. He seems to avoid any pertinent questions.

I have provided about as much as I can or feel comfortable on an open forum. Sorry if it's not enough but hope the above information goes some way to help you understand things a bit better.

JCS1

There are very few cases that pay out £30k. If you Google employment tribunal decisions you will find government website with details of recent cases and payouts.

Jillanddy

I believe the OP's response says it all. This is why people need to either be in a union or to have legal insurance. You may not like the fact that they won't pursue a case they don't believe in, but you do not get trapped by bloodsuckers. 

The median award for discrimination is between £9k and £14k, which are the higher award categories. It's only £6,600 for unfair dismissal. If the solicitor here thinks £30k is achievable, she is delusional. I have a fair inkling of what version is being peddled since unfair dismissal isn't possible and discrimination is exceptionally unlikely - whistleblowing. The OP was dismissed on capability grounds, and one of the reasons was failing to record concerns which they say they raised on the appropriate system. They have already said here that it is true that they didn't record those concerns on the system. Claiming to have raised them in any other way, regardless of their truth, is not possible. There was a system, it wasn't used. So no whistleblowing.

OP, from what you have written it seems to come across that you may already be regretting signing that NWNF agreement. If that is the case then there is a strategy you can adopt. Simply say, at every turn, that you have no money to pay for any evidence, reports or whatever other bill the solicitor suggests you need to pay for. That will put her in a position where she has no evidence - and I strongly suspect that the evidence won't say what you want it to, even if you got a report. If the employer agrees to mediation, you might get a small offer. Neither accept nor reject it - ask the solicitor what to do and do whatever they advise you providing you ascertain that you won't owe them any money at the end of this. If the employer doesn't accept mediation or make an offer, same strategy. Sit back and don't pay for anything. The chances are that the solicitor will drop your case (this often happens) when they realise there is no money to be made. If they choose to drop it then you owe nothing.

And please stop obsessing about your previous employers. I understand why you are angry and hurt, but the person damaging your mental health here is you, not them. You have let this become your sole focus and it is destroying you. Focus on getting a job, and let the past go. 

NCC1701-A

You've had great advice in this thread even if its not being easy reading for you.

One additional point I'd raise is to read the agreement you've signed with the No Win No Fee lawyer.  Typically there is a clause saying if you withdraw or stop the process you become liable for their fees.  Only if it gets to court and lose is there no fee to you.  The strategy set out by Jillanddy above lets you navigate out without this consequence. I would add, if a settlement is offered, try and ensure the legal fees are not subtracted from it but are paid separate and direct to the NWNF.

Jillanddy

NCC1701-A said:

You've had great advice in this thread even if its not being easy reading for you.

One additional point I'd raise is to read the agreement you've signed with the No Win No Fee lawyer.  Typically there is a clause saying if you withdraw or stop the process you become liable for their fees.  Only if it gets to court and lose is there no fee to you.  The strategy set out by Jillanddy above lets you navigate out without this consequence. I would add, if a settlement is offered, try and ensure the legal fees are not subtracted from it but are paid separate and direct to the NWNF.

That is good advice but the employers solicitor would need to be as delusional as the OP's to agree to it. If they let the case go on, legal fees are not their concern as any tribunal award wouldn't include legal fees anyway, and the chances of the OP getting that far, or winning, are remote. I know that there is an argument that going to a tribunal costs an employer money so it is better to settle sometimes, but that isn't always the case. If the case is an easy one, it doesn't need to cost anything at all to sit it out and do nothing, letting the claimant do all the running. They know that in a game of chicken, the other side will most often run out of courage first.