Personal Injury Claim

PoGee

I have never made a personal injury claim and so I'm a bit confused. I hope someone can help.
I suffered a bad fall a couple of months back. Injuries are - head (concussion), knees, shoulder. My insurer is one of the big guys. I'm absolutely certain that they said I could pick my own solicitor over the phone, when they called to say '...we feel your claim has a good prospect....'
I was concussed when they called so when they said shall we just go with our one, I said yes. The legal company they picked has awful online reviews and the person dealing with my claim (here in Scotland) is neither a solicitor nor paralegal. My gut instinct is always right and I have a bad feeling about this firm/person.
I've had a few calls with the insurer - they deny that they said I could pick my own solicitor (''can only do that if it goes to court''). Is this correct - 'we are allowed to restrict freedom of choice and have been backed by the FOS'.

Sandtree

By definition if they aren't a lawyer but are doing legal worth then they are a paralegal. 

Assuming they haven't done any work so far you could ask the insurer if there is another panel firm that you can be appointed to? They may however have limited options that cover Scottish Law, assuming that was the location of the accident.

I dont know about more recent changes in the regulations but even back in my day you in theory had the right to choose your own solicitor however they had to agree to the insurer's standard T&Cs which no average solicitor firm would because the rates being paid would only work if you have large numbers of paralegals and have sufficient volume of cases to make the slim margins worth while. Their letter seems to suggest that the rules have changed and they can now simply say no but in all practical terms you couldn't in my day either.

PoGee

They said - no, we only have one panel solicitor firm in Scotland. It's UK insurance.

Sandtree

UK Insurance are normally better known for their customer facing brands of Direct Line, Churchill etc. 

Ultimately your route is to either a) put a complaint in about being told you can choose your own sols and then being told you cannot - this is easily resolved as they will listen to the call recording or b) complain to the solicitor if you have an issue with your fee earner/case handler but it needs to be something real like they gave bad advice, slow responding etc rather than you just dont like the level of qualifications they have.