road traffic accident injury

bilbo_2

hello I had a road traffic accident around a month ago (other persons liability) my car total wreck

Straight after I felt pain to my lower back and went to the GP

I was off work for 4 weeks on his advice (GP) and was still in some discomfort for a few weeks later

I wondered if it was worth putting in a personal injury claim with one of these no win no fee solicitors or should I go another way.

....And what would I recieve ball park for the injury described

Thanks for any replys

davetrousers

'No win no fee' means if you do win we take a BIG fee.

Did you have legal cover with your insurance?

bilbo_2

"Did you have legal cover with your insurance?"

no unfortunately not

Mr_Bear_2

good sols dont charge if they win

bagpuss_fan

If it was not your fault, your insurance company should sort out a solicitor for you, and no you won't have to pay anything. You need to contact them.

We had an accident whilst sat in a queue of traffic (boy racer, lost control in the wet, crashed into us). My husband got £1000 for 4 weeks of muscle strain (as he was holding onto the stearing wheel at the time) I got £1800 for six months of agonising neck injury which was extremely painful when driving, sleeping, pretty much anything. personally, I don't think the payments were fair, but there you go, lifes a beach!!!:D

V_tricky

Hi,

This is a rehash of one of my earlier posts, but relevant to you so...

Why not ring the responsible party's insurer and ask whether they will deal with you directly, rather than by playing chinese whispers via a solicitor?

Most insurers these days try to work proactively and offer their comp claims service to third parties when liability is clear cut.

Why do they do this? It all comes down to £££££££££

Firstly -

If they can arrange for you to have your car repaired quickly, maybe at a repairer they either own, or one they have negotiated a discount with then this reduces the claims cost.
Even if you insist on going to a main dealership to have your repairs done (and more about this later) they can still get the repairs authorised ASAP rather than waiting for an intermediary solicitor to play chinese whispers.
If you do go to one of their chosen repairers and there are subsequent problems, they have service level contracts and a proper complaints procedure. If you choose to go to your own nominated repairers and there are problems with the repair these can be harder to sort out.

Secondly -
If they are managing the repairs themselves, they are responsible for mitigating [minimizing] the length of time you're in your hire car, and will have also negotiated a discount with Enterprise or whoever on the daily rate.
This doesn't mean that you get the hire car any less, it just means that they will try to get your car back on the road ASAP (and thus you wont need the hire car for longer than necessary)

(If your car is a total loss - AKA a 'write off' they will deal with you in the same way they would one of their own customers claiming under a comprehensive policy)

Thirdly -
If your claim includes personal injury, they can book you into physiotherapy (again - to try and reduce the length of time you are suffering and thus reduce the overall cost of the claim).
Also, they can arrange the medical report you may need, or make a nominal offer (normally less than £1000) without even needing a medical report (this obviously saves them the £200 cost of obtaining one)
And if you are happy with their service to you, it may mean that you choose not to use a solicitor - and bearing in mind that current solicitors fees for claims valued at between one and five thousand (the large majority) are £800 plus 20% of damages agreed, this is a saving in itself - it does not automatically mean that because you don't have a solicitor they will issue a take-the-michael offer to you.

At no point do you sign away your right to instruct a solicitor - if at any stage you are unhappy with the progress of the claim you can always ALWAYS take legal advice, and particularly if your claim does include personal injury then the insurer would probably write to you to remind you of this.

Fourth & Finally...

Of course today's third party is tomorrows customer - if they treat you well now, then there's every chance that you might consider changing insurer to them when you renew


IMHO I would be happy to let the responsible persons insurers deal with the claim - chances are it will be dealt with quicker, you can always instruct a solicitor later if you feel you need it.

As a claimant you have a duty to mitigate your losses - if they're already handling the claim for you directly, then I guess the majority of that onus passes to them and saves you some hassle.

I know there is a massive distrust of insurance companies, but this is one case where really, both your and their priorities are the same - you wanna be back on the road quickly, and they want you to be back on the road quickly (because it is cheaper for them than if your claim drags on unnecessarily)

As for what your claim is potentially worth that entirely depends.

According to the Judicial Studies Board (which insurers use based as a guideline on cases that have been run through the courts the previous year)

(c) Minor

Minor soft tissue and whiplash injuries and the like where symptoms are moderate:


(i) and a full recovery takes place within about two years; £2,550 to £4,575

(ii) with a full recovery between a few weeks and a year. £750 to £2,550

It is possible that they will offer you a nominal amount without you having to attend a medical examination, although in this event you are likely to get less than £1000, and more likely less than £750.

Did you heal within a shortish timeframe? Would you be happy with £750 with no further hassle? If that's worth it to you, then ask them - what can they say except yes or no? If they didn't offer or if you rejected such an offer, they would want an independent medical assessment before making further offers.

They will probably not require your full medical records these days - however, they might, so it's as well to be prepared to release this information. It will almost always be asked for in the event that you have made personal injury claim/s before - particularly if you have made repeated or recent claims - the Department of Work & Pensions will tell them whether you have or not, so there's no point in trying to hide it if you have.

I hope this rather long post gives you some help, and hope that you've all healed up/will recover soon.

v_tricky

mattymoo

bagpuss_fan wrote: »

If it was not your fault, your insurance company should sort out a solicitor for you, and no you won't have to pay anything. You need to contact them.

Not if you haven't got legal expenses cover though, which the OP hasn't.

Some bank accounts and trade union memberships also include this cover. Would this apply in your case bilbo?

bilbo_2

" Some bank accounts and trade union memberships also include this cover "

I have bank account with
alliance and leicester premier direct current
lloyds tsb
hsbc

credit cards with egg goldfish and virgin

do any of these provide legal cover ??

thanks

Mr_Bear_2

also v tricky insuers can try to get injured ppl to accept lower settlements

my personal advcie is that the OP has nothing to lose by consulting a solicitor PI claims can be trivky to value at times and you need professional advice

The Insurers will look at for their interests only not the OP!!

V_tricky

I didn't say that the OP shouldn't consult a solicitor - on the contrary - if they aren't confident, don't have the time, or feel that an insurer is making an unreasonably low offer, or even to check the offer that they've received is reasonable then of course they should consult a solicitor.

Claimants are free at any stage of the process up til they bank their final settlement check to do so, however, I am simply pointing out that these days, insurers recognise that making unreasonably low offers is counter productive.

Making unreasonably low offers is only likely to push people to use a solicitor when it's not necessary, and/or will push people into litigating - and if that happens, of course both have cost implications for the insurer. For the sake of a couple of hundred quid (or even more) it's not worth the insurers risking all those added costs.

The large majority of PI claims are not hard to value, and in the main, if someone has suffered a basic whiplash with only a relatively short period of time off work, then there's no reason at all why they wouldn't be able to manage their own claim. Even simple fractures aren't hard to value. If you look at the way PI claims are dealt with in Ireland, in the main, most claimants don't use a solicitor - because they don't need to.

The difference of course comes if their injury is very serious or complex, or if their injury is likely to have lasting permanent implications - in which case I certainly would recommend appointing a solicitor every time.

And of course the insurers are thinking of their own bank balance - I think that I explained in my above post that the reason why insurers are trying to cut settlement times, and are offering such a proactive service re rehabilitation etc is not because they're generous - but because in the long run it works out cheaper!

A win-win situation! Claimant gets physio quickly (therefore heals quicker) and Insurer pays less overall because the claimant is injured for a shorter time period.

bilbo_2

v-tricky

Thanks for you time on this you seen very wise on the matter

What sort of first letter approach should I do to the insurance company?

I've actually got a figure in mind have done a lot of background research on accidents.

Should I nail my colours to the mast with the amount or aim a little higher for them to haggle a little.

Should I tell them I am getting advice from a professional and will be handling the claim myself?