Can anyone give me advice on my injury claim please???

rutty81

I was involved in a road traffic accident in September 2004 where three cars were involved. The one driver has admitted liability for the accident however her solicitors are disputing the amount my solicitor is trying to claim for. Approximately 8 months after the accident, I received a letter to say her solicitor was offering £2000. My solicitor wrote to me to say she did not think this was a fair amount and I should hold back till they offer an amount between £2400 and £2600. The letter clearly stated this would take 3-4 weeks, however I then received another letter to say they would not pay anymore and it will have to go to court. I agreed to this as my solicitor made out it would only take a couple of months. Today I have recieved another letter to say it will take 30 weeks plus!!! :mad:

My concern is that I could wait this long and then end up with just another couple of hundred pounds or even less then £2000!

Is there anyone else who has experienced this and how did it all turn out??? Is it worth me contacting my solicitor and instructing her to not go any further with the claim and to accept £2000 (or is it to late to do this??). Also, does the solicitor what to hold back because they will make much more out of it???

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

adminannie

Hi Personally I would take the £2000 you might not get much more and to have to wait another 30 weeks doesnt seem worth the wait to me. My husbands claim went on for over 2 years, but his solicitor told him to accept the offer as she thought it wouldnt be much better it they went to court. And I think there is a chance it could have been reduced. So really it depends on whether you want to wait that long for £400. I dont see it being a problem in now accepting it as I shouldnt think it has got the stage of court. Annie

rchddap1

I assume that you've got the date wrong....as September 2005 hasn't yet happened.

greenwich

I assume you are on no-win no-fee with ATE insurance and so not worried about legal costs. If this is not the case, I would speak to your solicitor about costs. If you get less than £2,000 in court, you might not be awarded all your legal costs.

rutty81

Thank you for the sound advice, oh and I've changed the date now. I've spoken to my solicitor now and she is still saying that I should be getting more. She did admit that if I waited and we won the case, she would actually make more. Apparently I can change my mind at any time. If I went to court (which I've very nervous about doing!) and the judge said lower than £2,000, my insurance company would have to pay all legal costs.

I think I'm going to take adminannie's advice, it's a long wait for not much.

Thanks again

telly-addict

I'm afraid that's generally the gamble in these personal injury claims. If you take the matter to court, you could get more but just as easily you could get less! Local court awards can at times be very artbitrary. If the third party insurers are sticking to their guns, they must have some confidence in their offer. As the difference between the two figures is not that great, I personally would probably take the money on offer. But it's very much a personal decision.

As your costs appear to be picked up by legal expenses insurers, that's not really an issue. It's all really down to how long you want to wait for your money and whether you want the hassle of running the case to a court hearing.

Good luck.

rutty81

Just in case anyone is wondering what happened next.........I contacted my solicitor to say I wish to accept the £2000 and she got very angry!!! I have never been spoken to so badly by anyone over the phone. She basically accused me of wasting her time and she wanted to know whose advice I was taking! She has rang me today to say that if I wish to continue to pull out, I will have to pay all her admin costs since the offer was first made and the third party insurer's admin costs (it will probably come to more than £2000!). So she has left me no choice but to continue with the claim and it could still take up to 30 weeks. I told her that I am not happy that all the information about issuing proceedings was not sent out until after I had taken her advice to continue. It should have been made clear exactly what is involved so I could have made an informed decision. I get the feeling she is not being entirely truthful and I wish/hope I could request to have another solicitor working for me.

Bossyboots

rutty can you please just confirm exactly who is paying your legal costs. Is it you or do you have legal expenses insurance?

If the latter, then you could notify the underwriter of the problem you have encountered. If the former, then you are perfectly entitled to withdraw your case from her and go elsewhere.

What you do need either way, is a letter of confirmation from her of what she has said on the telephone (although if she has any sense, she will do that anyway to stop you later on being able to say you weren't told).

Has she taken the advice of a barrister to ensure that the amount she says you will get is realistic?

I presume she says you will have to pay her admin costs because (assuming that your fees are covered by insurance) she will say that those costs were incurred unnecessarily by you and that therefore your underwriter should not have to meet them. Also, as the other side have also incurred costs since they made the offer, you would probably be liable for those yourself as well.

Your defence to those fees is that you were confused about the way events were running and it has taken you time to work it out. I am baffled as to the 30 week timescale. I would have thought that was a deadline by which the court would expect the matter to be completed, (a system set up to prevent cases being prolonged unnecessarily) rather than a minimum timescale. It could of course all be done and dusted in a couple of months. The issuing of the proceedings may in itself instigate a higher offer.

Regardless of who is paying her fees, the solicitor should not have got angry with you. That is entirely unprofessional.

ben500

I would question the advice of any solicitor who recommend you reject an offer of £2000 against a possible £2400 after 30 or so weeks, maybe if the differential were greater say £1k plus but not for £400. I suggest your solicitor is merely trying to milk the claim for fees rather than look after your best interests, I also strongly suspect her claim that you would be liable for any fees incurred post offer as well and would suggest you seek clarification of this elsewhere, as to leaving the case with her, would you really do that now? In the event that your underwriting insurers object to extra unnecessary fees I doubt it would be difficult to establish (if all is as you say) that you had acted on her poor advice in the first place and that she may well be found liable in that event. You should check this out professionally I don't know how easy that will be for you as solicitors tend to close ranks very closely and may not wish to give advice until you identify the practice involved and then of course you run the risk of them finding out your intentions.

jockettuk

did you pick this solicitors or were you issued them by your insurance company.. if by your insurance then why not contact them and let them know whats happening

jazzyjustlaw

30 weeks is normal for claims proceeding on a multi track basis. The hearing is usually set for 30 weeks after the claim is issue - well as far as possible anyway.