I've been in a 15 month battle with this lot over a non fault car accident, their incompetence is staggering but it's kind of reassuring to see it's not just me who's been treated so poorly!

I seem to think when I signed their paperwork I was told I couldn't instruct any other legal company to act on my behalf but it seems like this isn't the case? I've not been in this kind of situation before and I don't know if to sit it out with them or tell them to do one and attempt to get my costs back for the £2k worth of physio they told me they'd compensate me for and haven't..

It is extremely distressing to see all these reports about DLG. It takes a lot for me to call someone a liar but I have been lied to by my over-polite claims handler telling me for months that he is chasing the other side, only to find out whilst he was away that he hasn't even put in my claim for an interim payment.
It is bad enough that I have suffered a head injury and I have been unable to work for 15 months and have paid out hundreds of pounds for treatment, but I did not expect to be mistreated by my solicitors. I have had to chase everything all the way down the line, from finding out who is dealing with BHS claims now that they are in administration to payment of my GP invoice and getting a medical report.
My complaint has not been dealt with as promised and I really don't know where to go from here...

I really cannot stress how incompetent these people truly are. They were recommended to me by my insurance company (Sainsburys) and they really are that bad I moved to a new law firm.

Firstly, forget basic spelling and grammar, they cannot master this. Official letters sent out on were full of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.

Secondly, they don't read reports properly. My 1st medical report requested a psychiatric assessment, this was never followed up (despite asking) until 3 months following receipt of the 2nd medical report (which was 6 months post the first). When they finally decided to address this, the question was whether I wanted one or not.

Thirdly, my case was consistently delayed because of DLG. This wasn't delays due to responding to the third party etc, this was because of their own internal processes. I had 3 case handlers (no solicitor) and each time it took several weeks/months to get sorted. My case was passed around their teams for 3 months because they couldn't figure out which team the claim should sit with.

Fourthly, no assessment as to what medical aspects I would need. This is something that is meant to be done in order to ensure that the claimant doesn't suffer. I never had this nor knew anything about it until I moved to my current solicitors.

Fifthly, when a formal complaint was raised with the insurance company, the basically lied. I had to prove my case by showing email chains, letters and records of phone calls in order to show how incompetent they truly were. When DLG realised they'd lost the argument, they offered a £75 compensation for which I'm still waiting on receiving (5 months after offering it).

My advice, really don't go with these guys. They truly are utterly useless and they will damage your claim.

Sainsbury's Insurance is UK Insurance, the same parent company as Direct Line. As are Churchill and Privilege. DLG are the in house legal firm for this bunch.

I am having issues with DLG, nearly 2 years ago I had a claim, many medical reports later, I am yet to be paid out, they have made a recovery though, just not passed anything to me.

I would never insure anything with the UK Insurance group again due to the incompetence I have experienced.

Now formally complained and trying to have file sent to a new, local, solicitor. Over two years already gone by on a simple road traffic collision. How are they allowed by the law society to trade? Hopefully off to the ombudsman as I have no faith in their complaints procedures.

I cannot belief these clowns are still trading and causing people the stress we had three years ago when they started trading,our case was proceeding well and they took over the file and completely cocked the case up

Has anyone had any joy with the ombudsman? DL have now told me after 2 years of messing me about and after telling me how much the settlement figure would likely be that they are now dropping my claim because I 'don't have an injury'. That's not what their medical assessor told them so now I'm nearly £3k out of pocket for all the treatment costs they told me I'd get back!!

10/10
I was initially apprehensive when checking DLG's online feedback. I have been nothing but positively surprised since. Amazing customer service. Extremely efficient and dedicated and solicitors always got back in a very timely manner. Expected that I would be wasting lots of time having to chase them, this was not the case though at all. Extremely friendly and professional. The two solicitors I have dealt with were Beth Robertson and Ronan Mulqueeny. Great company, would recommend without hesitation.

Quoted for posterity and as a prime example of stooging that confirms unequivocally what a shower this lot are!

COGENT LAW

I had to use a firm of solicitors who at the time acted for the Automobile Association Insurance Companies Panel Solicitor, Cogent Law (Automobile Association, hereafter referred to as the A.A.) after 2 personal injury claims, the incidents happened 18 months apart, both of which have left me with very serious, complex and incurable medical conditions.

The A.A. did nothing after receiving my claim forms (sent recorded delivery) other than sending an acknowledgement letter which appeared to be a standard computer generated reply as it did not contain any details specific to my claim which they later denied having sent as they claimed that they never received a claim form.
Due to the amount of time that had elapsed since sending my claim forms and chasing and then arguing with the A.A. about them taking responsibility for the claims and pursuing them through the courts, I had had to take the initiative, research and then deal with the initial registration of the claim with the courts in order not to be 'time barred', in which case I would not have been able to pursue the claim. (This included the payment of hundreds of pounds in fees which I was never reimbursed for as I should have been, especially as Cogent has been paid by the defendants for these fees).

The claims were then registered for hearings, should they not have been settled out of court, in the wrong courts, they also used the wrong 'dates of knowledge' of the accidents meaning it severely restricted the time they had to prepare for the cases thus immediately giving the defendant's solicitors the impression that the claims were of minimal/nominal values (there is a set amount each court can award) and meant that nothing was done implementing procedural practice guidelines according to pre-action protocols, in a methodical and logical order or in a timely fashion.

To give an example, one of the premises had then changed hands by the time they were approached, two of my witnesses, who's statements were imperative in clarification of what happened and to the indisputable validity of the cases were no longer available. One had very sadly passed away and the second no longer wished to be involved (for reasons I cannot state here due to events at the time and confidentiality), before their statements were taken. I had repeatedly requested this but was ignored.
As a result I approached and asked the witnesses to prepare their own statements but the solicitor would not accept them or submit them on the basis that he had not requested them himself and he questioned their validity as he had not witnessed their signatures either. Both had been witnessed by two independent professionals. despite this I questioned/reported this-ignored.

They eventually sent me for a medical report on my condition and prognosis. The 'Doctor' was utterly incompetent and his knowledge of the condition he was to report upon was minimal and completely 'out of date'. (I think he googled it for 5 mins max before I attended my appointment)

He made numerous mistakes in his report to include factual errors and a completely incorrect prognosis. I reported this and all of the other errors to both the solicitor and the A.A. on numerous occasions and was totally ignored time and time again.
Threatened repeatedly by the solicitor, accused of lying, accused of compromising the validity of my claim, chastised as if I were a 5 year old, patronising and condescending all the time. Lied to by the senior solicitor, department head on numerous occasions. Sworn at and told that he didn't care what I had put on my claim form or important information relevant to the case that I had previously informed him of and which he had subsequently forgotten to include in statements and legal documents ( by which time it was too late to do anything about it).

To top it all off when I didn't accept his findings and advice for the millionth time, having spent hours doing my own research he informed the A.A. that he was no longer willing to act for me (for the 3rd time) due to my non-compliance, disagreeable nature, breakdown in client/solicitor relationship and the fact that I wasn't prepared to accept the defendants offer. Which B.T.W. was less than 90% of what I eventually received when I eventually found another solicitor who could continue the case on a now win no fee agreement)Eventually the A.A. re-instructed them but on the 3rd occasion I had had enough and went elsewhere.

I was told by solicitor who settled the case that Cogent's actions had lead to my compensation being a substantial amount less than it should have been, that the numerous letters, phone calls, and emails amounted to nothing less than harassment and that their overall behaviour was completely unacceptable. I had to deal with them from 2009 to 2014/15.

I ended up having to do 90% of the work, endlessly researching, reviewing and checking everything they did. I had to order copies of my medical records in order to be able to do the above, a good job I did as many of the nursing notes pertaining to one of the cases had been 'destroyed/lost' without the authority being able to provide any acceptable reason for their disappearance, especially given the fact that the only ones missing were for the crucial periods in time where they would, without question have been heavily relied upon most especially by myself but also for the defendants to answer to.

I then had to pay Cogent Law out of my damages for their incompetent work as the second solicitor had had to repeat areas of the work to get up to speed on the case in a very short period of time. I am still in the process of deciding whether to take action against Cogent Law as each time I even think of them I have a panic attack!

Having some understanding of the British Legal System, Personal Injury law and case law precedents I was able with a lot of hard work, pretty much a full time job of 40 hrs a week to dedicate my time to both of the cases. If I had not I would undoubtedly have come off far, far worse.

All this despite the fact that I was and still am very unwell. It caused intolerable stress, anxiety and fear of opening mail, email, texts and even answering the phone until I set up an a caller I.D. service at my expense along with endless sleepless nights, exacerbation of my medical conditions, and utter exhaustion. None of which I can charge £400 per hour for!

In Short do not use them!!!!!!

P.S. I would be interested to hear from anyone else who has suffered at the hands of Cogent Law, whether used as panel solicitors via an insurance company or by employing them directly.

Hi, I believe that they are also Panel, (in-house solicitors for the A.A.Home Insurance). I had terrible experience with them over two separate cases. Completely messed both up and I ended up loosing a great deal of money, not to mention sleep! Terrible attitude, no customer/client relationship, the A.A. were there customers/client as far as they were concerned. I had no option but to find another lawyer at my own expense after the time and effort I wasted chasing them and having to do my own research on everything, it turned into a full time job for me (45 hrs+ per week), ironic for someone who was fighting a court case because they could no longer work due to the accident. In my opinion they should be 'struck-off'. Incompetent is to kind and generous a word to describe their work ethic. Have they actually been to law school? Lady who did most of the day to day handling my case was not even qualified to practice under her own qualifications as she studied law in South Africa and hadn't undertaken the relevant conversion courses in the U.K. She worked under the guidance of a fully qualified but equally incompetent solicitor. Any advice I can offer please ask.

My daughter was injured while stationary in her vehicle when a car at speed went into the back of her, finally after years of backwards and forwards e-mails and letters they now say she cannot claim due to a visit to her doctor many years ago for another incident that happened, after the first accident which was not her fault the case was finished and she has had no problems till this latest accident, this was a new injury caused by a speeding vehicle out of control, how do we stand about this or who can I best contact to take furter please

I ended up going back to Direct Line for Home Insurance in November 2018 as I couldn't afford the premiums anyone else was charging. I dreaded having to use their legal services and lo and behold, this is the year I should need to consult them.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn upon phoning their helpline, that they have switched to Stephenson's Solicitors. They were excellent over the phone and I have high hopes that they are able to assist me.

https://www.stephensons.co.uk/site/sectors/legal_expense_insurance/insurance_sector/

I thought this info might be useful to anyone else considering them or still with them for legal expenses cover. I had previously asked every insurer who provided their legal cover, before agreeing to go with them!