The past two winters of 2009 and 2010 are said to have been the coldest in the UK for over 100 years, so not many of us will remember many worse winters. The cold weather bought with it heavy snow and ice, which lead to a huge increase in accidents and resulted in extremely busy periods for personal injury lawyers, such as ourselves, who were inundated with new claims and advice enquiries.

But how easy is it to make a claim against a local authority for compensation following an accident as a result of snow and ice? Well, the answer is unfortunately not very easy at all and this is illustrated in the case of Rhiannon Pace V City and County of Swansea 2007. In this case the accident victim was injured in a Road Traffic Accident caused by black ice on the road. It was accepted by the Judge in this case that the accident was caused by the ice, however he ruled that the local authority had not been negligent. When considering this case, the Judge considered two questions, the first of which is: Was the local authority’s winter maintenance plan proper and reasonable?

The Judge commented on this question as follows:

“It is clearly impossible for a highway authority to eliminate all risk of ice forming on the roads. It is also impossible for the plans to be devised at so high a level of protection that the very greatest level of protection is always provided. To place almost limitless amounts of salt on the roads may perhaps increase the levels of protection but it would do so at an entirely unrealistic and undesirable economic and environmental costs. A highway authority must instead devise a plan in accordance with best practice, using sufficient quantities of salt to address the foreseeable risks efficiently but with manageable and, importantly, sustainable constraints.”

Having stated the above, the Judge ruled that the local authorities plan was adequate as it was based upon the national code of practice for maintenance management.

The Second question considered by the judge when dealing with this case was: Had the plan been properly implemented?

Despite witness evidence from a police officer stating that, in his opinion, there was no visible evidence of gritting when he attended the scene of the accident, the Judge dismissed the suggestion from the accident victim that this, along with the very fact that ice had formed in the first place, proved that no gritting had taken place and instead believed the local authorities submission that gritting had taken place.

The Judge concluded that the local authority had taken all reasonable steps to prevent ice forming in the road and therefore the Claimant’s case was unsuccessful.

The above mentioned case highlights the difficulty of making a claim against a local authority where snow and ice is concerned because their duty is not to ensure that all roads are free from ice, but to take all reasonable steps. However, this is not to say that it is impossible to succeed with this type of claim, but, if you are unfortunate enough to have been involved in such an accident, it is clearly important to get the right advice from specialist personal injury lawyers such as ourselves.

It is often difficult to assess the merits of this type of case in the first instance; however, if we take the case on, we will do so on a Genuine no-win, no-fee basis which you have full financial protection with. We will then make comprehensive enquiries and obtain full documentation from the local authority relating to their inspection records, winter plans and procedures, and use this to consider your case further. If, following our investigations, we do not feel that the case is likely to succeed, we will advise you accordingly and it will not have cost you a penny. If however, the case is successful, you will keep 100% of the compensation awarded and all our legal fees are recovered separately from the local authority.
Source: The Legal Executive Journal

One of the other areas has been surrounding the cut of the legal aid bill and potential changes to the no win, no fee system. The gist and result of the whole idea will result in a reduction in the number of payouts, which I imagine is intended for the costs of insurance to lower; although I’d love to see the day the insurers pass on saving to the consumer!

But, back to the main topic, sadly, proposals in place involve shifting some of the costs of the no win, no fee system to the Claimant from the Defendant. We strongly oppose such a notion, as it will result in innocent accident victims having their payouts slashed to cover costs the Defendant, i.e. the person or party at fault for the injuries, will no longer have to pay the full amount.

Whilst I won’t go in to the ins and outs of what this means, I will comment on sources form the Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/sep/20/justice-minister-companies-shares-legal-aid) whom have triggered an investigation as it turns out there are some potentially political conflicts of interest in saving the insurance industry a whooping £1bn a year if the moves are to go ahead!

But, that is not all Mr Jonathan Djanogly, justice minister, is currently piloting the plans to cut personal injury payouts and reduce legal aid funding. As it just so happens, Mr Djanogly, by pure an absolute coincidence, happens to have investments worth at least £250,000 in the insurance industry!

All these savings the insurance industry will benefit from means the investments he has could be set to become far more healthier than they are already are. According to the source, Mr Djanogly is one of the ten richest MP’s in the country, and is also heir to a £300m fortune through his family’s insurance underwriters, Djanogly Family LLP. It’s fair to say that the man has a very sizeable personal stake in the insurance industry which is set to financially benefit from bills he is the head of pushing through.

The source goes on to say that his brother is in the claims management industry, profiting from selling accident victims details on to lawyers for compensation claims. Let’s hope that the bid to ban the referral fee system doesn’t suddenly become hampered by the influence of a conflict of interest. Not that I’m suggesting anything…

Whatever you believe, or whatever your take on the story is, the point I wish to make here is that there is much, much more to these changes and bills then meets the eye; and a lot of it may come down to who is going to benefit the most. OK, there may well be a reduction in insurance costs to the consumer if Claimants end up having to pay out of their own pocket for claims; but how is that fair for the Claimant, i.e. the injured innocent victim, and how do we know the proportionality of reduction will be fair? I personally have no doubt that the insurance companies profit margins will benefit from such moves.

What needs to be looked at for these reforms is who should pay, and who shouldn’t have to pay; how can we make things more efficient, and how can we keep things fair. It’s a difficult situation to balance. But I will firmly place my feet to down on the idea that Claimants shouldn’t have to lose out any of their compensation for a claim. To lose even a single penny means they haven’t been fully compensated for their suffering, and are therefore at a loss because of someone else’s negligence.

How is that fair?

I’ll certainly be keeping my ears to the ground on this one…

My recent articles have centred on the fantastic news that insurer’s referral fees will finally be banned following a parliamentary plan to initiate the practice becoming an illegality in the (hopefully) near future.

We, as an independent firm of specialist personal injury lawyers, have always spoken out against the practice of referral fees. We firmly believe, and have seen evidence proving the fact, that referral fees not only add no value to the claim of an injured victim, but they have the potential to destroy it.

By your solicitor paying your insurance company, a claims company, the NHS, a garage, or the police, or anyone else a referral fee, they are leaving themselves with less money to spend on your case. They are buying your claim to make a quick profit with. They will pay anywhere up to £1,000, which leaves them with next to nothing to spend on actually running your claim since we are restricted to fixed fees for the majority of road claims in the region of £1,250 – £1,500!

When it comes to regular contact, medical care, looking after you for your case, returning your calls and correspondence, and fighting tooth and nail for the maximum payout, it cannot be achieved if money is wasted on referral fees. The issues above are largely commonplace in complaints from victims of the referral fee system.

Whilst we were delighted that the Right Honourable Mr Jack Straw had revealed the insurance industries “dirty secret” to the media, and got them to admit that it was the insurers selling claims on to solicitors that was a real factor when it comes to the 30% – 40% rises in insurance prices, we were far than less impressed with his recent remarks in his ten minute notion speech when the former justice secretary made the following remarks about whiplash:

“Often such claims are for whiplash, which is not so much an injury, more a profitable invention of the human imagination—undiagnosable except by third-rate doctors in the pay of the claims management companies or personal injury lawyers”

As I said in my last post – this statement defines stupidity.

We knew it wouldn’t be long before others spoke out against a statement that can only be described metaphorically as the side effects of fishing with dynamite; Premex, a leader in medico legal experts for personal injury claims, has had their say on the “unfair generalisation” of medical experts when Mr Straw stated that whiplash was “undiagnosable except by third-rate doctors in the pay of the claims management companies or personal injury lawyers”.

According to their CEO, Dr Simon Margolis (http://www.premex.com/news/2011/response-to-ten-minute-rule-notion-by-jack-straw-mp—medical-experts-challenge-accusations-.aspx), the comments made in the speech “fail to acknowledge how the modern delivery of expert medical evidence is carried out.” I entirely agree.

Furthermore, Dr Margolis openly invites the opportunity for the experts on the Premex panel to challenge Mr Straw’s insinuation. He goes on to advise those who are not familiar with the inner workings of the personal injury industry that many of the experts involved in claims undertake both Claimant and Defendant work; aside from the fact that their underlying duty is to the court, and an actual examination is carried out.

I thanked Mr Straw in several of my previous articles when it came to highlighting the issue of referral fees. He did his research, drew his conclusions, and passed it on to the media. When it comes to his remarks about whiplash not being a real injury, he is basing his assumptions on what I assume is the common misconception the public generally share that whiplash is a joke of an injury.

I hope Mr Straw takes the invite from Premex, and I would be more than happy for him to accept my invite in my previous article; feel free to come and prod my back and feel what a real whiplash injury is actually like. I can tell you this; it may not be visible to the naked eye, but in its acute phases, you can certainly feel it to the touch.

Whilst I of course, as a whiplash sufferer myself, would never wish the injury on anyone, I would certainly like to speak to Mr Straw in the event he was ever in a car accident and ended up with whiplash. Given recent events, it would be an interesting scenario.

For those of you reading this who have suffered, or are suffering, from whiplash, I assume you are as disgusted as I am with the narrow minded remarks of a man on a mission to kill the “compensation culture” now his party is no longer in power. Whilst I think everyone involved in the industry agrees that steps could be taken to make things more efficient and cut out the money making scammers in the industry who add no value to the claims process, alleging that all whiplash claims are fabricated is a farcical assumption.

For advice on what you can do when you are suffering from whiplash, a recognised and diagnosable injury, please do feel free to give us a call.

When the insurance companies have been telling you that the increase in premiums as a result of personal injury lawyers and claims has resulted in increases of up to 30%, it transpired that this was largely a symptom of your own insurance company encouraging potentially scrupulous claims by pushing you in to making one so they can cash in on up to £1,000 for referring your claim. Even if you’re genuine, they’ll make you claim using their referral fee solicitor; not because they are doing you a favour, but because they get paid to pass your personal details around.

We have spoken out against this on hundreds of occasions, as we never involve ourselves in referral fees, and have advised many victims of the referral fee system to change lawyers as soon as they can after they have been subject to poor service levels and potentially low payouts because their referral fee solicitor is too cash strapped to act for them in the right way thanks to wasting a huge portion of their budget on paying the fee.

Over the last few days, I was overjoyed to hear that a government bill is in the works to ban referral fees outright – stopping the injustice they can cause and allowing accident victims to no longer become the victims of a profiteering racket that adds absolutely no value to your claim, and has the potential to seriously reduce the quality of the legal services on offer.

However, there appears to be a cultural trend that has crossed over in to the campaign to rid the UK of the referral fee system; centred on whiplash claims.

Yes, whiplash claims can be difficult to prove; however, Mr Straw faces losing a lot of respect for the following quotation from a speech regarding the bill yesterday in the House of Commons:

“Often such claims are for whiplash, which is not so much an injury, more a profitable invention of the human imagination—undiagnosable except by third-rate doctors in the pay of the claims management companies or personal injury lawyers”

This – is what I will professionally term as a “seriously stupid statement”. The above is not true.

Whiplash is a common injury arising out of road accidents. Many people will visit their GP or a local walk in centre soon after their accident because they start to feel the effects of whiplash. There are a group of common symptoms that most people will suffer, which commonly appear hours or even a few days after an accident, and get progressively worse over a period of weeks or months.

The injury itself is caused because the sudden jolt of your head and neck area, caused by the force of the collision, that stretches the muscles beyond their normal range of movement; subsequently damaging them.

It’s not true that it is an “undiagnosable” injury at all – whilst the pain effects are difficult to see, you can feel it if you touch the back and neck of a person suffering from whiplash in many instances. I also know that Mr Straw’s statement is utterly ridiculous because I am currently (still!) suffering from my whiplash injury.

In all honesty, its offensive to hear that a politician – a supposed leading figure of our nation – is suggesting that something he knows absolutely nothing about is a “profitable invention of the human imagination”. I’m still having physio thanks to the area of my back that hasn’t healed. I’m a fairly fit young man who has never had any back problems in my life. Following my incident, it’s been nothing but pain in inconvenience all over my neck, back, and shoulders. I invite him to prod the right hand side of my back and feel how bad it is whilst he watches me wince in pain.

OK – so, unfortunately, there are likely people who may try and “milk” the system – and it is difficult to prove a person’s injury if they make a claim long after they have healed – but that doesn’t mean that whiplash doesn’t exist.

Whiplash is often a played down injury – I’ve heard many average Joe’s whom have never experienced it to believe its not even that bad. Well, if you ever get whiplash, you will certainly disagree with all the prejudice thoughts you have previously had.

Mr Straw – in some ways, I think it might be best for you to end up experiencing some whiplash sometime in your life. If you ever do, I’ll expect nothing less than an apology for making such a ridiculous remark.

So, where do we go from here? How can we rid the UK of wasteful referral fees and stop the potentially “milked” or non-existent whiplash claims without hampering the right for the innocent whiplash suffering victim to get compensation for what is genuinely an absolute pain and inconvenience to live with?

We shall have to see what the government have to say. Banning referral fees is the right move; claiming whiplash doesn’t exist is creating a new definition of stupidity.

Whiplash is not a “profitable invention of the human imagination” and is certainly not “undiagnosable”. My GP and a sports masseuse I have seen in the last few months have both agreed I have whiplash (the masseuse wasn’t even aware of my incident – she worked it out, and worked out where the pain was – and I don’t believe in psychics); they’re not on the payroll of claims companies or lawyers. My physio has also agreed, although the cost of her treatment will be claimed back for as part of my case, so I can’t fit her in to the above category – but that doesn’t mean all medical experts involved in claims are fraudulently lying.

The next stages of this bill will be interesting to see. But, whatever you views on whiplash claims and referral fees, considering that whiplash is not a real injury is absolutely insane…

Source of discussion http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm110913/debtext/110913-0001.htm#11091385000002

This fee is often in the region of £200 to £1,000.  Worst of all, the victims who’s details are getting passed to third parties probably do not want their details being distributed if they knew that they were.  A solicitor will often pay this referral fee because they consider that in the long run they will be able to make money from the claim.  For example, a solicitor may pay £400 for your details – they get you to pursue your claim with them and win it, and they get paid a few thousand pounds by the Defendant’s in respect of their costs.  In other words, they make a tidy profit.

At The Injury Lawyers we have always spoken out about referral fees and have never paid a referral fee to any company.  As such, we welcome this ban on referral fees.  This is because we do not consider that they are a good thing for the client.  For example, if we were to spend £400 on your buying your claim through a referral fee, that is £400 less we now have to spend on progressing your claim as efficiently as possible.

Further, just because you have a potential claim does mean that you necessarily want to pursue it, and we think it is wrong of some other firms to pester potential clients for their custom where they have paid a referral fee.  You have the right to decide whether you want to pursue a claim and should not be harassed into making a claim simply because someone has paid an extortionate amount of money for your details.

At The Injury Lawyers we are proud that all of our clients choose to come to us directly, or have come to us through a recommendation of a friend.  We pride ourselves on the quality of service we offer and we are pleased that people want to instruct us of our own accord.  We have never paid someone for a claim and are glad that this ban on referral fees has come in.

We save the money wasted on referral fees to provide you with a top quality service level. We have spoken with many victims of the referral fee system who are subject to poor service levels as their solicitor cannot afford to do the best by them; nor can they afford to fight tooth and nail for the maximum payout!

Potential under settling due to the referral fee system is a known problem.

If you believe you have a claim for compensation arising out of injuries you have suffered at the hands of a negligent third party, get in touch today and we will be happy to provide you with some free legal advice.

Prior to April 2010 claims for compensation from road accidents could take months or sometimes years.  The Defendant had a period of 21 days to acknowledge your claim and then a further 3 months to investigate it; and that was just to provide an admission or denial of liability. 

Things have changed thankfully.  Now, what is required is for you to submit what is known as a Claims Notification Form or ‘CNF’ through an online portal on the Ministry of Justice website.  Once your lawyers have done this on your behalf the Defendant must acknowledge the CNF within one business day and then they have a further 15 business days in which to admit or deny liability.  This is wholly different from before.  Liability could be admitted for your injuries within 16 days; whereas under the old system, investigations into your accident may not have begun at the same point.  It really is a fast and straightforward process nowadays and an injury lawyer will be more than happy to take you through the process and make sure everything is done correctly.

Where liability is admitted for your accident you will be required to attend a medical appointment so that a legal medical report can be compiled by a medical expert.  At The Injury Lawyers we always arrange this for as close to you as possible and at a time most convenient for yourself.  You are required to attend this appointment because the medical report is the key to valuing your claim.  The medical report will, with your permission, be disclosed to the Defendant and then settlement can be negotiated.  Without a medical report it is likely that your claim will not be settled or under-settled.  There is nothing to worry about either, but should you have any questions, your lawyers will be on hand to tell you what is likely to happen.

If you are thinking of making a claim for injuries arising out of a road accident it really should not take that long, and it is not the hassle it once was.  When deciding on who to instruct, have in mind that you do not want to be charged any fees for their work, and it may be a good idea to see if they can offer you some free medical treatment as well as this will speed up your recovery.

Get in touch with The Injury Lawyers today for a free no obligations chat.

This move is welcomed by us at The Injury Lawyers. We have always criticised these payments in the past because they are, in our opinion, bad for the client and the personal injury profession.

Referral fees are paid by some firms of solicitors, mainly to claims management companies and insurance firms, but it can be to anyone who passes on details of an injured person, such as a garage or even the police. Many insurance firms, large and small, have passed on the details of their policyholders after they have contacted them to report an accident that was not their fault. In return for these details, many personal injury solicitors pay a referral fee to the insurance company.

Solicitors who ‘buy’ claims in this way pay for the referral fee out of their own costs that they are awarded if they make a successful claim. These fees are often hundreds of pounds. It is NOT true that solicitors are able to claim back the cost of these referral fees from the other side if they win.  Under no win,no fee agreements, solicitors get paid only if they win a case. They will claim their costs from the losing party, usually an insurance company, based on the amount of time that they have had to spend in dealing with the case.

Firms of solicitors that ‘buy’ claims for referral fees must pay the fee out of the money that they are paid for dealing with the claim. This means that those solicitors that do pay referral fees will likely have less money to spend on dealing with their client’s claim. It is inevitable that this will result in a lower quality of service for their clients if this happens, in comparison to a firm that will not use any of their budget in paying a referral fee.

We believe that the payment of referral fees is wrong, and that it results in a poorer service because of unnecessary payments to middlemen who add absolutely no value to the claims process.

We also think that you should choose your own personal injury solicitor based on the quality of the service they can provide and not just to the highest bidder who is prepared to pay the most for your details.

For these reasons The Injury Lawyers have never paid referral fees and never will. Unlike many solicitors, we welcome the ban on referral fees.

Just in the last few months we were ecstatic to hear that our former Justice Secretary Mr Jack Straw had exposed what has been called the insurance industries “dirty little secret” when he investigated how the details of one of his constituents was passed around for profit following a road accident. We were overjoyed to hear the investigations concluded that the real reason for insurance premiums being driven up was a symptom of the referral fees rackets.

Now, it appears we are finally making some headway in ridding the country of the referral fee disease.

What is a Referral Fee?

A referral fee is a sum of money paid by a personal injury lawyer to a company for the details of an accident victim whom, in the majority of cases, has a very straightforward case with high prospects of winning. The biggest culprits are, unbelievably, your own insurance company.

It’s often called “Legal Expenses Insurance” or “Motor Legal protection” and your insurers will tell you that, should you have an accident in which you are not to blame, the insurance will be used for the purposes of making a claim with a solicitor.

Now, don’t get me wrong, the insurance is a form of insurance; but what happens is your insurers will hand your details over to one of their panel of lawyers for a fee of anywhere up to £1,000. That’s £1,000 your insurers are profiting for absolutely no work whatsoever, other than (I imagine) a telephone call to the solicitor to pass the information over, and banking their cheque.

Normally, an insurance company can have a panel of, say, 10 different solicitors who will all want the claim. Of course, only one of them can have it; so, how is this process decided? I imagine it’s decided by whoever has the most money to pay the insurance company.

Claims / Accident Management Companies and Other Referrals

It isn’t just the insurers guilty of making a quick tidy profit from accident victims claims; there are hundreds – if not, thousands – of claims companies out there, many of which you have probably seen on the TV and not even known they were a claims company, and many where you will have visited their website. They are not lawyers – just middlemen who will pass your details over to a law firm for a fee.

Garages, hire car companies, and even the police have been implicated in these sorts of activities.

Why is it a Problem?

So – why are referral fees a problem? Well, for the insurance side of things, the fact that accident victims details are being sold to scrupulous solicitors for a fee is being blamed for the increase in insurance premiums, which have risen by around 30% over the last few months.

The concept that insurance companies are blaming compensation claims for driving up premiums when you learn that it’s the insurance companies themselves who are selling the details of accident victims to solicitor is rather sickening! When it comes to rising premiums, they are making the bed, but we are the ones having to lie in it when we pay our premiums!

The other problem is the potential impact on the accident victim. When their details are passed around for money, who knows which companies have your personal information? Although that point is nowhere near as concerning as the real problem – you don’t get a choice as to who represents you for your claim, AND your access to quality legal services is seriously hampered.

But why?

Well, if your details are passed to Law Firm X, how do you know they are any good? You know nothing about their service agreements, financial arrangements with you or your insurers, and you know nothing about the people that will be handling your claim. Worse still, because they have paid out a huge referral fee of up to £1,000 for your claim, how on earth can they fund your case as well as an independent firm who hasn’t paid a referral fee?

And how will they try and recoup the money they waste on a referral fee? One of two ways – a deduction from your payout, or a seriously reduced level of service.

Think of it in a logical way – the referral fees they pay out are not recoverable from the other side. It’s a cost they must incur themselves. It can seriously reduce the budget they have to spend on your claim.

Think of it this way:

1. A referral fee lawyer has £1,000 LESS to spend on you and your case
2. An independent injury lawyer like us has £1,000 MORE to spend on you and your claim.

It means we can afford to provide you with fantastic service levels, such as contact at least every 14 days, private medical care at no cost to you, and a friendly and efficient service with office open from 9:00am – 10:00pm on all weekdays, as well as being open from 9:00am – 5:00pm on weekends; and you will have an actual qualified personal injury lawyer with conduct of your case.

Now, you ask the majority of people who have fallen in to the referral fees trap, and ask them how often they were contacted, or who was really handling their claim.

The worst part is that, with a cash strapped solicitor with less money to spend on your claim because they have wasted a huge proportion of their budget on buying your details, how can you really trust them to fight tooth and nail for the maximum payout? Or will they even be able to afford to fight for the highest payout possible?

What’s the News on the Ban?

If you read any of our several articles on the subject, you will have seen the many quotations from other bodies and organisations speaking out against referral fees. Both the Law Society and the Bar Council have recommended in the past that referral fees be stopped on the grounds that they have the potential to limit access to justice and reduce the quality of legal services on offer.

Following news of the pending ban, Justice Minister Jonathan Djanogly has, according to sources from the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14846666), said “It’s certainly a racket. It’s a sick culture that we have to turn round.”

Interestingly, the source also confirms that the Association of British Insurers has welcomed the announcement; although I imagine the hundreds of insurance companies that have been profiting from referral fees will certainly not be welcoming the decision!

Chairman of the Bar, Peter Lodder QC, has also spoken out, saying that referral fees have “no place in a fair and open justice system… They are bribes and add an unnecessary cost to litigation.”

What Happens Now?

According to the reports, there is no timescale in place for the ban. The ban itself is certainly a welcome change, and will hopefully prevent any more accident victims falling prey to the referral fee system. I kid you not when I say that we receive calls day in and day out from victims of their own insurers referring them to a lawyer, and they always have the same complaints and issues: their solicitor never gets in touch with them, never calls them back, wants to settle for a low amount, and they never have a clue what’s going on.  This is all because their solicitor just doesn’t have the funds to provide them with the good service that they deserve.

Who knows how many people have under settled their claims through the hands of the referral fee system?

Annoyingly, we have been in contact with many accident victims whose insurance company then allocate them a lawyer, and advise them that’s the way to do it. We give them the advice against this option, and many will understand it and instruct our independent, no cost, and quality service.

However, there are those that have chosen to implicitly trust their insurers; probably because they tell them things such as “you have to claim with our solicitor” or that “a no win, no fee lawyer will find a way of charging you.” Basically, they lie; and this is coming from firsthand experience, and conversations with real clients.

So the message here is – for those of you considering going down the referral fee route, or for those of you that have, heed these warnings; because you don’t just have to take our word for it anymore!

Most accidents, except for minor road traffic accidents, will be dealt with under the Pre-Action Protocol for Personal Injury Claims.  This Protocol has been designed to achieve a speedy end to your compensation claim. 

The first stage is to produce a letter of claim which outlines your accident precisely, details your injuries, and confirms why we believe the other side were negligent.  Your expert injury lawyers will produce this for you and this letter should not take long at all.  Once it is ready your lawyers will send it to the Defendant who then have a period of 21 days to acknowledge the letter of claim.  In the most part, Defendant’s acknowledge this letter well within those 21 days and then either pass it ot their insurers or solicitors to deal with.

Once the Defendant has acknowledged the Letter of Cliam they are then allowed a period of three months to investigate your claim.  In other words, to make sure that your accident happened and to establish whether they consider that they are at fault and should pay you compensation.  The important thing to note is that, although they have this three month investigatory period, this in no way means that the investigations will definitely take three months – they could be over a done within in a week or a month, it really depends on the Defendant.  At The Injury Lawyers, to make sure you have piece of mind, we will regularly chase the other side for their position on liability, to make sure we get their response as soon as possible.

At The Injury Lawyers we will only take on your personal injury claim if we genuinely believe that it will be successful.  As such we fully expect the Defendant’s admission of liability within the three month investigatory period.  Once we receive this we will refer you to a medical expert who will compile a legal medical report for you.  This will be done at a time and place convenient to you and as soon as possible.  Your lawyers will then await the medical report back from the expert, have a look through it and provide you with a copy to make sure you are happy with it.  If you are, your lawyers will then disclose the medical report to the Defendant and invite offers to settle within 21 days.

All in all, your claim for compensation could be over in just a few months, but we generally say that a period of six to nine months is typical.  What we can say for certain is that at The Injury Lawyers we will do everything we can to make sure you ge the compensation you deserve as quickly as possible.

We are open between the hours of 9am and 10pm on weekdays and 9am and 5pm on the weekend should you wish to discuss any potential claim you may have with us or should you wish to gain an update on the progress of your case.

If the defendant refuses to give insurance details then this should be reported to the police immediately, as it is a criminal offence to withhold insurance details under the Road traffic Act. This is one of the key criteria you can proceed with in order to claim through the MIB. If you think you can claim through the MIB, ensure you follow the steps on the following link.

http://www.mib.org.uk/Customer+Services/en/Accidents+in+the+UK/Uninsured+Drivers+Agreement/Uninsured+Drivers.htm

This may help ease your anxiety after an accident, and so it should. The MIB can delegate its powers to a member insurance company in order to investigate the claim on its behalf. This allows your case to be treated just like any other claim. Current European legislation alongside the MIB is aiming to provide victims of accidents with uninsured drivers the same compensation as those against insured drivers. These new measures are helping victims of Road Traffic Accidents to ease the stress of dealing with their accident and allowing them to obtain the compensation that they deserve.

Now, the MIB issues the same procedures for untraceable drivers. Firstly attempting to trace the driver involved in the accident, and if this is not possible, they represent the defendant in the case. So, following similar procedures to the uninsured drivers above, you are able to claim against an untraceable driver, easing your worry’s and giving you the financial security you need.