Archives
Your Medical Report for a Claim
If you are reading this blog then you may have had liability admitted on your claim and you are wondering where you will be going from here. Well, firstly, having liability admitted is the first successful step towards getting your settlement as the other side have admitted fault for your accident – so you should be pleased.
From liability being admitted, your solicitor will arrange for you to be medically examined by a suitable expert medical consultant. This medical examination should be arranged at a time and place convenient for yourself – at The Injury Lawyers we ask for the examination to be arranged with the closest consultant to you with the shortest waiting list.
Before attending your medical appointment we advise our clients to ensure they inform the medic as fully and as accurately as possible – including the full accident circumstances and the various effects the accident and injuries have had on their life. We advise this as the medical report goes into detail about these various effects and so forms the basis from which your claim can be valued.
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You may think that you know what no win no fee means – i.e. it does what it says on the tin – you lose your claim and you do not have to pay a penny. But, what happens if you win your claim? Furthermore, how does it actually work?
Well I hope to shed some light on the above in this following blog:
If you lose your claim…
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Your compensation claim explained
Quite a lot of people are aware that where they have been injured through no fault of their own they could be entitled to compensation. As such, they seek to instruct a lawyer to act on their behalf. What most people are not sure about is how claiming for compensation works. Here is a quick guide to the claiming process for most general accidents, such as accidents at work or accidents in the street.
The very first step is getting in touch with your injury lawyer and providing them with as much detail as possible about your accident. So, if you tripped over a piece of defective paving whilst you were out shopping, your injury lawyer will need to know the precise location of the defect. For example, it could be outside the entrance of a shop, or if it was outside a house, the number of the house and name of the road would be useful. Of course, taking pictures of the defect and the accident location is also particularly helpful.
Once we have all your details, the details of the accident, and we know who we are to pursue your claim against, we then compile what is called the Letter of Claim. This gets sent to the negligent third party and outlines what has happened and why we believe they should compensate you for your injuries. By law they are entitled to a period of 21 days in which to respond to this letter and acknowledge receipt.
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What is a referral fee?
This is a sum of money that a lawyer may pay an insurer in order to obtain the details of a person who has been involved in an accident, and could likely make a claim for compensation. Once they have the victims’ details they may cold call them or bombard them with intrusive text messages informing them that they could make a claim for compensation and that this lawyer could represent them. By paying the referral fee the lawyer has the first chance to convince the victim to instruct them to deal with their claim. Paying a referral fee is therefore a way of obtaining business.
Have referral fees always been around and how much are they?
It is estimated that referral fees have been around for approximately 20 years. Typically a referral fee will be in the region of £200 to £1,000 and the value ultimately turns on how much the claim is likely to be worth. For example, if the injured party’s injuries are particularly severe and long lasting, their claim will be worth a lot more than someone who has suffered a 2 month minor whiplash claim. As such, the referral fee for the more severe injury may be greater than the whiplash injury because it will ultimately net a lawyer more money in the long run through carrying out more work.
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Personal Injury? Who Are You Going to Call?
OK – so you have had an accident through no fault of your own, and you believe you may be entitled to compensation for your injuries and any suffering you have had to endure. Who do you speak to for advice, and who do you instruct for your claim?
In all honesty, it’s entirely up to you! I of course will suggest that you speak to us as we are a firm of specialist personal injury lawyers. We are an actual law firm, so we do not pass details over to anyone else to have your claim – it’s us that advise you, and it’s us that represent you.
But aside from my attempts to sway you over to our service, here is a quick guide as to what you should look out for when it comes to getting the right advice and getting the right lawyer for your claim:
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What is Personal Protective Equipment?
Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE as it is more informally known, is equipment which can be used or worn to protect you from risks to your health and safety. There is a wide range of PPE which is available depending on the job that you do, and the risks that are involved. PPE can range from safety boots, to safety goggles, to respirators. PPE can be so important, as it does not just protect from those one-off accidents, but also those medical conditions which form over a period of time – known as industrial diseases. An example of an industrial disease is Vibration White Finger – the risk of getting this condition can be reduced through the use of PPE, such as anti-vibration gloves. In severe cases of Vibration White Finger, a sufferer can lose all feeling in their fingers and through to their hands.
What are your employer’s duties?
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Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS), or Vibration White Finger as it can also be known, is a condition which affects many peoples’ lives. The Health and Safety Executive report that the number of new cases of Vibration White Finger (VWF) assessed for Industrial Injuries Disability Benefit was 850 in 2008/09 alone.
HAVS affects those people whose work exposes them to vibrations on a prolonged basis. To give an idea of those sectors of industry which are hit worst by this condition, the HSE have undertaken a survey. In this survey they found that between 2007 and 2009 it was in industry involving extraction for energy and water supply that assessments for HAVS was by far the highest, with the construction industry coming in second, and the manufacturing industry in third.
It can be seen from this that it is mainly manual workers that are more likely to suffer from the condition. This is because it is the use of vibrating machinery such as chain saws or pneumatic drills which can cause the problem. The prolonged period of vibrations to the hands causes damage to blood vessels, nerves and joints which can cause the following symptoms:
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Do I Have a Claim for Compensation?
Well – me personally, I do. But what I’m talking about here is the common question accident victims ask me when they are looking for advice as to whether they are entitled to make a claim for compensation.
The best way to find out if you have a potentially winning claim is to speak with an expert at a specialist personal injury law firm. The guide below will hopefully help you out on your quest to find out if you are entitled to receive what could be thousands of pounds in compensation for any injuries you have sustained in an accident.
Who’s at Fault?
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It was interesting to read in the Telegraph this week that Axa Insurance has taken the commendable stance of now refusing to accept referral fees for personal injury claims. This announcement came shortly after Jack Straw exposed what he considers the insurance industry’s ‘dirty little secret’ of referral fees.
A referral fee is a fee paid by a solicitor to an insurance company who will in return provide the details of their policy holder to the solicitor so that they can hopefully deal with their claim for compensation. As a spokesman for the Admiral Group explains: ‘When one of our customers calls us for help with a claim that was not their fault, we refer them on to a retained accident management company who help sort out their claim…If the claim needs to be referred to a lawyer then the accident management company will pay us a referral fee.’ A referral fee will typically be in the region of £200 and £1,000 depending on the potential value of the claim. The Telegraph has suggested that in 2010 Admiral Group received over £100m in referral fees!!!
Interestingly, Axa have stated that the reason behind their new refusal to accept referral fees was in order to combat a growing ‘compensation culture’. I say interesting because to me it would seem that it was companies like Axa who were actually fuelling this so-called ‘compensation culture’. By bombarding people with text messages advising them of their potential to make a claim for compensation, and by accepting extortionate fees from some personal injury solicitors for details of people with potential injury claims, for example, is to serve to fuel this supposed ‘compensation culture’. Then to say that insurance premiums are going up because people are making more and more claims for compensation seems a bit cheeky when actually by accepting referral fees is to encourage claims for compensation in the first place.
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How Much Does it Cost to Claim for Compensation?
This is a common question I am asked when I am advising accident victims about their potential claim for compensation. How much does it costs to have a lawyer? Will anything be taken away from the compensation?
Well, I have some fantastic news for you – so read on!
The No Win No Fee is rather self explanatory when it comes to what happens if your claim loses. With most reputable firms, it does exactly what it says on the tin. Your lawyer will only accept your case on a No Win No Fee basis if they believe they have a good chance of winning it. We don’t take on claims that we feel we cannot win. So, we guarantee that, if it loses, we do not charge you.
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