OK, so you\u2019ve had a car accident \u2013 in most cases, you won\u2019t even have entered your information on any websites before you will be inundated with call after call from solicitors and claims companies wanting you to make your claim with them. If you do enter your details on to a website, be prepared for a barrage of calls!<\/p>\n
But how do you find a good personal injury lawyer for your car crash? What is a good lawyer and how can you tell the people you are speaking to are good lawyers?<\/p>\n
Follow this simple set of rules and you should be able to find the answers you need!<\/p>\n
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Avoid Claims Companies<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Only make enquiries with real law firms. In all fairness it can be hard to tell who is a real lawyer based on the face of their website, as a lot of claims companies have the word \u201clawyer\u201d in their name. Just to put your mind at ease, we are an actual law firm ourselves and we\u2019re fully regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.<\/p>\n Claims companies will pass you round to other lawyers and it will commonly either end up in a fee or an extra percentage you lose from your payout, or a backhand referral fee from the solicitor to the claims agent. Referral fees are now actually illegal by the way, so keep that in mind.<\/p>\n Simply stamp out the middlemen and approach a law firm directly. Ask them right form the start if they are a real law firm. You don\u2019t need to speak to an actual solicitor, but as long as it\u2019s an actual law firm you are speaking to, the advice should hopefully be right.<\/p>\n Most claims companies have to put that they are regulated in respect of claims management activities on their website and will have a number that starts with \u201cCMC…\u201d – so look out for that as well.<\/p>\n Avoid the Cold Callers<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n As I said earlier, you put your details in to one website and you can expect a flood of calls from all sorts of companies, and some of these may be solicitors firms themselves. It isn\u2019t above board to cold call, but information is easily passed around. When making enquiries, keep a specific note of the name of any firms you have enquired with and make sure you ask a caller who they are and how they got your details before speaking to them. Some will try and fob you off by saying you have spoken to them or you have been referred by someone you have enquired with, but if you only make enquiries with real law firms, that shouldn\u2019t be the case.<\/p>\n Put it this way \u2013 why would a real law firm who can actually represent you for your claim pass your information to someone else who will end up dealing with the case? That would be like Asda telling you to shop at Tesco \u2013 nuts!<\/p>\n Avoid the Standard 25% – and Pay Nothing Upfront!<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Due to government legal fee reforms, lawyers now take a percentage from your claim as we cannot recover all of our legal fees from the other side, and the level of fees is set very low. It\u2019s all a part of the government trying to cut out the \u201ccompensation culture\u201d although that is a myth in itself, and you shouldn\u2019t take media fuelled rubbish like that to heart when making a claim. But ultimately keep in mind that most will take 25% (the maximum a law firm can take for a Success Fee which can\u2019t be recovered) and ask for payments upfront as well.<\/p>\n We have a far more competitive offer and there are certainly no upfront fees to pay for. The level of compensation you can get has been increased by 10% to offset people now being charged but 25% would still be an approximate real loss of around 15%!<\/p>\n