Should you take a claim settlement or have treatment? The big question!<\/i><\/p>\n
With many injuries, treatment like physiotherapy is often key to help you recover from any ongoing symptoms at a much faster rate. You have a duty in law to \u2018mitigate your loss\u2019 which means you must take all reasonable steps to help yourself recover as quickly as possible and keep your losses to a minimum.<\/p>\n
But when faced with the decision to accept an offer from the other side or have physio, what\u2019s the best option?<\/p>\n
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Dealing Direct – Warning<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Firstly, if you are dealing directly with the other side, no one is there to advise you about what you should do which may well be how you have come to be asking this question! Ultimately it\u2019s not a smart move dealing direct as research has shown people with solicitors can get four times more than those settling direct.<\/p>\n The insurers aren\u2019t solicitors so they are not really qualified to advise you. \u00a0Dealing direct means you likely don\u2019t have a medico-legal report so no one can value the claim properly anyway.<\/p>\n It\u2019s your decision, but here\u2019s the advice<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n The role of your lawyer is to correctly advise you as to what we think is the best course of action. Ultimately, the claim is your claim and any offers to settle a case are yours to either accept or reject – it\u2019s totally your decision. But we can tell you whether we think it\u2019s wise to accept it or go for a higher offer, or whether we need more evidence to better value your claim.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t have any finalised medical evidence from a medico-legal expert, or none at all, we can\u2019t really advise you. But if you do have medical evidence and you have been recommended treatment, it is normally wise to have the treatment before settling the claim. But as I say, it\u2019s your claim, so you can choose to ignore our advice and accept any offers that are made to you, which the other side can make at anytime.<\/p>\n Sometimes it\u2019s a good way of trying to save themselves money by settling as early as possible, and perhaps for less than the claim is worth…<\/p>\n Why can treatment be important?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n If you don\u2019t have it and you settle the claim, that\u2019s the claim over and done with. If you find that your injuries end up being worse and more complex because you didn\u2019t have treatment or because you settled too early, you can\u2019t normally go back for more money. As such, you may have just under settled your claim and closed the gate for anymore privately funded treatment from the other side, leaving you on lengthy NHS waiting lists, or being refused treatment on the NHS.<\/p>\n If you have treatment, you may find you are still suffering and more medical evidence may be needed to support that your claim is in fact worth more than what it is based on the current medical evidence. So to protect your position, it\u2019s better to have treatment to make sure you settle for the highest amount possible.<\/p>\n If I\u2019m dealing direct can I now get a solicitor?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n If you haven\u2019t settled the claim, you should still be able to get a solicitor and do things the proper way and protect your position to make sure you settle for the highest amount; guaranteed. Just call us and we will see if we can help.<\/p>\n It could get you thousands of pounds more by coming to a solicitor. As I said, you could get up to four times more according to statistics; if you\u2019ve been offered the \u2018standard grand\u2019- \u00a31,000.00 then you could in theory be able to claim for up to \u00a34,000.00. You never know!<\/p>\n I settled my whiplash claim for \u00a36,500.00 and I very much doubt that I would have got that by going direct. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019ve had a bad case of it and still get problems now, so I\u2019m not saying you can get as much as me; but you should be able to guarantee the max payout by getting a solicitor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"