Personal Injury Claims
OUR SOLICITORS and YOUR MEMBERS
We insist that our solicitors make decisions on personal injury claims. They have to decide whether they believe your member and the accident circumstances.
The have got to decide whether or not the Claimant is likely to succeed or not and the chances of success.
It is crucial that our solicitors communicate their decisions and their view of the claim to the member at the earliest opportunity in clear English and continue to keep the member updated throughout.
All of our solicitors have direct dial phone numbers and direct e-mail and they are instructed that they should either take the call as it is made or if they are unavailable for any reason they will return the call within 24 hours.
We have found that e-mails are particularly useful.
These days more and more
members, especially younger members, do have access to a computer and it is a good way for us to keep in touch with members.
If the member has an accident and he has been persuaded that he should go through the union scheme then he would probably contact you or the Regional Office.
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We then receive an e-mail from the regional office providing the members contact details and a description of the injury sustained.
We open a file and immediately the member will be sent a letter explaining about us, the services they should expect from our firm and how the union will fund the claim. We also send them a questionnaire to complete. We also give all members another copy of the plastic card I have previously mentioned so they know how to contact us.
INITIAL MEETING
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As quickly as we can we will arrange a visit to a local union office where we will see the member along with other members who have suffered accidents in the same area.
The interviews usually take about an hour, where we will talk about the accident circumstances, the injuries and obtain evidence about witnesses.
At the end of the interview the member will be given an idea of how the claim is valued and more importantly he will be told our views concerning the likely success of the claim.
As a firm, we run all of our claims under the basis of categorising them as either “1” “2” or “3”.
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Those marked as a “1” are claims where there is more than a 50% chance of succeeding at court, where we will obtain compensation for the member and if the insurers do not put forward a reasonable offer we will start a court case. In those cases our aim is to start a court case at the earliest opportunity and we will spend money obtaining medical evidence and other expert evidence as necessary.
Those marked as a “2” are claims where there is an argument to put to the insurers but in our view it would not be an argument that would succeed in
Freephone 0800 526 328 www.ohparsons.co.uk
court. Those claims are claims where unless we could persuade the insurers to admit responsibility we will not start a court case and we will not spend any money. Rather we will simply try and persuade the insurers to negotiate
settlement of the claim.
Those marked as a “3” are claims where there are no prospects of success and we advise the member of that and close the file.
Generally about 50% to 60% of members we meet have cases that we categorise as a “1” – perhaps 10% or less are a “3” and the remaining claims are a “2”. Of the remaining claims that are “2” we recover compensation in
about a third to 40% of those by persuading the insurers to put forward an offer of settlement.
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It is important that members understand the way we categorise these cases because if a claim is a “2” it may take longer. Although we can threaten starting a court case we cannot actually do it and therefore we are left having to negotiate the claim.
LETTER OF CLAIM
The law requires us to send a detailed letter of claim to anybody that we are pursuing. We must then wait three months and three weeks for the insurers to come back with their decision on the claim.
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MEDICAL EVIDENCE
During that time if the claim is a “1” we will obtain medical evidence from a consultant which we will arrange – this will be a senior consultant in the area specialising in the type of injury that has occurred. In order to get medical evidence we need to obtain medical records that unfortunately can cause a delay. Hospitals usually take at least two to three months to send records and most doctors we use will have a waiting list of at least 4 to 6 weeks, if not longer, even though we are paying for them privately.
Realistically it is unusual to get medical evidence within four to six months of when we first meet a member.
In a case we have a marked as a “1” – once we obtain the medical evidence we will send it to the other side once the member has approved it. If they
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have admitted responsibility we will see if we can negotiate an offer, if not we will start a court case.
If the case is a “2” we will obtain medical evidence if and when the insurers admit responsibility. Again we will send the medical evidence to the insurers once the member has approved it to see whether or not the insurers are prepared to put forward an offer of settlement.
FINANCIAL LOSSES
As well as compensation for the injury the members obviously can have
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compensation to cover their financial losses and we would obtain wage information and other receipts and expenses and try and calculate a full list of out of pocket expenses.
COURT CASES
We are keen to start court cases if it is in any way necessary because we believe that in court litigation members receive maximum compensation.
Once a court case starts a court timetable is provided – generally there is a delay of up to 40 weeks from starting the court case to the date you get before a judge. This is less to do with the work that we have to do and more because a judge’s waiting list is rather like a hospital waiting list.
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As an example, in Carlisle County Court or Newcastle upon Tyne County Court there will be literally thousands of people suing each other and only a handful of judges to hear their cases.
Freephone 0800 526 328 www.ohparsons.co.uk
Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in these pages; they are regularly reviewed and updated. The material is intended to be for information purposes only and does not constitute legal or professional advice and must not be relied upon as such.
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