It’s October! And what can be scarier than the month of Halloween? How about being injured in an accident that wasn’t your fault! So how can we make you feel better… ?
The world of personal injury is a complex and a competitive industry, and there are loads of lawyers to choose from; each of them claiming to be specialists solicitors! So if you have had an accident that wasn’t your fault, why should you claim for compensation and who should you seek advice from?
“Is it right to claim? I’m not sure I’m comfortable with the idea!”
“Who should I instruct to act on my behalf?”
“Where will the money come from for my compensation?”
“I don’t understand anything to do with law, how do I know what I’m signing up to?”
These are just a few of the questions people ask us. With Halloween approaching (yes we know a tenuous link) and the thousands of companies promising to get you the compensation you deserve, it’s easy to see why so many people are scared at the thought of claiming for compensation!
I thought it was about time someone just made things clear and simple; and that’s what we do!
Why should you claim?
Well, it’s not nice to be injured as a result of another person or companies negligence. You are entitled to compensation under the law of tort (negligence); companies, employers and drivers alike have a responsibility to ensure they do not negligently harm others. If they do, they have breached their duty of care over you and are responsible for their negligence.
And it’s not just the money that is the benefit of making a claim. As let’s face it; Insurance companies don’t want to have to pay out money to you. If for example your employer is found to have breached their duty of care over you, then it’s likely (we hope) that they will change their procedures to ensure it doesn’t happen again: leading to a safer work environment and preventing anybody else from having to suffer the same accident.
Who should you instruct to help you with your claim for compensation?
There are a lot of different companies that may be interested in assisting you with your claim for compensation; but don’t be fooled by all of their promises! Your decision for who you would like to assist you with your claim is yours, and no one can take that away from you! So look around and see who can offer the best advice!
But we would like to take this opportunity to make you aware of some of the types of companies out there:
Your Insurers – Legal Expense Insurance: You may have noticed that your insurance policy for your motor vehicle or home provides you with legal expense insurance. But did you know rather than actually paying your legal fees they actually sell your claim to a Law Firm that buys the case for a small fortune; more often than not they will sell your claim on to the highest bidding company – you don’t even get the choice of who is instructed. The choice is yours to make, not somebody else’s to profit from!
If your claim is sold on to the highest bidding company, then your legal expense insurance providers are profiting from your claim by not only charging you for a service they will not even provide, but by selling your claim on to somebody else – worse still the instructed Law Firm has paid sooo much for your claim that they have less money in the pumpkin pot to spend on your claim!
Claims Management Companies: These are generally call centre type companies that are just slick on the marketing side of things. There are large and small Claims Companies but none offer any real assistance on your claim; they can’t run your injury claim as only Solicitors like us can but they simply exist to sell on your contact details to a Law Firm for a profit. It never ceases to surprise me that there are other Law Firms out there are prepared to buy injury client’s from claims companies. That is scary!
Expert Solicitors: Solicitors are best placed to deal with your claim, but who should you choose? Well that’s completely up to you! However we recommend an independent expert; a firm such as ourselves (here comes the plug!) – we deal with personal injury claims and nothing else! It’s all we do! We really are experts in the field.
Where will the money come from for my compensation?
Insurance! It’s what it’s there for. In the majority of cases, your compensation will come from the insurance company indemnifying (paying for ) the defendant.
I don’t understand anything to do with law, how do I know what I’m signing up for?
It’s the big question! Legal documents, authority forms, and so much paperwork to go through – it’s a scary thought. That’s exactly why we make the process as easy as possible. The terms of our contract spell it out in black and white – if we take on your case and lose, you pay nothing! If we take on your case and win, you pay nothing! You should compare our paperwork to that of other Law Firms.
It’s called “no win no fee”, and you may be aware of it. It works because we only take on a case if we believe it has genuine prospects of success. And to ensure you don’t end up paying us, we wave the fees of our instruction should the case be unfortunate not to succeed.
Who pays us if we win? – The defendant’s, it’s as simple as that. If you were to be awarded compensation only to have to have some of it taken away to pay for solicitors fees, you wouldn’t be fully compensated. We want you to be fully compensated for your injuries; therefore we recover our fees from the third party insurers and we limit our fees to what we recover from them. Ensuring you pay nothing!
And ensuring you pay nothing is exactly what we want, and that’s what we do: we want you to receive 100% of the compensation you deserve, and we want to fight hard to get it for you! We FIGHT very hard!
We are an independent firm of expert personal injury solicitors – it’s all we do! We deal with all types of personal injury claims and with our expertise, we promise to fight hard for the compensation you deserve!
So don’t be too scared about making your decision, just make sure you think of the above before choosing the best personal injury solicitor for you (I hope it’s us but the CHOICE is YOURS!)… and please don’t have nightmares….
Halloween may offer a few tricks but we promise only treats!
