If you are ever unfortunate enough to suffer an injury which you believe is a direct result of someone else’s negligence, you have every chance of claiming compensation by making a personal injury claim; and we at The Injury Lawyers can assist you in this to ensure that the process is as hassle free and straightforward as possible, allowing you the time and opportunity to focus your attentions on the most important priority – your recovery.
The protocol surrounding most personal injury claims is as follows –
Upon receiving details of your claim, we will send a letter of claim to the defendants which outlines the details of your accident and injuries, and how we believe them to be liable. From here we give them a period of 21 days to respond to our letter, informing us that they have acknowledged our claim and have forwarded the details over to their representing insurers.
As soon as we receive confirmation that the defendant’s insurers have acknowledged our claim, investigations should have begun. From here we send the insurers a letter highlighting the information surrounding the case and advise that they have 3 months to investigate the claim thoroughly and confirm whether they will pay out or not. It is important to understand however that as a company policy we do not like to leave our clients in the dark whilst this investigative period of 3 months is ongoing. We pride ourselves on our policy which ensures we update our client on the progression of their case every 2 weeks, letting them know exactly what stage we are in the case and what the next course of actions are likely to be.
If at the end of the 3 month investigative period liability is admitted, the next course of action is to arrange for medical evidence to be obtained, and your compensation to be negotiated with the other side. Having said this, if after the 3 months we find out that they are denying responsibility for your case, we will have to fight your corner for the case.
When we receive a denial of liability, our next course of action is to forward all the information surrounding the case to one of our expert barristers for review and advice. If on analysis from the barrister it is confirmed that the prospects for success are unfavourable i.e. less than 51%, we will get a second barristers opinion to see if the outcome is of a similar nature. If so, we may be unable to continue with the case.
It is important to understand however that should this happen, our fantastic company policy prevents us from charging any fees whatsoever to our client, as we believe the unfortunate conclusion of enquiries is disappointing enough without having to worry about the burden of having to pay back expensive legal costs as well.
On the other hand however, if the barrister confirms a good chance of success i.e. more than 51%, our next priority is solely to focus on gathering whatever information possible to strengthen our case against the other side. Such information can come from a variety of sources – for example persuasive medical evidence or witness statements confirming the accident details. It is absolutely critical at this point to build an excellent armoury to fight your case all the way to court if necessary.
As a final note, one of the most frequently asked questions I get asked by clients during the investigative period is, ‘’. When a situation such as this occurs, the next course of action is to issue a Pre- action Disclosure Application to court, which is a request forcing the Defendants representatives to disclose all the information required to complete the investigation and confirm a position of liability.
Once again, this action is of no inconvenience to you as you are not required to attend court and it will cost you nothing – if our Pre Action Disclosure Application is successful, we will recover all the necessary costs from the Defendants insurers, ensuring that you never miss out on a penny– Pretty good eh!
