“New World Order” in Claiming for Personal Injury

Claiming for personal injury can be quite a daunting experience for many people, especially if they are suffering from a serious injury that has now changed their lives for the foreseeable future. However, it really isn’t as scary as people may think. I won’t say that it is a simple thing to do as at the end of the day pursuing for compensation is commencing legal proceedings and consequently you do have to keep this in mind. Furthermore, a claim cannot be successful without the Client;s co-operation and therefore although we will do the majority of the work for you, sometimes you will be required to gather evidence, attend appointments and simply help out.

As of July 2013 there are 2 main protocols in place for personal injury claims depending on the type of accident that you have been involved in and the value of that claim. The first is if you have been involved in a road traffic accident, and in this instance your claim will likely proceed through the road traffic accident protocol that was brought in back in 2010. This protocol was put in place to speed up the process of claiming for a road collision. The stages in this protocol are as follows:

• A claim notification form is completed and submitted electronically to the other side’s insurers.
• They have 15 working days to confirm whether they accept or deny liability.
• If they accept liability, a medical appointment is arranged and a report compiled.
• We then put forward a settlement offer to the defendants and they respond and so on and so forth until a figure is agreed (with your assistance throughout this stage)
• Please note that if the other side do not respond within 15 working days the claim will fall from the portal and enter into the personal injury protocol where they will have 21 days and 3 months to respond. This is usually the case when the other side have failed to commence their investigations or cannot get in contact with their insured.

Under this protocol, Solicitors can only recover fixed fees at each stage; so regardless of the amount of work that has been done on the file a solicitor only gets a fixed amount. Please note that this amount was dramatically cut at the end of April 2013 and therefore the way in which RTA claims are pursued has changed a lot.

ALWAYS speak with a personal injury specialist!

Turning to the other protocol, on the 31^st July a new protocol was brought in for employer’s liability and public liability claims. These include accidents at work and highway claims. This has shaken up the personal injury sector as solicitors are now only able to recover fixed fees, as per the road accident protocol, and therefore many solicitors will now be looking to deduct a percentage of the compensation. We however in certain cases can look to offer 100% and therefore we are incredibly competitive when compared to most other law firms. Please note also that this protocol normally only applies to accidents that occurred after the 31^st July- it goes on the accident date and not the date that you make a claim. The main changes with the new protocol are as follows:

• A claim notification form is completed and submitted electronically to the other side’s insurers (for accidents prior to 31^st July a letter of claim is compiled and sent to the defendant to pass to their insurers)
• The insurers then have 30 days to confirm their position on liability (accidents prior to the 31^st July have 21 days and 3 months investigatory period)

As you can see, these changes have brought everything into one type of system and although it appears claims will be quicker, the changes are a big step and therefore whether they will work in the long term is yet to be seen. However, with us we can offer 100% on many of our claims even if they took place after the 31^st July.

So in this “new world” of personal injury we would like to emphasise even more the importance of speaking with an experienced, professional, friendly personal injury law firm about your circumstances.