Whiplash Injury in Motor Accidents By : Support Introduction One of the most common types of injury on the road these days is a whiplash injury. In this article we examine the rise in claims cost and what insurers are doing to tackle the problem. Over the past few years there has been a significant rise in the number of people claiming for whiplash injury further to a motor accident. The problem stems from a greater awareness of the financial gain in compensation from insurers. A number of people who would not otherwise claim for whiplash injury in the past is now doing so due to the easy money to be had from insurers without much by way of any medical proof. A claimant only has to say that he/she is suffering from a neck ache following an accident which sets up a claim for compensation for whiplash injury. This claim culture is driven in the UK by financial hardship in the general economy and also by greed and an element of fraud. There is no risk of any penalty it is believed in making a claim for whiplash injury whether or not such an injury was sustained in the accident. So a large number of generally law abiding citizen are now putting forward claims for whiplash injury when they know within their heart that they were not injured in the accident. One of the reasons they feel so confident in recovering compensation is the ease with which they can obtain a medical report to say that they sustained a whiplash injury. Even where the medical examiner carries out objective tests during a medical examination which points to a lack of any injury he prefers to say that the claimant is making significant progress to recovery than to suggest there was no injury in the first place. So with this type of medical evidence in 99 percent of cases most claimants know that they will receive some compensation and is therefore likely to be financially better off than if they were to make no claim at all. What is a whiplash injury So what exactly is a whiplash injury? I am not medically qualified to give you an exact diagnosis of what it is so I will generalize from my personal experience and hopefully you will get to understand what a whiplash injury is all about. The most likely scenario for sustaining a whiplash injury is where your vehicle is hit in the rear by another vehicle. The other vehicle does not even have to be travelling at speed for you to sustain a whiplash injury as a passenger of driver of the vehicle in front. Your vehicle may have been stationary or travelling in the same direction as the vehicle that hit you in the rear. You can also sustain a whiplash injury if your vehicle is hit in the side, as for example at a major cross-roads. The mechanics of the injury is that your neck goes backwards or sideways on impact and flashes in the opposite direction afterwards. I believe the medical experts call this forward flexion and rotation of the neck. It is that flicking forwards and backwards which causes the damage in the neck. In a number of cases of whiplash injury the victim also sustains back injury and in the more serious cases there could be some spinal injury involved. The problem with minor whiplash injury is that sometimes it takes a few days before the victim experiences any symptoms. In view of insurers policy conditions that all accidents must be reported as soon as possible after they occur, a victim of whiplash injury who is not yet experiencing any symptoms may report to her insurers that she was not injured in the accident. It may take 3-4 days or longer before the victim begins to experience whiplash injury symptoms and in some cases may not make the connection with the accident as being the cause of pain in the neck and back. However, once that connection is made it should be reported to your own motor insurers to avoid any challenges from the third party insurers when you make a claim against them that you did not report any injuries to your own insurers following the accident. This is where sometimes matters cross over into a fraud investigation where a legitimate claim for whiplash injury may be involved. However, you cannot blame a third party insurer for raising a red flag if you fail to either report the injury to your own GP or inform your own insurers that you are now experiencing whiplash injury symptoms from the accident. Fraud Prevention As indicated above insurers have faced a significant rise in the number of claims for personal injury, in particular whiplash injury following motor accidents and have responded in a number of ways. You will no doubt notice that insurance premiums have risen significantly and are continuing to rise. Even where you have NCD (No Claims Discount) your premiums have gone up significantly over the years. The level of discounts are less these days and more difficult to accumulate. However, if you have an accident the discount is taken back at a rapid rate thus pushing up your premiums. Insurers have also set up fraud prevention teams within their claims department whose role is to scrutinize claims for the purpose of fraud detection. There are a number of red flags that could point to an element of fraud which I will not specifically raise in this article for obvious reasons. However, a number of fraud rings have been detected across the country involving people who have come together for the purpose of staging accidents in order to claim for personal injury, vehicle damage, hire costs etc. The police become involved when fraud is detected and insurers are not reluctant to bring criminal prosecutions against those involved. Does a whiplash injury ever heal In the case of legitimate whiplash injury the question arise as to whether the victims ever make a full and complete recovery.The jury is out on this question as I am sure most people know someone who years after an accident is still complaining about pain and stiffness in the neck. I believe that the majority of people who suffer whiplash injury following a motor accident will go on to make some sort of recovery but not full and complete. As I said before these are my own opinion based on my personal experience only and not based on any medical facts or investigation as I am not medically qualified. However, particularly in the case of younger people they are more likely to reach a state of recovery where they experience little or no symptoms from their whiplash injury after a period of time. This may be 12-18 months or longer at which point the injury is not affecting their daily activities and they may have even forgotten about it. In the case of older and therefore more fragile victims the repercussions can be much more devastating. Their end point of recovery could mean that they will always suffer pain and symptoms of varying degree for the rest of their lives. How much compensation for whiplash injury The question therefore arise as to how much compensation does a person who sustains a whiplash injury is entitled to receive? The answer may not be that straight foraward as you can see from the problems above. In our society we believe that everything can be measured in monetary terms which is not always the case. So, for instance if you are in your fifties and likely to suffer from daily neck and back pain for the rest of your life further to a whiplash injury, how much compensation do you think is reasonable in these circumstances? Over the years insurers have developed a certain skill for determining what is a reasonable compensation for various type of injuries including whiplash injury. The amount of compensation varies upwards over time meaning that like prices, compensation levels are always on the increase. However, the science involved if it can be called that involes feeling the pulse of the average person to see what level of compensation is just enough for him to go away. So over the years of making offers insurers get a feel for what level of compensation to offer for say, a whiplash injury with symptoms lasting 18 months involving a young person. They also draw upon the experience of disputed cases which gets to court where a judge makes the offer. So in the above scenario the offer may be £3500- £5000 or could be a bit more at todays value in my experience. Some people who are more savvy and aggressive may get about £7500 whereas if you don't know what you are doing and subject to liability the figure could be significantly less. At this point you may want to refer to my article ' Part 36 Offers - Payment Into Court' to review strategies for higher compensation awards from insurers. The above figures suggested for compensation is not to be taken as gospel as each individual whiplash injury case has to be judged on it's own merits and the medical evidence. Also, different insurers offer different settlement amounts and damages may even vary between claims handlers within the same company. However, a number of insurers are now using software to determine the settlement amounts for standard injuries such as whiplash injury. This will in due course have the effect of levelling out compensation amounts across different insurers. Conclusion In due course that hard core of fraudulent claimants will diminish as insurers and the police step up their detection and prosecution rates. The problem will never be totally eliminated. At that point you would think insurers will cut back on premium increases. However, the prospects for this are very poor as once insurers get to know what your level of tolerance is for paying premiums, they will continue to increase premiums to that point just like they have done to determine what level of compensation will make you go away.

Personal Injury Claim - How To Get Increased Offers From Insurers A personal injury claim is made against an insurance company by someone who suffers an injury and seeks to obtain compensation for those injuries caused by the negligence of someone else. The insurance company is able to meet its obligations to pay such compensation from the premiums it receives from all the people they insure. These premiums are scientifically calculated by actuaries employed by the insurance company. In order to comply with their legal obligations to hold a certain level of reserves in the kitty insurers must continually review the amount set aside in each case know as the estimate. As soon as a personal injury claim is notified insurers must estimate the potential value of that claim and hold this amount to pay the claim. If insurers under estimate the value of a claim it means that there is not enough funds in reserve to meet that particular case. This does not mean insurers will not be able to make a full payout on that case because their reserves run into millions but each time they do this the funds are eroded due to under estimation. So in order to keep the reserves up to date they have to estimate each case properly. Personal injury settlements vary in size according to the nature and extent of the injury. In the most severe personal injury cases involving spinal injury and brain damage the amount of compensation in each case could be worth millions of pounds. If insurers were to underestimate cases of this nature their reserve could be at severe risk over time. Fortunately, most cases settle for a few thousand pounds which means that estimating the value of a case is less of a problem. Personal injury estimating is only part of the claim settlement process which ends with payment of the claim. In order to obtain compensation you must first prove that the other person was responsible for your accident. A personal injury claim must be pursued within three years of the accident otherwise it becomes time-barred. The most common type of injury is a whiplash injury usually caused by a rear shunt. These injuries take a couple of years or so to settle and payout for this type of personal injury run to a few thousand pounds depending on the prognosis. If the prognosis shows that recovery will take place at a certain point in time then insurers are therefore in a position to make an offer of settlement. In the majority of cases a personal injury settlement of £2500 - £7500 will be made depending on the severity of the injury assuming there is no dispute over liability. If liability is disputed by insurers then the claimant will have to provide evidence to challenge whatever arguments insurers put forward. In some personal injury cases the dispute may be over quantum ie the monetary amount of the settlement rather than a dispute regarding liability. In this case insurers  put forward a settlement offer which the claimant feels is too low for her injuries. In this case the dispute can result in a deadlock if insurers decide that they are at the upper end of the settlement scale. A settlement scale describes the range in monetary terms insurers believe the case should settle eg £3500- £5000. Insurers will be reluctant to go beyond £5000 which is usually their final offer after an opening offer of £3500. Insurers will seek to protect their position on cost should the case proceed to court by making their offer a Part 36 offer and backing this up with a payment into court. See my previous article- “Part 36 Offer – Payment Into Court” for a detailed explanation of this legal tactic used by insurers to reduce settlement offers in personal injury cases. This tactic is a double-edged sword meaning that claimants can employ the same tactics to their own benefit to put pressure on insurers to increase their settlement offers. So in the scenario described above a claimant could put forward a Part 36 offer to insurers of say, £6500 if there is a reasonable prospect of the case settling in court for this sum. Insurers would then be forced to consider the counter-offer very seriously and so as not to risk the cost of a trial may decide to increase their offer to say £6000 which represents a £1000 increase using this tactic. So simply by writing a single letter to insurers as suggested above a claimant could obtain a significant increase in the settlement offer for their personal injury claim. I cover this and many similar tactics in my book “The Personal Injury Claims Guide” which will become available soon. If you are interested in obtaining a copy at a reduced ‘introductory price’ just send an email to support@personalinjuryclaimsguide.com. Just ask for a copy at a the introductory price and when the book becomes available and you will receive it at that price.              

Have you been the victim of an accident at a supermarket? Have you been offered a couple hundred pounds for compensation? Or, did they offer you a bunch of flowers and some vouchers to exchange for items in their own store? This practice is more common than you think. And a lot of the victims are older people of  pension age. They are on their pension and usually have no resources to instruct solicitors. Or if they do they are worried that this will deplete their life savings. So they settle for what the insurance company offer to them which in a number of cases amounts to an apology, a bunch of flowers and some vouchers. These are in most cases loyal customers at the store who have spent thousands of pounds over the years which contributed to the huge profits recorded by some supermarkets. If you are  reading this article and you recognize this scenario as happening to you or a relative then you should take steps to prevent this type of victimization. For a start you are entitled to proper and adequate compensation from the supermarket for your injuries. If they wish to give you roses and apologize then this should be in addition to  adequate compensation in the first place. You are probably being given the run-around following your accident. Make sure full details of  the accident are recorded in the ‘Accident Book’. Obtain the names and addresses of any other  customer to your accident.Write a formal letter of claim to the Manager at the supermarket and keep copies of all your correspondence. Visit your GP and report your injury so that there are medical records of the  nature and extent of your injuries. Take photographs of any bruises which usually show up a  few days after the accident. If you receive physiotherapy treatment keep receipts for each  session of treatment to reclaim these expenses. If you visit the hospital keep receipts of travel expenses. As for the amount of compensation to expect for your injuries that will depend on the nature and extent of the injuries you sustained. The level of compensation will increase where there are any fractures. Usually these take some time to heal and sometimes the injury can be very serious such as a hip fracture or fracture of the coccyx. The latter injury can be very painful and occurs in  slipping accidents where you fall on your bottom. Your claim could arise from an accident in the supermarket car park. You will be able to establish liability if there is a tripping hazard such as potholes and if you can establish  that there has been a failure to maintain the car park. However, most accidents will involve slipping on wet floors within the supermarket itself. This usually results from spillages such as water or liquids on the floor. Again, the supermarket should be able to show they have a system of cleaning and maintenance to avoid  liability. Your claim for personal injury compensation should be handled by the supermarket’s public  liability insurers. You are entitled to obtain details of their insurer to make your claim. Don’t settle for flowers and vouchers for your injuries from the supermarket. If you need more information on how to set-up and progress your personal injury claim you are  recommended to take a look at my book “The Personal Injury Claims Guide for DIY Claimants” at www.personalinjuryclaimsguide.com

Part 36 Offer - Payment Into Court Article by: Support If you are involved in civil litigation with a party and is locked into dispute over the value of a claim, for example a personal injury claim, you can make what is known as a Part 36 offer to that other party in the dispute. It is a tactical measure which is frequently used by personal injury lawyers to resolve disputes over quantum or the value of a claim. If used effectively it can bring the other party in the action to his knees due to the effect it has on cost. If therefore you are ever involved in a dispute over money as in the case of personal injury compensation and the other party makes a 'Part 36 Offer' you or your solicitor needs to take this very seriously indeed. What is a part 36 offer? So what exactly is a Part 36 Offer? I explain this in some depth in my book 'The Personal Injury Claims Guide for DIY Claimants' which also provides other tactics in personal injury claims negotiations. Basically, a Part 36 offer is made pursuant to Part 36 of the Civil Procedure Rules which were brought into effect in 1992 under Lord Justice Woolf. Part 36 Payments to County Courts and High Court . Previously, the procedure existed but was known as a 'Payment Into Court' under which a physical payment was made to the court following the offer letter. If proceedings were in one of the County courts then the payment was made to that particular court. If the claim was of a higher value than the county court limits or it was a case involving complex issues as dealt with in the High Court then payments were made to the Accountant General of the Supreme Court. More recently you do not need to make a physical payment into court and a suitably drawn Part 36 offer letter is sufficient for these purposes. The Part 36 offer must be sufficiently detailed to enable the other party to see how the offer is made up. You cannot just state an amount in your offer letter and expect the other party to accept it without stating how you arrive at the offer made. The offer would not be effective in these circumstances and you would lose the main benefit of a Part 36 offer which is to protect you in respect of costs. Costs. Once an effective Part 36 offer has been made the other party in the negotiation has 21 days to respond to the offer. He is not bound to accept your offer and may very well decline your offer and counter-offer with his own Part 36 offer. If agreement cannot be reached the offers stay on record until the trial of the case. During this time the judge is not made aware of the offers as this would prejudice his decision at trial when awarding compensation otherwise known as damages. If these offers were to be revealed to him he could favour one or either of the parties and make an award to benefit that party. Judgment award. Once the judgment amount is known if this lower than the Part 36 offer by even a penny then the other party must pay all his own costs and those of the party making the Part 36 offer. These costs include the full trial costs and all costs incurred from the date the Part 36 offer was made. The burden of costs is therefore extremely high for the losing party who fails to beat a Part 36 offer. You cannot therefore afford to ignore a Part 36 offer and bury this in the files for months or years before going to trial. All Part 36 offers need to be given the serious consideration they deserve at the time they are made.

No Win No Fee Compensation Claim There is a lot of attention in the media, in particular on television about the merits of a no win no fee compensation claim. Almost every day there is an advert about how you can keep all your compensation if you instruct such and such a firm of solicitor to handle your personal injury claim. They even cite the level of compensation some of their clients have received for their accidents. However, the devil is in the details when it comes to the no win no fee compensation claim which we will uncover in this article. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the concept of a no win no fee compensation claim but there hidden problems which the adverts gloss over and which you need to know about. So let us look at the concept a bit closer to see what is involved.   What Is a No Win No Fee Compensation Claim? It’s at least 10 years now since the concept came into being. Prior to that the buzz word in personal injury circles was ‘legal aid’. Legal aid is still offered in criminal cases but was at one point the bread and butter  method of funding a personal injury claim. If you were poor and could not afford your legal fees then you applied for legal aid which was ‘means’ tested for the purpose of eligibility. If your means was below a certain level you were entitled to funding but if your means fell somewhere between the poor and the rich you lost out on funding. So essentially that was one of the fundamental problems with legal aid and why it was essentially replaced by the no win no fee compensation claim system for personal injury claims. The no win no fee claim compensation claim system was designed to fund only those personal injury claims with a high probability of success. That means that in order to secure funding of your claim there must be a fifty percent or greater chance of winning the claim. The claim is funded not by the government but in the private sector by an insurance company. What happens is that following your accident if you approach one of these no win no fee compensation claim solicitor they will make an assessment of your chances of success with your claim. Once they carry out a risk assessment after taking full details of the circumstances of the accident and other potential evidence they will advise you whether or not it is their intention to take on your claim. If they assess the chances of your success as less than fifty percent they will refuse to take on your case. However, if your chances of success are greater than fifty percent they will enter into a contract with you known as a ‘conditional fee’ agreement. This agreement basically says that you are liable for any costs not covered by your no win no fee policy. So in effect you are exposed to some risk of costs by signing this agreement. In the meantime your solicitors will apply for the policy with a particular insurer who will agree to pay commissions on the premiums they receive for the policy. The premiums for the policy may not become payable until after the claim is concluded at which point insurers for the losing side in the case pays the cost for the no win no fee policy. If any premiums are paid in advance then these will similarly be refunded by insurers for the losing party.   Who Is Entitled To Make a No Win No Fee Compensation Claim? As you can see from the above the determining factor as to who gets funded under a no win no fee compensation claim policy depends on your prospects of success in the case. It is not determined by your personal financial status as was the case under the old legal aid system However, there remains a huge amount of cases which are borderline or with less prospects of success than fifty percent that fall out of the system. Each case is decided by a subjective measure of success by the solicitor that you instruct in the first place. If your case fails this first hurdle it may never see the light of day again.   Does It Cost Anything To Make a No Win No Fee Compensation Claim? Does it cost you anything to have your claim dealt with under a no win no fee compensation claim system? Potentially it could cost you money as the system is not fail safe.  The case could turn on subsequent evidence and although your no win no fee policy would pay up they might not cover all your costs. The problem usually arise when your solicitor submits details of his/her costs to the other side’s insurers for consideration. The insurers may challenge some of these costs as being unreasonably incurred such as counsel’s fees or unnecessary  attendance on the client ie you or, excessive time spent on the case. So under the ‘conditional fee’ agreement signed with your solicitors you could become liable to pay for some of these wasted costs. The no win no fee compensation claim system therefore provides complete protection to solicitors in respect of their fees but fail to do the same for their clients.   Does a No Win No Fee Compensation Claim Affect the Amount of My Personal Injury Compensation? The answer to this question is that in the majority of cases a no win no fee compensation claim does not affect your personal injury compensation. You receive the full amount of damages awarded in the case and your legal costs are paid by the losing party. The losing party also pays for funding the insurance premiums under the no win no fee scheme. However, as we have clearly seen above there remains a potential risk of paying wasted costs to your own solicitors even if you received 100 percent compensation. Perhaps the worst scenario in this case is where the wasted costs of your solicitors are greater in amount than the compensation awarded to you. In that case your solicitors would be entitled to retain all of your compensation which does not cover all their costs. You might find that you have to dip your hands in your pocket to cover the balance of their costs. So not only have you suffered a nasty injury you also have to pay for the privilege thus adding insult to injury in this scenario.   Are There Any Alternatives To A No Win No Fee Compensation Claim? At the moment there is no real better alternative funding method  to a no win no fee compensation claim. Legal costs have always been high and the legal aid system was stretched to the limit. However, once actuarial principles have been applied to calculate the appropriate risk premium for a no win no fee compensation claim then this is less of a challenge to insurers of these schemes. Only they can afford to fund legal fees these days especially when you consider the huge costs involved if a case goes to trial. The losing party not only pays his/her own legal costs but those of the winning party. The average person could not afford to pay such costs and solicitors would not take the risk in any event. So the no win no fee compensation claim system will be with us for some time to come until a better system comes along.      

How Much Is My Personal Injury Solicitor Worth? This is a very valid question to ask because not all solicitors are created equal. There is a reason some law firms grow to the size they are whilst some small practices never seem to get off the ground. These larger firms employ the the sharpest brains in the field whereas others are constrained by costs as to who they can afford to employ to handle your claim. The thought that comes to most peoples' minds after suffering a personal injury is that I must get a solicitor. Or the suggestion may come from your partner or a friend wishing you well and to see that you receive compensation for your injuries. Everyone is emotionally charged and wishing for some sort of 'justice' from the situation. This is particularly true in the case of a motor accident where your pride and joy is all smashed to smitherene. Also you are not looking too good yourself having felt the impact through your whole body and suffered nasty injuries from the restraining seatbelt and cuts and bruises to your face and burn injuries from the exploding airbag. Now everyone is out to get the other motorist involved in the accident and its going to cost him for the accident was his fault. But what if the accident was not a motor accident but was instead an accident at work. Let us assume that you work in an office and on the way back to your desk from the coffee machine you tripped over a piece of loose carpet or electric cables and smashed you face against a table as you fell. You also sustained other injuries and burnt yourself with the coffee you were carrying.What would be your attitude then about seeking redress against your employers where you have been working now for the past four years and is quite happy with your job? You are on a good salary with perks and your prospects for further progression are quite good. Also you get on very well with your colleagues a number of whom are close friends with whom you socialise outside of work. In the first scenario you have no hesitation whatsoever in seeking to obtain justice from the alleged negligent motorist. However, you have mixed emotions when it comes to claiming against your employer. But you have to make a decision as the 'limitation' clock starts to tick straight away under which you have three years in which to claim for personal injury The Law Reform Limitation Act (1980) failing which your claim becomes statute barred, in other words out of time. There is no law that says you need to instruct a solicitor to pursue your claim for personal injuries. That is a decision which you take freely but usually because most people have no idea what to do going forwards with their personal injury claim. They therefore rush to their nearest solicitor office having taken bad advice from friends as to the suitability of their local solicitor to handle their personal injury claim. They have no idea that solicitors specialise in different fields of law, example employment, family, criminal, personal injury etc. Your local law firm may specialise in personal injury claims but being a small firm of solicitors they have a limited number of qualified solicitors on their books and so they multi-task meaning they are responsible in other functional areas such as accounts. So when you go to see your local solicitor about your personal injury claim he takes off one of his many other 'hats' and puts on his personal injury hat. He may have qualified as a solicitor many years ago and is not up to date in personal injury law but he has dealt with one or two cases in the past.As a senior solicitor he commands respect from junior staff and charges senior solicitor rates per hour of work requiring his personal time. The charge rate for a senior solicitor in London is £150- £200 per hour. The Law society published rates are available for you to review if you require.You are however allowed the first half-hour consultation free of charge under the Green Form Scheme. There is no longer any funding available under legal aid which has been replaced by the 'no-win-no-fee' system.Their costs are structured to show their labour time separate from items of disbursements. The disbursements include medical fees, expert witness costs, counsel's fees, etc. Their standard charge can be marked up by 100 per cent so that the effective charge rate as in the case cited above becomes £300- £400 per hour in London. For out of London costs these are only marginally lower. See your local County Court Cost guide for current rates.Some solicitor firms employ junior staff some of whom are perhaps studying for their ILEX exams(Institute of Legal Executive). Therefore you may be dealing with a para-legal rather than a qualified solicitor. However, these juniors although not yet qualified still command costs up to £110 per hour for their work. A lot of the foot work is carried out by junior staff and the senior solicitor just cast an eye over the claim to make sure that everything is ok. However, the firm’s costs may show a breakdown of x-number of hours work by a junior, x-number of hours by an Associate and x-number of hours by a Senior solicitor.They also have a habit of running to counsel for advice on the most trivial of issues. Even in a simple case they will obtain counsels advice on either or both liability and quantum. This pushes up their costs by a huge amount. Counsel's fees could add £500 or more in a simple case and £1500 or more in a fairly complex claim. In London a junior solicitor would receive a fixed salary of say £45,000 pa. An Associate is likely to be on £75,000 plus profit sharing. Your senior solicitor takes the cream at £200,000 per annum plus profits sharing.On the other hand the average claimant is earning £13500- £20,000 in London. So when you go to see your local solicitor don't be too disappointed if he is unfortunately detained on the golf course and cannot see you. His secretary will advise you that he is with another client but she can take a message and he will get back to you.If you are involved in a personal injury claim at the moment then you may wish to take a look at "The Personal Injury Claims Guide for DIY Claimants". You will learn from this 50 page  plus information-packed easy to understand and user-friendly guide just what is involved in making your claim successful. If you proceed to deal with the insurance company without this invaluable knowledge then you will be at a disadvantage in terms of winning your claim or obtaining full compensation for your injuries.Most solicitor will push to make sure that the settlement hits the £1000 mark because that is the 'watershed' figure to ensure that they recover their full costs. So as a claimant who has suffered a personal injury you get £1000 and your solicitor gets say up to £5000 for his costs. So whose interests are best served in these circumstances? When you consider the average cost of claim settlements you will realize that there is no need for a 'middle-man' because that is really the role of your solicitor. And they are not all as highly skilled as you may 'imagine' them to be. I have had claimants on the phone to me in distress over their claim because they could not get any information from their solicitor and wanting to negotiate their own claim directly. However, at that point they are locked into a contract with their solicitor and liable for his costs even if they wish to pull out of the contract. Of course, sadly we have to turn them away so that they can first resolve the issue with their solicitors before we can discuss their claim with them. You can save yourself a lot of these hassles by making a small investment in your own education by obtaining your personal copy of 'The Personal Injury Claims Guide for DIY Claimants'. After all it's bad enough suffering the pain and going through the healing process which could take several months without also being 'short-changed' by the insurance company when you submit your claim. The important point to note is that you do not need to instruct a solicitor for the majority of personal injury claims. I have personally settled claims for just over £1000 where the costs from solicitors range from £3500 to £5000 and more.Would it not be a more equitable proposition that you receive a higher level of compensation for your injuries and the insurance company save money on solicitors' costs so that they can meet the cost of future claims? I think you and most people would agree this is the best solution.

Personal Injury Compensation Claims Lawyers If you have read my article ‘How Much Is My Personal Injury Solicitor Worth’ which is widely dispersed across the internet, you will be aware of what is involved in this topic. In the UK we refer to our legal experts as Solicitors and Barristers whereas in the USA they talk about Lawyers and Attorneys but essentially these are equivalent positions within legal profession. Personal injury compensation claims lawyers or solicitors are concerned with the handling of personal injury claims. If you are involved in an accident in which you suffer personal injury then in order to recover compensation you have one of two options. You can pursue your own personal injury claim against the guilty party which essentially involves writing a letter of claim to their insurers be they motor insurers, employers’ liability insurers, public liability insurers as appropriate according to where you suffered your personal injury. On the other hand you can approach a firm of personal injury compensation claims lawyers or solicitors to handle the claim for you. The reason that you may prefer to instruct personal injury compensation claims lawyers rather than handle the claim yourself is the legal technicalities you are likely to encounter and without this knowledge it is more than likely that your claim will not be successful. For instance an insurer may repudiate your claim as being time-barred under the Limitation Act which requires that you bring forward your claim for personal injury within three years of the accident. The reason for this rule is to prevent stale claims from coming out of the woodworks long after the defendant has forgotten about the incident. So the law provides some level of protection to everyone who may have claims launched against them years down the road which would come as an un-welcome surprise to you. The rules for property damage claims allows for a longer period in which to claim up to six years and even twelve years in some cases. However, if an insurer were to turn your claim down on the basis that you had not pursued it within the time-frame allowed this may not be the end of the matter. Either yourself or your personal injury compensation claims lawyers may be able to make an application to the court to show cause as why your claim should be able proceed. The courts reserve an unfettered discretion as to whether to allow a claim issued out of time to proceed. Among the factors the court will take into consideration are the reasons for the delay and whether your delay has prejudiced the defendant’s ability to defend the claim. In this case the availability of witnesses after this length of time and, being able to obtain accurate details as to the circumstances of the accident are matters the court will consider in its decision whether to allow the case to proceed. If you were acting as a claimant in person rather than instructing personal injury compensation claims lawyers your claim may have failed to surmount this hurdle. You are likely to have given up at this point. In the past your total claim could have failed on the grounds of contributory negligence on your part for the accident. However, the Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act 1945 changed the position allowing you to make a partial recovery of compensation even if your own negligence contributed to the accident resulting in your injuries. One of the areas insurers are quick to argue contributory negligence is in respect of the wearing of helmets and another with regards to seatbelts. So whilst you may not have any contributory negligence for the cause of the accident itself your injuries may have been significantly reduced had you been wearing an helmet in the case of head injuries or a seatbelt with regards to facial injuries sustained on impact with the windscreen. In some cases, not necessarily in the above examples insurers may seek to argue causation and seek to argue 100 percent contributory negligence on your part for your injuries. It will probably take detailed medical evidence to sort out the causation issues. Staying with the issue of contributory negligence most people can only think in terms of liability being split on a 50/50 basis. However, claims are settled on various percentages up to 100 percent. A claim could therefore be settled on a 75/25 percent basis or 80/20 percent either in your favour or the other party’s favour. If it is in your favour then this usually means that you recover the higher percentage of the split. In order to argue for a higher percentage in the case where you are partly to blame for the accident your personal injury compensation claims lawyers will need to bring together supporting evidence including independent witness evidence. Such evidence as police report in a motor accident claim or photographs and measurements of tripping hazards in the case of holes in the pavement are what is required in such circumstances. In some cases there will be evidence or suspicions of fraud. Insurers are now investing heavily in the prevention of fraud cases and sometimes have a whole department which dedicated to reviewing suspicious cases. In particular, more recently there has been a significant rise in whiplash injury claims. Everyone involved in a motor accident now believes that it is their given right to claim for whiplash injury and, some people seek to milk the system by prolonging their symptoms in order to gain a higher level of settlement. These cases are easily identified at the medical examination stage where claimants display inconsistencies in relation to the tests they are asked to perform by the medical examiner. Some personal injury compensation claims lawyers also attempt to build up their costs by unnecessary consultations with their clients, time spent on the case or the level of fee earner dealing with the case. However, at the end of the day it is probably more cost effective to instruct personal injury compensation claims lawyers to pursue your claim rather than to go it on your own. It is not impossible however, to do it yourself and hopefully these articles and a future personal injury claims guide I propose to write will help you in your endeavours. Teeth Whitening Secrets - First To Market & All Natural! Highest Converting & Highest Paying Teeth Whitening Offer, Split Testing Daily. Start Promoting And Get Your Share Of This Billion Dollar Market. 100% Natural From Home Teeth Whitening! Cheaper Than Any Others! 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Personal Injury Compensation Claims What is a personal injury compensation claim? The answer is in the title but there is a bit more to it than the title alone suggest. For a start there are some legal issues to consider even before you get to the compensation stage. And at the compensation stage not all injuries are equal even if they seem on the surface to be similar. Let us look at some of the legal issues although I would point out that I am not a solicitor or legally qualified in any way so I am not giving legal advice which you need to consult your own legal representative about. One of the main obstacles to personal injury compensation claims is the need to prove liability or responsibility for the accident. It doesn't matter whether your injuries were sustained in a motor vehicle accident or at work or in a public place such as tripping in a pavement for which the local council is responsible. Your solicitor need to establish liability on the part of the other motorist or your employer or the council as the case may be. In the case of the other driver in a road traffic accident the Highway Code may provide some guidlines but there is a body of cases in which a similar accident to yours has already occurred which can be used as precedent in determining liability in your own case.Even if the cases reviewed are not on all fours with your own case they will provide useful help in deciding liability in your case. Besides case law there are relevant statutes such as the Road Traffic Acts and the Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act to consider. For example if other driver does not hold a proper driving license or insurance this may affect your entitlement to compensation even if liability is otherwise established against that driver. If the other person was driving a vehicle without insurance you may be entitled to compensation from the MIB (Motor Insurers Bureau) under their un-insured drivers scheme. If the othe driver was driving without a driving license either because for example his driving license was suspended by the courts or it was lapsed or not valid in the UK this may give the relevant insurer cause to turn down your claim for vehicle damage and other losses such as hire charges but under the RTA they would be required to deal with your personal injury compensation claims. If your personal injury was sustained at work then your employer would make a claim under their compulsory employers' liability policy. Your solicitor would then correspond with your employer's liability insurer in order to establish liability for the accident which if successful would entitle you to receive compensation for your injuries. If for example you tripped on loose carpeting or cables or suffered serious injuries from unguarded machinery at work these circumstances may give rise to liability on the part of your employers entitling to benefit from the personal injury compensation claims that your solicitor put forward on your behalf. In the case of a tripping incident on the pavement your solicitor will need to establish liability against the local council.In this case if a tripping hazard can be identified such as large holes in the pavement and it can be shown that the council was either aware of it or should have been aware of it from their inspections and taken action to remedy the defect but failed to do so then such action may give rise to liability on their part. In all these circumstances described above you may be entitled to receive money from personal injury compensation claims submitted by your solicitor. However, the level of compensation you receive will be limited by the extent of your responsibility for the accident under the Law Reform Contributory Negligence Acts. Under this statute you will not lose entitlement to compensation altogether but your compensation will be reduced in proportion to the degree to which you have been responsible for your own accident and injury. Assuming however that there is no contributory negligence on your part and the guilty party's insurer has agreed liability in full for your claim.They will be required to assess the value of your claim for general damages and to evaluate your claim for special damages. The latter includes but not limited to such claims as loss of earnings past and future and expenses such as medical fees,travel expenses and vehicle damage including hire charges incurred during the period of repairs to your own vehicle. In the case of general damages where compensation is provided for the actual injury, for example whiplash injury or back injury the level of compensation is determined according various factors.The extent of pain and suffering taken with the period of recovery or prognosis are relevant factors to consider.There are guidelines such as under the JSB(Judicial Studies Board) Guidelines for the Assessment of Personal Injuries to assist in determining the level of compensation to which you may be entitled. Your age may be a factor in determining how quickly you recover from your injuries so in the case of younger people the recovery may be much sooner than in the case of an older person who may or may not make a full recovery. For example a fractured hip in an older person may never quite heal so that the person may have to live with pain and suffering for the rest of their life. This would obviously affect the level of compensation to which they would be entitled. If you are an accomplished pianist who suffers injuries to your fingers which puts an end to your carrer then the level of compensation to which you are entitled would be substantially greater than similar injuries suffered by some who does manual work for a living such a a gardner or plumber. Also compensation will vary from insurer to insurer and even between claims handlers at the same insurer. However,for the run of the mill injuries such as whiplash injuries there are now software in the market used to assess quantum. Therefore, whilst not all injuries which seem similar on the surface are all equal these variations in the assessment of compensation claims is definitely narrowing with the introduction of technology now being used in the market place by personal injury specialists.