Can You Change Solicitors During a Personal Injury Claim?
Our team regularly receive calls from clients who have instructed other law firms asking the question - is it easy changing solicitors during a personal injury claim?
“Osbornes is a well-regarded personal injury practice well equipped to advise on high-value and high-profile claims.”
“This is an excellent PI team, who are highly respected in the PI sector. Their team includes bright, hard-working solicitors dedicated to achieving successful outcomes for their clients”
If you have a personal injury claim but are not happy with the advice you are receiving we have specialist solicitors who can help.
Why would you consider changing solicitors during a personal injury claim?
Clients tell us that they called Osbornes Law because they became worried their existing lawyer lacked the expertise to deal with their case. Some personal injury and medical negligence claims can become more complicated than originally anticipated, and as the case study below shows, the difference with having a real specialist acting for you can be enormous.Claimants sometimes become worried too because there are ongoing delays with their case, or problems with gaining contact with their solicitor. We hear of clients being transferred to different case handlers, so causing ongoing delays and an overall disjointed approach to the running of their claim, affecting their confidence in the process they are going through.Other worries include growing concerns over the individual advice and expertise of their case handler and under-settlement.
Why choose Osbornes Law when changing personal injury solicitors?
- When bringing a claim you must feel confident your solicitor will achieve the best possible outcome for you.
- Our solicitors are experts in their field of law with proven track records for gaining the best rehabilitative care and treatment and securing compensation for your injuries and your other losses, including loss of earnings.
- We have access to a wide range of medical and other experts who provide all the necessary key reports to assist with valuing your claim correctly. They know how to maximise your damages to ensure you are fully compensated for your injuries.
- Our personal injury and medical negligence teams include leading, nationally-renowned solicitors, independently recognised for their expertise.
- We will work on a no win no fee basis.
A recent case study where a client changed personal injury solicitors:
Offer to client who suffered life-changing injuries increased from £250,000 to £2.3 million
A young girl, Emma (not her real name, but for obvious reasons this has been changed), had a car accident when she was driving her parents’ car home one evening. She had just found out she had been offered a job, and was looking forward to telling them. Without warning, she encountered a car on the wrong side of the road as she went round a corner, and there was a head on collision. She sustained a fractured pelvis, fractured legs and a head injury. She was air-lifted to hospital.
Emma was left with no memory at all of the accident, and a brain injury. Her parents were contacted by their car insurer, and they were put in touch with a solicitor, who acted for them using a no win no fee agreement.
After around 15 months, Emma’s parents contacted Ben Posford (Head of Serious Injury Claims at Osbornes Law). They had received a recommendation from a friend and then used Google to see what was said about Ben online.
Ben went to visit the family. They had recently been threatened with bankruptcy, and only one of the parents could work. The other had given up work to look after their daughter, who was not safe left on her own because of the extent of her brain injury. They had no support, no carers, little by way of therapies, and had received no financial assistance through the claim (called interim payments).
The insurer acting for the other driver had not been pressed for a liability admission but had made a settlement offer of £250,000, and Emma’s solicitor was pressing the family to accept the offer. This had prompted the family to seek a second opinion from Ben, who advised that he had no doubt at all that the offer was woefully low. More importantly, none of the key expert evidence had been obtained, so they had little idea about Emma’s prognosis and what care and accommodation she might need in the future. Nor had they had the ability to trial various care options to see what would work.
Emma’s parents told Ben they wanted him to act for her. Ben gave them a form to sign, giving him authority to ask the former solicitor for all their files. The parents did not need to speak to their former solicitor themselves to do this. The former solicitor agreed to hand over all their files and in return Ben promised to recover their costs for them at the end of the claim. This is standard practice, and is called a lien agreement. The former solicitor did not charge anything to the parents to transfer the claim, and again this is normal practice. It took about two weeks from signing the form for the file to be transferred.
Ben was able to act under a no-win no fee agreement for Emma and her parents. He arranged for liability to be formally admitted, large interim payments to be made, a clinical brain injury case manager to be appointed, and a range of private therapists were brought in along with a speech and language therapist and a neurological OT.
A care regime was established with support workers, and Emma trialled living independently with this support in place. She was also enrolled at college with one-to-one support, and was able to access voluntary work.
Ben instructed some of the country’s best medicolegal experts to help with the claim, to include a neuropsychologist, neuropsychiatrist, lower limb surgeon, neurologist, neuro-physiotherapist, and a range of other experts such as in the fields of care, OT and accommodation.
As a result of putting everything in place that should have been done from the outset, and having originally advised Emma and her parents not to accept the offer of £252,000, Ben was able to secure a final damages award of £2,300,000.
For a free, confidential consultation with a solicitor call 020 7485 8811 or complete our online call back form below.
Speak to us about changing personal injury solicitors
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