There has recently been a number of changes to the law surrounding compensation for injury following a road traffic accident. This has led to confusion and uncertainty for many claimants about the best way to seek damages for injuries sustained following an accident.
Following an unfortunate accident, you will contact your insurer to submit a claim due to the damage to your vehicle. During your conversation with your insurer, you may inform them that you have suffered some injury. They may suggest to appoint a certain solicitor or a solicitor may contact you directly who have already been passed details of your claim from the insurer.
One of the most frequent questions asked is whether you have to instruct an insurance appointed solicitor. The simple answer to this is no, you may choose whoever you wish to represent you in relation to your claim.
Legal Expense Insurance
Some people choose to purchase legal expense insurance at the time of their renewal of motor insurance to cover the costs of legal fees for pursuing or defending a claim against a third party for ‘uninsured losses’. This is known as a ‘Before the Event’ Insurance policy.
Should you hold Before the Event Insurance, your insurer may direct your claim to one of their panel solicitors who have previously entered into an agreement with the insurer. You should be provided with a choice to use their panel solicitor or to use your own solicitor who you think would represent your interests. Although your insurer may try to encourage you to use one of their panel solicitors, they can’t compel you to do so.
You may request that your insurer authorise your selected solicitors to work under the Legal Expense Policy you hold and, in this situation, you should provide full details of your insurance policy to your instructed solicitor so that they may make those enquiries.
Should your insurer not be willing to cover your selected solicitor under the Legal Expense Policy, whilst it may not make sense to not use your policy, it is likely that your solicitors will be undertaking the work on a no-win no-fee basis and therefore it is not an issue in practice.
When choosing a firm to represent you in your claim, you need to ensure that you are going to get the best service and outcome for your claim. At Farleys, we have over 60 years’ experience in the legal profession and our solicitors secure millions of pounds in damages for our clients every year. We have experience in dealing with all kinds of personal injury and clinical negligence cases from simple road traffic accidents through to complex claims worth many millions of pounds.
What do I do now?
As mentioned above, it is important to act quickly in these circumstances so, should you wish for Farleys to conduct your personal injury claim, you should contact the team at the earliest opportunity. We can be contacted by phone on 0845 287 0939, by email, or through the online chat below.