Guide to Making a Claim
- Contact one of our team: You will be immediately put in touch with one of our solicitors who will arrange a convenient appointment and visit you at a your location of choice. We guarantee a home visit by a solicitor within three hours of your call.
- No Win - No Fee: If we are able to assist you we will ask you to sign a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) confirming that there is nothing to pay if you lose. If you win all you pay is the success fee, which is a percentage of the damages you win. The CFA is our contract with you. You must sign the agreement to make sure you understand the terms and conditiona we are offering.
- On receipt of the signed CFA and medical mandate forms we will apply for your GP and hospital notes in readiness for instructing the medical expert to prepare a report on your injuries letter of claim This is a letter that we send to your opponent, summing up the facts of your claim and indicating the nature of the injuries sustained by you. This letter will be passed to the defendant's insurer to investigate the claim and put a value on it.
- The defendant or their insurers have 21 days to reply. If they acknowledge the letter of claim they then have 3 months to investigate matters.
- Medical Evidence: After obtaining your GP notes and any hospital notes we will instruct the medical expert. The expert will contact you direct with an appointment for an examination. Following examination the expert will provide us with a report on your injuries. We will place a valuation on your claim based on the report and your injuries.
- After obtaining your instructions, we will disclose a copy of the report and detail settlement proposals to the defendant's insurer.
- The defendant's insurer should confirm if liability is admitted or denied. If liability is admitted, then we will negotiate monetary settlement on your behalf, subject to your instructions. Should settlement be reached then your damages will be paid to you by cheque. We will then seek to agree costs with the defendant's insurer. Should the insurer not offer reasonable settlement terms then, should you wish, we will issue Court Proceedings on your behalf, to the value of your claim and the associated costs being determined at trial, by a judge.
- If liability is denied the defendant's insurer must give reasons for their denial, supported with documentary evidence as appropriate. We will then seek your comment and instructions, with a view to building the claim against the defendants.
- We will then attempt to negotiate with the defendant. Should they maintain their denial and fail to offer reasonable settlement proposals then we will issue Court Proceedings on your behalf, if there still be reasonable prospects of your claim succeeding if it was to progress to trial.
