Re: Personal Injury Solicitors : Sat Feb 09, 2013 12:26 am  

Strangely when i had a minor car accident last year, witnessed by 4 police officers, 2 of whom stopped to sort out exchange of details etc, i didn't receive any texts or letters from a claim company. Other drivers fault too (she admitted it to the cops)

Re: Personal Injury Solicitors : Tue Feb 12, 2013 4:58 pm  

Dally wrote:

I am afraid that's not the case. These people have even written with an 'engagement letter' and imply in their letter that they have already been more or less signed up. Interestingly, in their T&Cs they say a typical simple claim will generate c. £1,500 and their fees are typically something like £1,200 to £2,000 IF things go smoothly AND they would hope to recover these from the other side. There is insurance, etc but as I read it you still carry a potential risk but they certainly reap some reward come what may!

Rather more worrying last week Mrs D got a call purporting to be from from the party's insurers asking all sorts of details about my son's accident. Remarkably, they were saying they were going to offer him £1,500 (surprise, surprise) even though he'd never asked them for a penny and the accident was yoks ago. Why would they do that? To me either because (a) they had been contacted by solicitors purporting to act for my son without authorisation; (b) it was the firm / their agents pretending to be the insurers to reel him in as a client; or, perhaps more worrying (c) they were unilaterally "acting" for him with the intention of defrauding the insuers purely for their own personal gain - ie compensatio + time costs. Please tell me (c) does not / cannot happen?


Tried calling the SRA this morning but typically option 4 - for Joe Public to complain / chat was too busy and it just said goodbye! Great to see that the regulators taking an interest!

this sounds more like this was the Insurers who were attempting 'third party capture' In cases where they accept their insured is at fault they are gambling that a PI claim will be pursued and trying to dispose of the claim quickly and without the need for solicitors whose costs they will then avoid. A sensible Insurer will err on teh side of generosity as the savings they are making are in the costs but some get greedy and try and fob you off with low offers. An insurer tried this with me after one of their insureds had rear ended me even after taking my details including that I work for a form of defendant solicitors and work in insurance litigation! Sufice to say their offer was rejected. I wouldnt have pursued my subsequent claim if they hadnt tried to con me with a ridiculous offer

Re: Personal Injury Solicitors : Wed Feb 13, 2013 3:26 pm  

rhino phil wrote:

this sounds more like this was the Insurers who were attempting 'third party capture' In cases where they accept their insured is at fault they are gambling that a PI claim will be pursued and trying to dispose of the claim quickly and without the need for solicitors whose costs they will then avoid.

Could well be.

rhino phil wrote:

A sensible Insurer will err on the side of generosity

No, they won't. As these offers are made without any medical evidence of any injury, they are made blind, and therefore the insurers do not know, nor care, what the claim may be worth. Or perhaps more accurately, yes in the average minor whippy, they would on average end up in front, but the token offers ASSUME the claimant has no significant injury, despite the insurance companies all well knowing that some claimants will go on to have long-term problems.

rhino phil wrote:

some get greedy and try and fob you off with low offers.

Indeed they do. And this is why their romantic overtures to the government, that you can trust them to be fair, are manifest bollox. Along with the reason that they only owe a duty to their shareholders to maximise income, and owe no duty of care to injured victims.

rhino phil wrote:

An insurer tried this with me after one of their insureds had rear ended me even after taking my details including that I work for a form of defendant solicitors and work in insurance litigation! Suffice to say their offer was rejected. I wouldnt have pursued my subsequent claim if they hadnt tried to con me with a ridiculous offer

So even defendant lawyers make fake claims for non-existent whippy! (Since as the gov. and ABi tell us, nobody actually suffers whiplash, not really)

Re: Personal Injury Solicitors : Wed Feb 13, 2013 4:21 pm  

I got one of those automated calls this afternoon, from a company calling itself Haddon Legal (iirc) telling me that records indicated that I was in line for a substantial personal injury pay-out; all I had to do was press 5 to be put through to a 'claims specialist.'

For devilment, I pressed 5 and when I spoke to James the 'claims specialist,' he asked, "Have you had an accident or injury in the past 3 years?" I replied no, because I haven't. He then asked, "Then why are you calling?" I replied - "It was you who called me - apparently I've had an accident." He went on, "If you haven't had an accident, we can't help you." I then shouted, "Then why did I get the call in the first place and who regulates this industry - I want to make a complaint about your shoddy fishing expedition!"

James hung up, the shameless puppet of a parasitic plague on modern society.

Re: Personal Injury Solicitors : Wed Feb 13, 2013 4:51 pm  

bren2k wrote:

James hung up, the shameless puppet of a parasitic plague on modern society.

...who is probably a 16 year old kid with a very carefully written script in front of him and a b1tch of a female boss walking the floor shouting and bawling at him and all his co-workers to answer more calls, working for £3.68 per hour and thinking what a shoite job he's fallen into.

Re: Personal Injury Solicitors : Wed Feb 13, 2013 6:03 pm  

JerryChicken wrote:

...who is probably a 16 year old kid with a very carefully written script in front of him and a b1tch of a female boss walking the floor shouting and bawling at him and all his co-workers to answer more calls, working for £3.68 per hour and thinking what a shoite job he's fallen into.

Indeed - I wasn't proud of myself.

Rather worrying though that they are fishing on this scale and I wonder if the script includes instructions to hang up if a mark questions the practice?

Re: Personal Injury Solicitors : Wed Feb 13, 2013 6:08 pm  

bren2k wrote:

Indeed - I wasn't proud of myself.

Rather worrying though that they are fishing on this scale and I wonder if the script includes instructions to hang up if a mark questions the practice?

Undoubtably it will, they don't really give a damn about you or your imaginary accident, all they want is a "catch" to sell on to another trader and chalk another mark up on the board on the wall so that they can all go home at 9pm (the call centre watershed).

Re: Personal Injury Solicitors : Wed Feb 13, 2013 6:31 pm  

JerryChicken wrote:

Undoubtably it will, they don't really give a damn about you or your imaginary accident, all they want is a "catch" to sell on to another trader and chalk another mark up on the board on the wall so that they can all go home at 9pm (the call centre watershed).

This country.