Personal Injury (PI)
Support for people making Personal Injury or Accident Claims has been highly publicised by many large and sometimes remote organisations. This, with the publicity about the ‘compensation culture,' may deter some people who have legitimate reasons for making a claim. Hine Downing Solicitors have been dealing with Personal Injury claims successfully for many years and can help. We are a friendly, professional and local alternative to the high-volume, national specialists and offer a free ? hour initial consultation.
Conditional fee arrangements - "No Win, No Fee"
Legal Aid is no longer available for personal injury claims. No Win, No Fee is popular and easy and means that if your claim is unsuccessful, we will not charge you for our fees. You can back this up by taking out insurance to cover expenses we may need to incur on your behalf.
What are Personal Injury / Accident claims about?
If you have had an accident in the last 3 years that was not your fault, you may be able to make a claim. Typical claims include:
- Accidents at work
- Motoring accidents
- Slips, trips and falls
- Sporting injuries
- Defective products and services
How can Hine Downing help?
We can judge:
- How likely your claim is to succeed
- How much you might be able to claim
- Explain the legal processes
- Discuss how you will fund your case
- If we can take on your case
- Whether we can offer a No Win, No Fee arrangement
What would we need to know?
- The date and place of your accident, and how it happened
- Contact details of any witnesses
- Details of your injuries, medical diagnoses and treatment
- Time you have had to take off work
- Other financial expenses you have incurred
- What cover you have under existing insurance policies, such as motor or home insurance, or may have through union membership
- Any other documents you have to support your claim.
What might it cost?
Each case is different, but we will provide an estimate of the costs and expenses of your case and agree any spending limits. We will give you an idea of when you might become liable to pay the defendant's or our costs and explain how you can protect against this by taking out legal fees insurance i.e. how your fees will be paid if you lose.
What might happen?
Many cases are settled out of court, by your making a claim and the defendant accepting liability. Defendants have 3 months to reply to a claim letter. There may be some negotiation after accepting liability before a settlement can be agreed. In some cases, we may advise you to go to court to challenge the defendant, in which case the timing of events will be controlled by a judge. How long your case takes could vary substantially depending upon events.
What next?
If you feel that you have a valid claim, please contact Brian Dilks, who will be pleased to get back to you with a telephone or office consultation.
Email: john.mclachlan@hinedowning.com or jo.fisher@hinedowning.com
