@T.C. I've just realised I didn't answer your first question. Sorry. The fees are not covered under a legal insurance scheme. They're operating on a no win/no fee basis & their costs will be deducted from any settlement. I am not confident I won't end up with a debt instead! I was sent for a medical at a highly dubious doctor's surgery that appear to specialise in holistic & herbal remedies. Was in there little more than 10 minutes & had a fifteen page report the following day. Me; "My back hurts" Doc; "Can you touch your toes?" Me; "No, it hurts" Doc; "OK, have a seat" End of examination. I sent the report back, saying it was inaccurate. It's on its 4th generation so far & I'm waiting for something that resembles the truth. He asked if I was wearing a helmet - "er, yes" Report said "Client was wearing a helmet" No mention if Sidi boots, Halvarssons two piece (with braces @Lozzy!) , Furygan gloves. I said I want to claim for these & also want them mentioned in case the 3rd party insurers say I contributed to my injuries by not protecting myself. Regarding my job loss. All done very sneakily & after 1 year 11 months service. 2 years is a critical cut off point, as you probably know. As I mentioned before, my list of heinous crimes is shocking - My classroom was untidy (it wasn't, I stayed late one night & sorted it) I ate a pot noodle during class time (I had rescheduled a tea break, so got advised not to reschedule in future) I took a personal phone call during class time (guilty, as I was trying to arrange a hire bike so that it didn't interfere with my work & had already spent my lunch break on hold/trying to organise this), a student had left his folder in a cupboard & I wasn't aware. 'It could have gone missing!'. All of this occurred approximately two weeks before a personal development review & was not a cause for concern during that review. They basically had the ache with me because I'd taken 7 days off due to the accident. They couldn't sack me for that, so conjured up a list of terrible crimes instead. Yes, I explored the tribunal/ACAS route but the two years employment is critical. People are twats. They soon forgot the two months where we went from 3 lecturers to just me. I prepared for & covered all classes, literally running from one classroom to another. I sorted out & gave them a training car free of charge a few weeks before they f*cked me over. Bloody rubbish prick tits! Haha!
@Black & White, Unfortunately I have heard this comment about the medical examination so many times, if I had a pound for every time Iheard t, I would be a very wealthy man. For the benefit of other members, I will cover the points you make so hopefully it helps others. To put your mind at ease, there is no catch with your case being funded under a no win no fee agreement (or conditional fee agreement to give it its correct name). No win no fee was introduced in 2001 to replace legal aid so that legal representation was made available for all regardless of status. Previously, legal aid was means tested and so only the wealthiest could usually afford proper legal representation. CFA's addressed this and put paidonly the wealthiest getting justice. No win no fee means exactly what it states on the tin. If you do not win your case, you pay nothing and you are not liable for any fees, in the same way that your law firm do not get paid anything either, hence the reason why they have to carry out a risk assessment and ensure that the liklihood of winning the case on the balance of probability is 51% or better. Legal fees are claimed from the other side on successful complation of the case. If the fees are disputed, it might go to a costs hearing, but these tend to be a bit of a rarity, but.......If the case is on the portal fast track scheme then fees tend to be capped at around £800 regardless. Law firms also used to be able to charge the third party what is called a success fee. This was additional fees that they could charge depending on the degree of difficulty the case posed. So in really very difficult cases, the claimant firm could charge a 100% success fee (in other words double their fees) and in fairly simple cases it might be as low as 10% However, about 4 years ago, success fees were outlawed. The Law Society and the Minstry of Justice did though allow law firms to deduct a maximum of up to 25% of their clients compensation to make up for the loss of the success fee. This deduction is not compulsory (although I am not aware of any firm that does not make a deduction), it is negotiable and is lawfull. One of the reasons why Legal Expenses Insurance are starting to become popular again is because under the terms of an LEI case there is no deductions for a success fee, and you are not obliged to use a panel firm appointed by your insurer (although they will still try it on) and you are allowed to use whatever law firm suits you without losing LEI cover. If you decide to sack a firm, it is a very easy task. You simply speak to a new law firm and if they agree to take on your case, once they have your authority, they will write to your old firm tell them that they have been sacked and the old firm are obligated to hand over the case papers. In respect of the medical expert, you should not be seeing the expert until such time as you have made a full recovery, or if there are still ongoing issues, then an interim medical report may be obtained or if there are various medical problems, then an expert from each medical field will be involved. The Doctors get paid about £500 a report (which is a joke) and many of them pay lip service rather than really look at any underlying problems. A half decent law firm will have a panel of medical experts that they can turn to depending on the injury and which they are specialist in. Firms like the one you are with will often use a GP and they will say what they are told to say because they do not want to risk losing theor easy money and they can do several in one day, so what you have said in neither surprising or anything out of the blue. To be honest, the kit you were wearing is not the concern of the the medical examiner, but it is the concrn of your solicitor who should be counter arguing the point that you were wearing maximum protection and therefore the claim that you should have protected yourself better is both wrong and total B@llocks. Your job loss I think if a union or legal person has said it is a no go, could form part of your injury claim. It is no different if your injuries were so severe that you would not have been able to work again and that can be claimed for as part of your special damages. As far as the hire bike is concerned, have youstill got it? Does it still cause you pain when you ride it. Be aware that the the defendants may try and wriggle their way out of paying for these costs if it was not supplied and paid for by your insurance company. I am sorry I have rambled on a bit. I will respond to your personal message which is sat in my in folder, but I hope you and other members find this usefull in understanding how a case is funded As I said I will respond to and answer the questions you have asked in your PM
I think it would be a great idea to have a post pinned referring to accidents and how to handle the process. Obviously every situation is different but with the information @T.C has provided over the years we can all learn a lot and deal with such situations (if we are unfortunate to be in a accident) a lot better and be more confident in taking on the insurance companies and solicitors if we feel we are not getting the assistance we should be
