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How To Choose Your Solicitor

There can be at 50 or more companies advertising on line all claiming to offer a specialist personal injury claim handling service.

Specialist Personal Injury Claims

You cannot turn on the satellite television during daylight hours without being bombarded and pressurised to ring a helpline for instant compensation after hearing tales of a claimant was who unable to work for the rest of his life and was delighted to recover a few thousand pounds !!

The trouble is that very few of these helplines are solicitors, and even if it is a firm of solicitors, the solicitor may not be a competent specialist personal injury lawyer and even if he is, he may not be truly independent.

If you have been injured, (perhaps you are off work for a few days flicking through those channels on your satellite television, wondering whether you have a claim and who to contact), what do you do?

What Should You Do?

There is a very quick, very reliable and easy way to sort the wheat from the chaff. Here’s what you do:-

1. Ignore “panel solicitors”

Ignore the recommended “panel solicitors” put forward by your insurance company.

The chances are that they are on the panel because they have some links with the insurer and may even be part of the insurers’ organisation. You will receive a service which could well involve hanging on the telephone and service which requires significant form filling. You may never speak to the same person twice.

2. Decline your opponents insurance company

You should decline the offer of your opponent’s insurance company to “sort all that out for you”.

This is a recent development by liability insurers to prevent accident victims from obtaining legal advice. It is known as third-party capture. They will indeed most likely provide fast compensation, but it will be a fraction of what your claim could be worth in our experience.

3. Find a local accredited solicitor

Find a local solicitor who is a member of an accredited panel.

There are two such panels, the Law Society’s Personal Injury Accreditation Scheme, and a separate panel administered by the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers.

Whilst lack of accreditation does not amount to evidence of any lack of ability, panel membership does provide you with a safeguard that your solicitor knows what he or she is doing and has had proven experience in this area of law.

Contact the Law Society

Contact the Law Society for the Personal Injury Accreditation Scheme, the contact details for the panels are below. Alternatively, you can simply contact us via email through the contact us pages of our website.