The default position under Qualified One-way Costs Shifting (QOCS) for personal injury compensation claimants in Scotland is this. If your claim succeeds, you will be able to recover legal costs from your opponent, in addition to the compensation agreed as payable or as awarded to you by a court. Whether you lose any of your compensation to pay a success fee will depend upon the arrangement you have with your solicitor. If your claim is unsuccessful, QOCS should mean that you DO NOT have pay legal costs to your opponent - even though the normal rule is “loser pays”. That is what “one-way costs shifting” means. There’s a shift in the usual costs rule in favour of the loser if they are claimant; but not if they are the claimant’s opponents (usually an insurance company). QOCS arrived in England and Wales (2013) before it came to Scotland (2021). To some extent, Scotland has been learning from the experience south of the Border. In 2023, there have been some Continue Reading
Why these are the 3 hardest words for personal injury insurers to utter
If you like words and plays on words, the internet is a mine of nuggets. For example, in India, “Sari” always seems to be the hardest word. If you’re looking for “alternative” definitions of words, the Uxbridge English Dictionary (from BBC Radio 4’s I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue) has examples such as: Words are not always what they seem. The “plain meaning” of a word is rarely a given. The meaning of words can be twisted or ignored. In this article, we’ll consider 3 words / phrases which insurers in personal injury claim situations will avoid using if they can and will twist as far as possible if they cannot be avoided. What are these "unforgivable" words / phrases? We’ll get to them in a moment. First, we need to understand the context in which the problematic terminology arises. Your personal injury solicitor wants to achieve for you the highest level of compensation reasonably possible, as soon as reasonably possible. There are various tactics your solicitor Continue Reading
Claims for Death of a Relative in Scotland – Another milestone?
Elgin's Dandy Lion has not had a view up the High Street to Dr Gray's Hospital since May 2018. In the meantime, his view has been blocked by wooden hoardings as Poundland first had structural problems and then a fire. We’ve had piles of metal on the site, from the “scaffolding mountain” to the beginnings of the new Poundland construction. In the various photos below, there is a similarity but there's also gradual progress. In the law relating to bereavement compensation in Scotland, there can be a superficial sameness to things but, again, under the surface, there is progress and milestones are being achieved. We’ll look at one of these progression points in this article. For fatal accident claims, in Scotland, this is one area where the law is quite different to that in England and Wales. This is particularly the case for compensation awarded for the grief and sorrow caused by deceased’s death – often referred to as compensation for “loss of society”. Those pushing Continue Reading
How to avoid the need to make a Medical Negligence Claim
The world record for longest time between a message in a bottle being sent and received is 132 years. 1886 to 2018. It was “posted” as part of research project into ocean shipping routes. The glass container was thrown overboard from a German vessel in the Indian Ocean, washing up on a remote Western Australian beach. If your letter requires someone else to take action, a delay of 100 years or more in someone reading the letter is not going to be good news for you. When you send a letter, you expect it will be received and read within a few days. We all understand that this is how the world works but what if a letter gets lost or delayed? – or is never even sent in the first place. How does this relate to claims for medical negligence? Well, it’s better to avoid having the need to make a personal injury compensation claim – including a medical negligence claim – than to have to go down that road at all. Claims are stressful and compensation levels - even Continue Reading