We received the following question in an enquiry via our website: “After a road accident (not own fault) is it better to claim personal injury through solicitor provided by my insurer or through independent solicitor?” Here are 5 things you could consider which might help you reach a decision on that issue. 1. How experienced and qualified is the person handling your claim? It would be nice to be able to take it as a “given" that the level of experience and expertise of the two types of adviser are the same. However, that is not necessarily safe to assume. Knowing whether your claim is going to be handled by a solicitor or by a paralegal (or by an administration person) could be important. If you're getting help from a solicitor, you have a clear benchmark of legal training. With a paralegal or claim handler, that's not so obvious. In general terms, you're looking for a solicitor who has a proven track record in dealing specifically with personal injury claims. All Continue Reading
Why First Consultation Free is not good enough for personal injury claims (and what is better for you)
Is one font better for your memory than another? Can the design of the typeface used to put information into a readable form make a difference to how well you will recall that information later? Research on this issue at RMIT University in Melbourne concluded that most of the fonts we see every day are similar. Their familiarity means we often glance over the words they form and no memory trace is created. On the other hand, at the other end of the spectrum, if typography is too different from the norm, the brain does not process it well and, again, we don’t retain the information. Is there a way to overcome this balancing act between over-familiarity and unreadableness? RMIT has developed the font, Sans Forgetica, which could be the answer. They say it lies at a sweet spot where, although the appearance of the font forms something of a barrier to the learning process, overall it helps the learning process rather than hindering it. They have proved this via a mixed lab Continue Reading
How not to market your personal injury claims services
That's right. You don't spell it "nuisiance". But spelling mistakes in stock photography are not regarded as a nuisance at Moray Claims. They brighten our day. Anyhow... Like all businesses, law firms must market their products and services. In the end, it all comes down to trust. Having a website with a wide range of educational information is part of the process of encouraging you to get to know, like and trust the solicitors (or other legal services provider) marketing their services to you online. Beyond that, the first impression you get - when you pluck up the courage to contact a solicitor - will be important to you. Most websites have contact forms you can fill in and submit. Should you choose to make contact by phone, however - How long does it take for the telephone to be answered? How long will it take for your call to be transferred to a solicitor who might actually be able to deal with your case? One thing which comes up repeatedly in advice Continue Reading
Why an accident in Scotland means you need advice from a Scottish solicitor
If you have an accident in Scotland, you need to get advice from a Scottish solicitor. People contact us with personal injury related questions via this website from all over the place (not always in the UK and not always even in Europe). Where the enquiry is about an accident that happened outwith Scotland, we cannot help you directly but we can often use our professional contacts to point you in the right direction. It’s even more focused than "Scotland" for us, however, because we concentrate our main efforts on helping clients in our home area of Moray and a bit beyond that. One phone enquiry we received recently caused us a lot of concern and that’s the seed for this article: The risk that you might have a question about injuries arising from an accident in Scotland but not get advice from a Scottish solicitor. Here’s (an anonymised version of) the scenario that came from the phone enquiry mentioned above. A parent of the caller had died as the result of a road Continue Reading
Why would you want to become a Personal Injury Solicitor?
When I was a child, my parents used to get the Reader’s Digest and I was fascinated by a regular feature in that, called "Drama in Real Life". They would have titles like: One Handhold from Death, 'Pull me out!' and The man who wouldn't jump. These articles would tell the story of how do someone survived a situation of great personal peril, which could be anything from a natural disaster to a hotel fire or an accident at work. Often, other people involved in the situation did not make it out alive. This would get me thinking about how better precautions or preventative measures might have been taken so as to avoid the injury and loss of life. As I grew older, I remember failings of frustration in situations where I felt powerless because I did not know my legal rights. It has been said that "If you don't know your rights, you don't have any". What I perceived as injustice in many situations really frustrated me. It got me thinking that, if I knew about my Continue Reading
How best to find a Personal Injury Solicitor using the Law Society of Scotland’s Online Tool
(NOTE: This post contains a screencast video, below, with a walk-through of how best to use the Law Society of Scotland's "Find a Solicitor" Online Tool to locate a specialist personal injury solicitor who is local to you). You don’t have to use the solicitors your insurers may tell you to use for your personal injury claim. We recommend you to get help from a solicitor who meets two main criteria: They should be local, and they should be specialised. 1. Local solicitor We recommend you to engage the services of a local solicitor, if possible. What do we mean by local? Ideally, a solicitor who is local to you and local to the location of the accident. Even getting a solicitor who is local in only one of these two ways is probably better than a solicitor who is neither close to you nor the place where the accident happened. 2. Specialist solicitor These days, all solicitors are specialists to some extent. Personal injury law is a complex area and you need Continue Reading
What are the benefits of a solicitor handling your personal injury claim (compared to a claims management company)?
In this article, we are considering the situation where you are making the decision between instructing a solicitor to represent your interests in a personal injury compensation claim and instructing someone else – such as a claims management company. We are not considering the situation where you are deciding between having a solicitor and representing your own interests. Grigor & Young LLP / Moray Claims have other articles about the pitfalls of a DIY personal injury claim and the perils of negotiating directly with the third party insurers. The 3 factors we want to highlight here are certainty, insurance and expertise. First of all, certainty. 1. It gives you certainty about who you are dealing with. Only those who undertake wide-ranging education, training and ongoing “Continuing Professional Development” are permitted to practise as a solicitor. At the moment, claims management companies are not regulated in Scotland. Anyone can set up a claims management Continue Reading
Who are the Best Personal Injury Solicitors in Moray?
At Moray Claims / Grigor & Young, we regularly receive enquiries from people in the Moray area regarding potential personal injury claims. Because – via this website and the Grigor & Young website – we have frequently expressed our thoughts and feelings on all things personal-injury-claim-related, we often get asked who are some of the other Scottish solicitors who provide compensation claims services to injured people in Moray. It’s important that you should be as informed as possible if you are making decisions in relation to a potential personal injury claim. Here is an alphabetical list of some of the solicitors who market their services to people in Moray for personal injury compensation claims. This has been compiled by reference to Google search engine results (“personal injury moray”) and we have tried our best to make the list as comprehensive as possible by researching this over a period of 7 days. 1. Bonnar Accident Law A Scottish-based firm of solicitors Continue Reading
How we help you at Moray Claims
In the video below, Peter Brash of Moray Claims and Grigor & Young explains how we can help you with advice in relation to a possible personal injury claim, especially if you are in Moray. We recommend all injured people to get advice as soon as possible from a local, specialist solicitor. By doing that, you'll be clear about your rights and be in a position to get proper access to justice should you choose to go down the route of making a compensation claim. You need to speak to someone who is not only knowledgeable and experienced, but independent and definitely on your side. The insurers on the other side of your potential claim fit the "well-informed" bit but they're principally looking after the interests of their shareholders and not your interests, despite what they may tell you. In the video, Peter explains why "local is best", in our view. Early advice from a solicitor will set you off on the right track, with the best chance of avoiding all the pitfalls. And Continue Reading
Do you have freedom of choice of personal injury solicitor?
Humans have an overpowering need to return favours. This is one pillar of the psychology of persuasion explored in Robert Cialdini’s book, “Influence”. The rule of reciprocity is that we feel a duty to repay others in kind for whatever they have done for us. It’s powerful because it forms the basis of all societies: it allowed our ancestors to share resources securely, knowing that their favour would be returned later. If someone else does us a favour, we feel a psychological burden until we return it. We’re afraid of being labelled as a parasite, if we don’t. Many experiments have demonstrated this phenomenon. In one of these - at Cornell University in the early 1970s - Professor Dennis Regan demonstrated that people are so anxious to get rid of the burden of debt that they will perform much larger favours in return for small ones. In that study, a researcher – “Joe” – bought test subjects a 10 cent Coke as an unprompted favour and then later asked the subjects to buy Continue Reading
Should you settle a personal injury claim without getting legal advice?
We would advise anyone who has been injured in an accident to get specialist legal advice as soon as possible. Economics alone suggest that you cannot rely on an insurance company to give you a fair deal, if you choose to handle your claim yourself. (Their primary duty is to their shareholders, not to you). Unfortunately, there are all sorts of other potential conflicts of interest for third party insurers as well. Only an independent, specialist solicitor will be truly on your side and hold your best interests as paramount. If you live in Moray or have suffered a personal injury accident in Moray, we can help with advice on a possible personal injury claim. We’ll help you directly if that's what is in your best interests. We will refer you on elsewhere if we think that’s a better option for you. Our main aim is to make sure everyone with a valid claim gets access to the justice they deserve through the solicitor who is best-placed to help them – in terms of experience, Continue Reading
Can a Moray Solicitor help with a Personal Injury Claim?
For a variety of reasons, a local solicitor - provided they have the necessary experience and specialism - is the best person to handle your personal injury claim. If you have suffered a personal injury accident in Moray or if you live in Moray, we can help you. If you have any questions about any element of our personal injury claims services at Moray Claims / Grigor & Young, feel free to contact us. You can send us a Free Online Enquiry via this website (it's an online method of sending us an email). Alternatively, you can phone us. Our accredited specialist personal injury solicitors – Peter and Marie – are on (Elgin) 01343 544077. We’ll help you directly if that's what seems to us to be in your best interests. But we might refer you on elsewhere, if we think that’s an option that's more in your best interests. Our priority is to make sure all people with valid claims get access to the justice they deserve through a solicitor who is best-placed to help them – in Continue Reading