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
Do I Have To Use The Solicitor My Insurer Tells Me To Use?
We have blogged previously about Legal Expenses Insurance (LEI). If you have LEI and approach your insurer for cover under the policy to make, for example, a personal injury claim, you may find the insurance company saying that they have the right to appoint a solicitor of their choice to act for you. We often get asked the question: "Do I have to use the solicitor my insurer tells me to use?" The true position is that you do not have to go with their choice. Right to appoint own solicitor for proceedings It’s not entirely simple but under Regulations dating from 1990 (the Insurance Companies (Legal Expenses Insurance) Regulations) you have the right to select the solicitor who will be appointed in respect of any proceedings. Of course, the normal procedure with a claim is that your solicitor will intimate it by letter first of all and, in many cases, the claim can be negotiated to a successful conclusion without the need for a court action – in other words, without the Continue Reading
Personal Injury Lawyer In Moray (How To Focus Your Search For A Solicitor)
If you live in Moray or have been injured in an accident which happened in Moray, here are some factors to consider if you need to choose a solicitor to help you with a personal injury claim. Are you going to use a local solicitor or one who is at a distance from you? A Moray solicitor will have local knowledge, which could be useful and give them an advantage over someone who is not based in the area. For some types of accident - for example, pavement tripping accidents - it can be crucial for someone (often, the solicitor!) to visit the locus of the accident as soon as possible after the accident in order to take photographs and make measurements. A local solicitor is going to be better-placed to carry out such work. Or maybe not. Google Streetview and other free online tools mean that a virtual visit to a locus is often possible and this may be sufficient, depending upon the type of accident. So, it may not be essential to have a local solicitor to deal with your Continue Reading
Why An APIL Solicitor Is Best To Handle Your Personal Injury Claim
Peter Brash, Grigor & Young, APIL Senior Litigator Not every solicitor handles personal injury claims but, more importantly, not every solicitor who handles personal injury claims is a specialist. In previous posts, we have explained why you need a specialist personal injury solicitor, preferably local to you, to handle your claim for you; and how the Law Society of Scotland’s Accreditation scheme is one badge of recognition of skills beyond the ordinary in particular areas of law, such as personal injury. How else can you tell whether a solicitor is going to be up to the task of handling your claim? Membership of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) APIL is a not-for-profit organisation set up over 20 years ago to encourage accident prevention and assist accident victims through campaigns and lobbying. It has over 4,300 members, most of whom are UK-based solicitors. APIL’s headquarters are in Nottingham. The culture of the Continue Reading
How To Choose a Personal Injury Solicitor in Scotland
In another article, we saw how proven specialist knowledge in a particular area of law is probably the most important factor when you are looking to get help from a solicitor - assuming you do not already have a solicitor or a good recommendation from a close friend or relative. In this article, we discuss how best to go about choosing a personal injury solicitor in Scotland. How to establish a solicitor's 'proven specialist knowledge' in relation to personal injury claims If you have been injured in an accident and need to make a personal injury claim in Scotland, how do you go about finding a solicitor with the necessary specialist knowledge? Lots of solicitors' firms - and others who are not solicitors - claim to have the necessary experience and expertise to handle your compensation claim, so what you need is an independent benchmark of excellence to give you confidence that you are trusting your claim to a safe pair of hands. Law Society of Scotland specialist Continue Reading