We at Grigor & Young / Moray Claims recently dealt with a personal injury claim for a child who had suffered loss of several teeth following a fall in a local-authority-run play park – caused by a defective ground surface. The best settlement offer received from the insurers in negotiations before court action was raised was £750. Raising a court action resulted in a subsequent negotiated settlement of the claim at £25,000 – in other words, 33 times the best pre-litigation offer.
Insurance companies are constantly putting forward the line that personal injury solicitors are simply expensive middle men.
The insurers maintain that they can themselves fairly assess the compensation that is due and that, if you choose to deal with them directly, you will not be prejudiced. They will negotiate settlement of the claim with you and your claim will not have to go to court.
The insurers say that the benefits of this solicitor-less approach go further. If less money has to be spent on solicitors’ costs, the insurers will be able to pass on the benefits to all their customers in things like lower insurance premiums.
The problem is that insurers’ behaviour does not bear out their assurances that they can be trusted to look after your interests if you decide to make a personal injury claim without the benefit of independent legal advice.
One benchmark of this comes from Scottish research by Digby Brown which suggests that, if you raise a court action in relation to your personal injury claim, on average, you will get 3.2 times more compensation than you would have done if you settled your claim by negotiation without a court action.
Is it true that raising a court action will probably get you more compensation?
In general terms, though our “sample” is smaller than that used in others’ research, this is borne out by our own experience.
The following examples are a selection from cases Grigor & Young have settled within the last two years. In each case, liability was admitted by the insurers. In other words, there was no dispute that some compensation was due to be paid; the dispute was purely about how much was to be paid. (Please note that there are plenty of situations where court action is required because both liability and quantum are in dispute but those are not included here).
It is important to stress that no two cases are alike. Accordingly, the exact outcomes vary quite significantly, as you will see.
- A young woman with serious facial and psychological injuries following a road traffic accident. Best offer in pre-litigation negotiations: £75,000. Following raising of court action case settled at £86,000. i.e. 1.1 times the best pre-litigation offer.
- A supermarket employee who suffered a hand injury from a defective door. Best offer pre-litigation: £2,000; Settlement figure in court action: £3,700. i.e. 1.8 times the best pre-litigation offer.
- An agricultural worker seriously injured after a fall at work. Highest pre-litigation offer: £80,000; Settlement achieved after court action raised: £275,000. i.e. 3.4 times the best pre-litigation offer.
- A supermarket worker who injured his back as the result of a slip in the kitchen at work. Highest offer before court action: £2,000; Following court action, case settled at £40,000. i.e. 20 times the best pre-litigation offer.
How much would each of the above injured persons have received in compensation if they had not had the help of a specialist personal injury solicitor with their claim?
No one can say for certain because, of course, that’s not what happened in their case – but it’s likely they would have received lower compensation.
You need to have a specialist personal injury solicitor helping you with your claim because it will probably make a positive difference to the amount of compensation you receive. In some cases, the difference will be significant.
How we can help
If you have any questions arising from this article – or regarding any aspect of our personal injury claims services generally – please feel free to get in touch with us at Grigor & Young.
You can contact Peter or Marie on 01343 544077 or by sending us a Free Online Enquiry via this website.
All initial enquiries are free of charge and without obligation. If we can’t help you directly, we will probably be able to point you in the direction of someone who can help you – someone expert, experienced and local to you.
