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Our client, a 25-year old Great Yarmouth woman (Miss H) stopped at a busy junction to give way to traffic. The car behind ploughed into the back of Miss H’s car knocking it forward onto the roundabout where it was hit by another car.
Miss H suffered soft tissue injuries to her neck and chest.
She rang her insurers who confirmed that they would arrange repairs to her car and for a hire car in the meantime. They said their solicitors would be in touch to deal with her injury claim.
Later that night she received a call on her mobile from a firm of solicitors. It turned out that they were based some 200 miles away from where Miss H lived.
Over the next three months, she received a number of questionnaires, letters and e-mails asking for information. She didn’t see or speak to her lawyer. She felt she was doing all the information gathering. She then received an appointment to see a GP to do a report on her injuries. He thought she was not very badly injured and the ongoing neck pain and stiffness should get better within a few weeks. His report was full of complicated medical language which Miss H didn’t really understand and which wasn’t explained but it seemed okay so she wrote back agreeing to the report.
She was then offered £1,500 in full and final settlement of her claim. Her solicitors told Miss H that the offer was fair.
Miss H wasn’t convinced that her medical problems would be better within a few weeks so she decided to get a second opinion.
A friend explained that she had been very happy with her solicitor from a local firm who was an AIL member and who had successfully dealt with an injury claim for her.
When Miss H rang the local AIL solicitor he explained that before he could give any advice he would need to see her and run through the GP report. He arranged to see Miss H at her home at 7.00pm the following evening.
When he saw Miss H he noticed that she had a hipped front tooth. She explained that she had banged her mouth on the steering wheel and cracked her front tooth. The GP report did not mention any damaged teeth. Miss H said she had told the GP about it but he told her to see her NHS dentist. The AIL solicitor also noticed that when Miss H turned around to speak to him her neck seemed staff and painful.
After a 50 minute discussion the AIL solicitor told Miss H that he thought her claim was worth a good deal more than £1,500. When the AIL solicitor asked Miss H why she hadn’t insisted on her car insurers appointing her own local solicitors to deal with the claim for her face-to-face, Miss H explained that they didn’t tell her that she had the right to choose.
Her AIL solicitor arranged for Miss H to receive private physiotherapy resulting in a considerable improvement in her neck and shoulder problems. Private dental treatment led to a new crowned front tooth being fitted.
Her AIL solicitor obtained a full report from an Orthopaedic Surgeon who had access to Miss H’s complete hospital and GP records (which the reporting GP did not). The report showed that Miss H had suspected fractured ribs, chronic seat belt bruising and whiplash injuries to her neck and left shoulder which would probably trouble Miss H for 2-3 years. She also saw a consultant in restorative dentistry whose report confirmed that the work needed to replace Miss H’s front tooth had been successfully carried out at a cost of £1,000 but that Miss H would need future dental treatment for the rest of her life at a cost of around £5,000.
Within nine months the AIL solicitors, armed with the new medical and dental evidence, were able to persuade the Defendant’s insurers to pay Miss H £15,500 compensation.
No two cases are the same but local face-to-face advice is essential. AIL lawyers know the questions to ask and the experts to use. Ask yourself this: can you afford not to use a local AIL lawyer?