Professional Negligence, Personal Injury and missing Policy
Hi,
I was involved in a head on collision in 2003. I sustained injuries to both feet, trauma, neck and back pain, plus exasperation of my previous conditions M.E. and Fibromyalgia.
I was appointed a Solicitor through the Insurance company.
His service was extremely poor. He delayed my treatment by 17 months, reports were unduely late, court dates were never met, etc.
After many complaints in 2008 he informed me that I was allowed to change to another Solicitor. When I told him I had instructed another Solicitor, he immediately told me that the Insurance Brokers had gone into administration but he would forward all the details on.
This never happened and no policy could be traced, via him or the brokers. Within 2 weeks a Part 36 Offer was made and I was advised to accept or risk loosing my home if I continued. Under these cirmcumstances I was left with no choice but to accept.
Oddly enough on passing the file over to the new Solicitor he advised that I should accept the offer as it was a good one! I wasn't aware that any negoiations had been taking place.
I have been through every stage of the Legal complaints procedure (including the SRA and Ombudsman) and despite 6 out of 7 of my complaints were upheld, nobody was willing to investigate the missing Insurance Policy.
He claimed his costs of £23,000 through the Court, stating that I the Claimant had the benefit of Before the Event Insurance.
Why is nobody willing to answer whether the Solicitor had breached the rules by not supplying the policy or any details about the underwritters?
And how could he lawfully claim his costs in this manner, without a policy?
I would be grateful is anyone could fill in the missing answers or can give any advice.
Thank you.
It does sound as though there
It does sound as though there was no policy in place. However without seeing the file and the complaints it is very difficult to be certain what the true postion was. Unfortunatley without the file any advice would be entirely speculative
It might well be that the settlement which was finally reached was a good one and that the lack of a policy did not materialy effect the overall outcome for you, or you might have been forced into a settlement to get the best outcome in the prevailing circumstances.
The brokers ceasing business on its own ought not result in there being no policy. In these circumstances any indication to the court that there is a BTE policy would be misleading and something which you should have a reasonable expectation that the the SRA would investigate.
The only way to really answer your questions would be to allow myself or another PI specialist solicitor to look at the file and other papers to form a view. It is likely that after an intial free assesment any further action might itself be pursued on a no win no fee basis.
Richard Paremain
Thank you Richard for your
Thank you Richard for your speedy reply.
Possibly the settlement was a good one under the circumstances but bearing in mind 6 years later I haven't managed to return to work, I am still suffering with the after effects of the RTA and I am now paying for private physio.
Also two barristers assessed my claim. The first valued it at £180,000, the second at £137,000 and on the basis of the defense it would be £30,000
I received £35,000 net of CRU.
This isn't all about the settlement offer alone, the abruptness and the circumstances of it being finalised in my opinion should have been addressed by the Governing bodies.
I was astounded and upset that the SRA refused to investigate and they simply took the Solicitors word that as far as he was aware the BTE Insurance policy existed.
In my opinion a Solicitor with over 15 years experience in Personal Injury, should have ensured he had the relevant documentation in place.
The SRA's final response to me stated that if I contacted them again my letter would be filed and I would be ignored, subsequently everybody else ignored my complaint about the Policy.
I think my case is quite complicated, due to my previous conditions, the lack of rehabilitation care, the treatment I received was unreasonably delayed, etc.
I don't know how to contact you directly in order to send my file, can you please forward me your details.
Thank you
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