Injury Claims – Why you should instruct your solicitor sooner rather than later

Most people know that they have 3 years from the date of an accident to settle their claim or start Court Proceedings pursuant to the Limitation Act of 1980. That period can be longer in cases such as hearing losses, asbestosis and clinical negligence where the symptoms of an injury occur a long time after the negligence or exposure that causes it.

Why you should proceed with their injury claim as soon as possible

Some injured people decide not to proceed with their injury claim immediately after their accident as they know that they have a significant period of time in which to do so, sometimes for very good reasons, but that is not always the best way forwards for a number of reasons:

• Everybody’s memory fades with time. Clients and witnesses may forget key facts that are crucial to establishing liability for an accident. Examples might be exactly where they tripped over, the speed a car was driving at, the time of the accident and who witnessed it.
• The defect that they tripped over may have changed or been repaired. In one case, I went to see a client and we visited the scene of his accident 5 days after it happened only to find that someone else had reported it to the Council. They had repaired it, leaving us unable to take accurate measurements.
• Witnesses may be harder to contact. They may change their phone numbers, move house or lose contact with the injured person.
• Many clients have Legal Expenses Insurance as part of a House Contents, Car Insurance or other Policy. Many Insurers will not cover the costs of bringing a claim if they are not notified of an accident within 3 months of it occurring. When that happens, clients have to enter into Conditional Fee Agreements which may lead to their paying up to 25% of their compensation by way of a success fee. Staring their claim earlier would have meant keeping all their damages.
• If the claim is against a business or employer, they may move, close or become very difficult to trace.
• The machinery which caused the accident may be sold, scrapped or altered (as happened in a recent case of mine) so an expert engineer will be unable to examine it if liability is denied.
• CCTV of the accident may no longer be available as it is usually kept for one or two months. This can be vital evidence in establishing liability for an accident.
• In fatal accident cases, the inquest may have been concluded and your solicitor won’t have a chance to attend and ask questions of the witnesses, which is an extremely useful opportunity of assessing the prospects of a case succeeding.
• The law changes on a regular basis and if you delay seeing a solicitor, it might change to deny you the right to claim or reduce your prospects of succeeding.

Our advice is to see a solicitor (and preferably one you can meet in person) as soon as possible after the accident or you become aware of your right to claim. If you are hesitant about pursuing a claim, for example if it is against your employer, then the solicitor will be able to deal with many of the issues raised above, advise you fully and then you will decide when to take the matter further. We often see injured people who sensibly give us all the information we need to proceed and we then agree with them to write to the opponent at a later date to suit the client.

If you have any questions about any type of personal injury claim, please contact us on 0114 218 4000, email info@tayloremmet.co.uk or follow our PI team on Twitter @te_injury.