This is a question I am asked on a fairly regular basis by enquirers who have instructed other firms to handle their claims and have ended up with no compensation or much less than they think they should have received.<\/p>\n
My answer is usually given\u00a0after I have discovered\u00a0what happened whilst the previous\u00a0solicitors\u00a0were handling\u00a0the\u00a0matter\u00a0and I view each case on its\u00a0own\u00a0merits.<\/p>\n
If the solicitors have failed to start court proceedings by the statutory\u00a0limitation date (usually three years after the accident, but different in cases involving children, industrial diseases and medical negligence) then the answer is usually “Yes”, provided that the injured person had\u00a0reasonable prospects of succeeding with the claim in the first place and had sustained an injury that was clearly due to the accident.<\/p>\n
In cases where a claim has failed after a Trial of the issues, it is more difficult to succeed with a claim unless the solicitors had been clearly negligent in their preparation for the hearing and for example, had not called witnesses who should have been at trial or had not included documents in the bundle that would have helped to win the case. It is rare that claims against solicitors succeed in that situation.<\/p>\n
If\u00a0the enquirer thinks that they should have recovered more than they finally\u00a0received by way of damages, then I will obtain the file from the previous solicitors and examine it closely to check for many possible failings such as\u00a0if they obtained the appropriate medical reports and took full details of all the client’s losses and how they were affected by the injuries before they settled the case.<\/p>\n