GC8

Hello; my girlfriend was involved in an RTA on Christmas Eve as a passenger in a mini cab. The driver failed to stop at a give way and the car was hit in the passenger side; where she was sat. She banged her head quite badly on the C pillar and also knocked heads with the girl sat next to her. She and the other passengers left the scene before the Police arrived although she cant remember walking the 500 metres to her destination or the 30 minutes after that. She had a mild concussion but she seemed to be alright apart from that when she was taken to hospital later. Shes just come back form her GPs after being sent home from work yesterday in pain; hes advised her to take at least seven days off; she keeps having bouts of dizzyness and she has neck strain too.

This brings me on to the problem; she wasnt interested in making any claim against the taxi driver initially but as she is now unable to work and losing money shes agreed that she needs to. As she was a passenger in a taxi she doesnt have any legal assistance as she would if she was driving her own car. This leaves us with the 'No Win No Fee' solicitors and their referring agents. Some of the first companies involved in this were appaling and they all suffer because of this. Im trying to find a reputable company who can refer her to a diligant, competant and succesful firm of solicitors in our area. If anyone has had any experience of either a local firm (South Yorkshire) of solicitors; or one of the 'No Win No Fee' referring companies, either good or bad, Id be grateful if you could tell me about it.

Simon

chris's scooby

Just a thought, would she be able to use the legal cover on her home insurance(if it has it)?

I know of a good one in Sussex and can give you the number if you need it.

yvette296

the only I have had experience with was ???? - it is the one with the big guy doing the Tv ad? prob is I honeslty can't remember the name - but they were very good. If I remember the name I will let you know

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Chose a solicitor from APIL - The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers. These guys are the specialists.

All should offer No Win, No Fee and are bound by a code of conduct, which is also part of the Law Society Guidelines.

Avoid Claims Management companies & get a specialist solicitor on the case. Location should not matter, reputation and ability are more important, but any who are APIL members should be fine.

RJMS

iTrader: (2)

I look after the computers for a local firm of Personal Injury Solicitors who will definetly be able to help and not rip anyone off try www.sslaw.co.uk (Some partners are members of APIL as mentioned in the previous post)

Alternatively they are part of a organisation called Injury Lawyers 4 U http://www.injurylawyers4u.co.uk/ who are basically like a trade association of PI lawyers. If you enquire to them you will get passed onto one of their members who will all have the appropraite qualifications/experience to help.

GC8

Thankyou for the replies so far; we'll be starting with the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers. She certainly wont be dealing with any Claims Management firms but thanks for mentioning them.

Chris; Ive already looked and unfortunately her house insurance just about covers her house and contents and nothing more.

Simon

GC8

BTTT

fast bloke

as puff said - avoid a claim management company - they are worth the square root of SFA. Hindsight is brilliant, but in future, pay the 92p a month for family legal cover on the house insurance.

At this point you can probably get by without a legal representative. The taxi driver will more than likely have initiated the process against the other driver (or uninsured loss peeps) Any claim your g/f makes will more than likely be agreed and added to the claim. (The only down side being that she left the scene and didn't go to hospital, so some people might think 'freeloader' )

GC8

Thanks for that FB; Im quite impressed that she has managed to find the cheapest house insurance on the market..... Dont worry about claims management companies; I knew what I was looking for but I wasnt sure where to find it. From the APIL site I now have the names of several solicitors, who are are either Litigators or Fellows, working for a number of large practices in Sheffield.

The taxi driver was at fault but he is currently attempting to avoid blame by claiming that the other fellow was speeding (ffs!). My girlfriend will be contacting the other party, whose details we've obtained, to see if a statement might be of interest to him. She left the scene with a concussion and memory loss; unfortunately she now has 'whip-lash' too. As all of this has been diagnosed by the duty A&E Consultant and is a matter of record so it wont affect her position. Im sure that she wouldnt have done anything about this were it not for the fact that she has been told to take two weeks off work, which will cost her a six-monthy bonus as well as her salary/loss of CSP entitlement.

Simon

fast bloke

cheap insurance...... - was it cheap to pay for or cheap to recover from?

Her claim should be against the taxi driver, regardless of who was at fault. He has no 'out' in this. If the other driver is found to be at fault then taxi driver adds the claim for his loss to your g/f on top of the rest of it. In clean cases the insurance companies sort this out, but in this case someone needs to tells the taxi driver. (Having had a fair number of spills over the years I usually find that a couple of accurate facts pointed in the right direction have the same effect as a million quids worth of solicitors.... that said, when the facts don't work, you really need the couple of million quids worth of solicitors to sort it out.... (Hi Mrs Wagon.... ))

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

The taxi driver has Hire & Reward insurance on top of his general road stuff (fully comp etc). This is specifically designed to accomodate injury to passengers whilst working as his job as Taxi driver. G/f needs to make a claim off this insurance and let the underwriters sort out liability etc later with the other parties/insurers.

[Mr Puff speaking here - having worked in the London Pricate Hire industry for too long... & I wish wifey was worth a couple of million ]