Whiplash claims: can high compensation claim promises made in TV ads ever be delivered?

I was diagnosed with whiplash after another driver struck my car from behind on the motorway. A no win no fee claims management solicitor advertised on the television I called said they regularly get £12,000 or more for such claims but they are asking me to buy a legal insurance policy for £1400 (which they say I will recover) and they also want 25% of my winnings. I spoke to my family solicitor and while they don't want any money or part of my compensation, they are only offering around £1600 for my claim. I don't have the money for the insurance policy for the better offer, but is the one from my family solicitor decent or are they trying to rip me off? My family has dealt with the firm for more than fifty years doing conveyancing, wills and stuff, but I don't know any of the people who work there now and am unsure whether to risk borrowing the money to go with the experts or to take the smaller offer and just deal with the local firm.

First, the value of your claim will be identical whether your family solicitor or the TV solicitor deals with the claim.

Secondly, as it is only six weeks since the accident occurred it is hard accurately to predict the value unless and until you have responded to any recommended treatment such as physiotherapy and an expert medical opinion obtained containing a clear prognosis or confirmation of the date by which time you had recovered in full.

Your family solicitors cannot "offer" anything but if they have estimated a value of £1600.00 this is likely to be far more realistic than the firm advertising on TV. 

So far as the latter is concerned, whilst an overall sum of £12000.00 may on occasions have been recovered for their clients, no doubt loss of earnings, vehicle damage and hire and other elements would have been included.  To suggest at the outset of a case that £12000.00 is an achievable figure for the whiplash injury alone is frankly absurd and seemingly an enticement for you to enter into an agreement that could involvement in wholly unnecessary expense.

A reasonable After-The-Event insurance policy can be recovered if you have no pre-purchased legal expenses insurance on your motor or house contents policy or elsewhere but at £1400.00, this is nearly £1000.00 more than most insurers but be prepared to agree so you risk paying the balance or becoming involved in a court action on that point alone.  Most specialist personal injury lawyers can arrange After-The-Event cover (where is it actually required) for less than £400.00 with payment deferred to the end of the case.

It is unlawful for any solicitor to retain a percentage of the sum recovered whether 25% or otherwise when entering into a No Win No Fee Agreement (or conditional fee agreement) which leads me to think you were not in contact with a solicitor, but a claims management company. 

A solicitor would be paid basic legal fees by the third party insurers and if they can establish that you had no adequate pre-purchased legal cover they can in road traffic accident cases claim an additional 12.5% success fee from your opponent if the case settles prior to a court hearing or 100% if it proceeds to a hearing - probably unlikely in the event of a rear end shunt if there is no liability issue.

They can quite legally agree with you that they will charge you a sum in excess of the amount of costs recovered from your opponent and this could be limited to 25%, but most road traffic accident lawyers will agree to deduct nothing from the damages recovered.

If you are not happy with your family lawyers being able to cope with the case, you are welcome to have a free consultation with one of the Roadside Lawyer solicitor panel members, who are all specialist motor accident solicitors.

Please call us free on 0800 066 99 07.

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