WOULD I BE ABLE TO RUN MY OWN PERSONAL INJURY CLAIM WITHOUT A SOLICITOR ?

Some people do run their own Personal Injury Claims, and there is no rule to prevent you from doing this. However, you would be extremely likely to be at a
considerable disadvantage in negotiating with the opposing party (who would usually have handed the matter over to be dealt with by their Insurance Company or their Solicitors)

The laws governing compensation claims are very complicated and Insurance Companies acting on behalf of persons or organisations responsible for accidents tend to use highly experienced professionals to handle and negotiate claims, with a view to avoid having to pay out any compensation in as many cases as possible, or limiting the amount of compensation as much as possible in those cases where they cannot avoid the payment of compensation altogether. It is, therefore, highly recommended that you use the services of a Specialist Personal Injury Solicitor.

By way of example only :-

1. If the other side indicated that they did not consider themselves to be legally responsible for the occurrence of your accident, would you have the necessary legal expertise to decide whether they were right or wrong about that ?
2. Even if the other side accepted responsibility for the occurrence of your accident, then my seek to argue that the financial value of your claim for compensation ought to be reduced in order to reflect the fact that you were yourself partially responsible for your accident (a legal concept known as “Contributory Negligence”) Would you know whether such an allegation against you was justified in law and / or have the necessary legal expertise to respond to such an allegation ?
3. Would you know whether any doctor who may be instructed in relation to your claim for compensation is actually appropriate ?
4. Would you have the necessary legal knowledge to know what would be the appropriate financial value of your claim for compensation and / or to make a properly informed judgment in relation to the reasonableness or otherwise of any offer of compensation which may be made to you by the other side ?

However, for cases where the injury element of any award of compensation is £1,000 or less (see our more detailed explanation of Small Claims), the Court Rules specify that no costs order would generally be made. For this reason, you would probably be unable to recover any legal costs incurred by you in pursuing such a low value claim through a solicitor, even if your claim was successful, and so it probably would not be economic for you to instruct a Solicitor to act on your behalf in respect of claim of such a relatively modest value. HAVING SAID THIS, IT WOULD STILL BE WISE FOR YOU TO INITIALLY SPEAK WITH A SPECIALIST PERSONAL INJURY SOLICITOR AT THIS FIRM, IN ORDER TO RECEIVE A FREE INITIAL ASSESSMENT AS TO WHETHER WE BELIEVE YOUR INJURIES TO HAVE A POTENTIAL FINANCIAL VALUE OF IN EXCESS OF £1,000.