To pursue a personal injury claim - long, sorry!

[Bingdweller]

I feel in such a dilemma regarding a personal injury claim for an accident I had a few weeks ago. I don't want to out myself by giving away too much so I will keep it vague without hopefully drip feeding.

I suffered a terrible accident in a public place. It involved paramedics, ambulance transfer to A&E, transfer to my local hospital then surgery and a 5 night stay in hospital. All is going well with my recovery and my initial rehab will take approximately 6 months with full function in around 2 years. I have very disfiguring scarring and will need further surgery. Basically, a lifelong impact although thankfully I will be able to get back to work in a few weeks and resume most of my normal activities.

The incident occurred due to defective flooring (worn metal). The HSE are involved and the local council have informed me an inspection has taken place - the establishment involved were duty bound to report due to the severity of the accident.

The repercussions have been enormous. DH was working abroad and had to be brought home (took 2 days). I have 2 pre-school DC and I am unable to do anything for them. I need help with the most basic tasks - washing & dressing myself etc. never mind looking after kids. My DH is paid per the day and we have lost a lot of money in wages due to him coming home - he does not get paid when not working. He will have to go back to work next week as all our savings are needed for next months bills. I will need to rely heavily on family and friends.

I have always been very disparaging of the "no win, no fee" solicitor adverts. I am gutted to be in the position of needing to claim. The dearth of crappy adverts encouraging people to claim, frankly, disgusts me. Since being housebound I am shocked at how many of these adverts are around.

I have been advised by my lawyer this morning that I have a very good case and they are happy to pursue legal action on my behalf. I feel shit about it and don't know what to do. My morals tell me it was an accident and not to claim, my bank balance tells me we are massively down on DH earnings and have lots of associated expenses due to the injury. I don't know what to do....

[suburbandweller]

Situations like yours are what CFAs are designed for - they allow people who wouldn't otherwise be able to fund a genuine claim to seek compensation for injury suffered as a result of someone else's negligence. You absolutely should not feel guilty about pursuing this. As mentioned by someone else upthread, it will most likely be insurers who ultimately fork out for any damages you are awarded (or any settlement) - that's why public liability insurance exists. Good luck with the case and with your recovery.

[DappyHays]

You may find your legal expenses are covered by your house insurance so you don't therefore have to go down the no win no fee road.

Good luck. It sounds like you've had a really bad time of it.

[crispyjojo]

Are you in England or Wales? If so, you shouldn't have to pay anything towards legal costs and most solicitors firms now do not charge the client to pay money towards costs.
No win no fee agreements were brought about because legal aid was previously available and is not available anymore for personal injury claims.
The government is currently looking into how to reduce the number of whiplash claims.

[RuleBritannia]

Go for it. I was a legal secretary for years in personal injury and it sounds as if you have a very good case. Give your (good) solicitor the names of anyone who saw what happened at the time or immediately afterwards.

If you win (and you probably will), your legal costs should be borne by the defendant not by you out of your compensation so bring that aspect up with your solicitor.

No one yet knows the outcome of your injuries so only a beginning can be made with the legal business because there is an end limit to the time allowed before suing someone or a company for personal injury. No one knows how long the case will take because how you will be able to cope with life at the end of your treatment is important. Gosh! They were long sentences. I hope it makes sense!

[Nymia]

Go for it.

Personal injury claims aren't to "get something for nothing", they are to help restore you to the situation you would have been in had you not had the accident.

You won't get compensation that will drastically improve your situation, it will only mitigate your losses - your DH's earnings, help with childcare, travel, any medical expenses, your own wages if affected, etc.

From the sounds of it, it was an accident that could easily have been avoided by due care and attention on the part of the business. Failure to look after and maintain the staircase which is in regular use is not only dangerous but directly led to your injuries and to your family losing money. This is exactly the sort of case that personal injury law was designed for - not to make you a millionaire with a cast overnight but to help right a wrong that should never have happened.

[Nymia]

Meant to add:

So you should pursue the case, and do not let anyone make you feel ashamed of it. You are entitled to put your family, your finances and your health first. please don't feel as if anyone will look down on you for it.

[Bingdweller]

crispy I am in Scotland and incident also happened here.

Thank you to everyone who is giving me good advice, I really appreciate you taking the time to do so. X

[Chelvis]

Maybe it's different in Scotland, but when I used a 'no win no fee' firm, I didn't pay anything out of my compensation for my solicitors fees - their costs were claimed from the other side.

You are absolutely right to pursue it. I used to be quite negative about these 'compensation chasers' - until some ridiculous negligence left me off work for 3 months, unable to brush my own teeth or hair, and on 3 different medications a day. I am so grateful for being able to get compensation - it not only covered my costs (loss of wages, prescription fees etc), it paid for some physiotherapy that got me back to (almost) normal, and I got some money for the emotional distress, which wasn't a lot, but it did cheer me up!

My advice would be to constantly and immediately write everything down that this is costing you (e.g. prescriptions, taxis if you are unable drive, ready meals if you are unable to cook) and every time it has caused you a problem (can you hoover and clean? can you cook? put the bins out?). You are probably in the mindset still of trying to be positive, to get on with things and almost to minimise it. You have to document everything whilst it is still fresh and not to minimise it. It isn't compensation chasing, it's restoring you to the position you would be in if someone hadn't been negligent. Good luck! My case took almost a year to resolve, but it took very little input from me, apart from 2 1hr medicals, a lot of form signing and the aforementioned notes!

[RuleBritannia]

I agree with Chelvis; keep a note of everything you have had to pay for concerning your injury/condition. Keep all relevant receipts, too, though.

[mindosa]

I would think twice about claiming against an individual - I think its mercenary

[holyfishnets]

Yes claim. The accident was preventable.

[AnyoneforTurps]

YABU. Like you, I hate the "Where there's blame, there's a claim" culture, but sometimes a personal injury claim is the only way to get fair compensation. My DH ended up pursuing a PI claim against a building company. Won't go into details as I don't want to thread-hijack, but he had tried every other way to settle yet in the end the only way to avoid being £5k out of pocket was a PI claim.

Don't forget that the main reason that contingency fee cases were introduced to England & Wales was because Legal Aid was withdrawn for most civil cases. For most of the population - everyone who can't afford lawyers' fees - contingency fees are now our only route to justice for civil claims
unsuitable for the small claims track, so don't feel too guilty.

[MyLastDuchess]

What a horrible accident. I agree with almost everyone else, in that yes some people misuse this sort of compensation system, but an incident like yours is exactly what it's there for.

A friend of mine had a similar accident at home and totally smashed her ankle. It took a long time and a lot of physio, but she has made a great recovery. I wish the same for you :)

In my friend's case it was a true accident: a window had been left open in her home and an unusually large amount of rain left a puddle on the stairs. In your case the 'accident' sounds like it could have been prevented if the stairs had been properly maintained. I don't see why you should have to suffer financial consequences on top of the physical ones when proper care could have made the stairs much less dangerous. YANBU.