compensation from car accident- advice needed

[SBParker99]

the accident happened in 2020 february, ongoing with solicitors since march 2020, i have my medical assessment today, to form the medical report and i was just wondering if anyone’s had experience and how long it will take from here to getting an offer (they’ve already admitted liability) this seems to be taking forever. i broke and permanently damaged my shoulder and broke 3 ribs. how long has anyone else waited and is there a quicker way round this

@Ifailed

My son suffered serious injury in an accident, motorist was convicted in criminal court. It's now nearly 3 years, hopefully end is in sight as insurance company won't want the costs of a court case. He's received £10ks of interim payments for private treatment, housing costs etc.

Be prepared for all medical examinations to be doubled up as the defence will also want their own experts reports.

If it's a low value case, the other side won't / don't get their own reports.

I'm sorry your son was so badly injured, ifailed. Reports are also obtained by Defendants in serious injury cases, then joint reports are prepared by matching experts. They don't - often - get permission from the Court in lower value cases (and they'd have to as Claimants would never agree to it!).

@NoWordForFluffy, you are right, the figure mentioned by his barrister is several £100ks. Sounds a lot, but he's going to have (hopefully) 60 years of pain to deal with.

Oh, and Court proceedings will have to be issued by the third anniversary of the accident (assuming your son was over 18 when the accident occurred), as that's when Limitation expires. It won't necessarily lead to a hearing at the end, but it is a necessary step. And you may still have a few years left, as serious injury cases can take a really long time to build the full medical picture so a value can be placed on the claim.

@Ifailed, injury damages aren't amazingly high in this country. I always say to clients that they don't want to be one of the people who gets hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation, as that means they've suffered terrible, life-changing, injuries. Most of the amount of big / huge awards is made up of care / loss of earnings / costs of housing and vehicle adaption etc on top of the injury damages.

Don't accept first offer they make you. They come back with a better offer.

@NoWordForFluffy are you a solicitor by any chance? sorry just guessed by what you tell your clients. my solicitor is saying i can get an interim payment once the report is done (being done by a company called premex) could they then coke back with an offer? it’s not extreme injuries but it’s things that caused a lot of pain and haven’t healed correctly. they want me to receive steroid injections however it’s not recommended by my cardiologist. if i decline what would happen? and do you normally get an offer after the report is submitted. premex (the company doing the report) said it normally takes them 14 days but i’m presuming this is really inaccurate

@caringcarer was there a lot of difference between offers and if so how far apart was they?

@caringcarer

Don't accept first offer they make you. They come back with a better offer.

This is bollocks some of the time.

Premed does try to get reports in 14 days. Some of them take longer (out of their control as much as ours!).

If your report isn't final, yes you can ask for an interim payment. You can't force it though and can only apply to Court to get one if full proceedings are already issued and the Defence received. And yes, sometimes insurers will make an offer after a report which isn't final, to try to buy the Claimant off (because they sense it could get more expensive). Your solicitor should advise you to complete your medical evidence if that happens, as your injuries can't be valued until medical evidence is complete. It will be your choice though.

And yes, I'm a PI solicitor.

You have good reason to decline treatment if a treating expert has said not to have it. You may need to evidence this in your records, however, as you have a duty to mitigate your loss (seek suitable treatment promptly to reduce impact / longevity of injury).

Premex. Bloody autocorrect!

@NoWordForFluffy my solicitor isn’t helpful at the minute and refuses to explain things and just expects me to know, i asked for a estimate and she couldn’t even do that, i broke my shoulder which hasn’t healed correctly, 3 ribs and a a/c joint fracture. have you worked with premex and are they normally quite good with time or is it often delayed?

They're normally good. But it depends on the expert. Who did you see?

I wouldn't give you an estimate without finalised medical evidence either. She's doing the right thing!

@NoWordForFluffy i saw someone called abraham odumala, the appointment only lasted half hour if that

That's long for a medicolegal exam! I don't know him, so can't comment on his speed / quality.

@NoWordForFluffy the insurance have admitted liability and said happy to pay an interim once received the report, do you know how long these take usually?

Half an hour is quite long for a GP/Orth examination; 10-15 mins is often standard.

When you receive the medical report it's imperative you read it through and check you agree the content. Any factual inaccuracies (ie number of visits to GP, time you took off work, treatment received, effects on your ADL - activities of daily living) need to be flagged to your solicitor before the report is disclosed to insurers. The insurers will scrutinise the report and be looking for discrepancies in the evidence. For example, it's quite common for previous accidents or injuries not to be disclosed at examination - sometimes this is for completely genuine reasons but if this is addressed BEFORE the report is disclosed, it avoids insurers determining it's evidence of dishonesty.

The medical expert may recommend further evidence is obtained, or give a prognosis of x number of months for you to completely recover. If you want to settle now, you can ask your solicitors to value the claim and advise you on an appropriate settlement range. Even if you're not ready to settle, the insurers may still make you an offer to try and conclude matters, and your solicitors will need to advise you on the merits or otherwise of this.

@VelvetSpoon so if i don’t get an offer i can still try and settle?

In terms of timescales, it's difficult to give a precise answer because of the steps involved, so:

-medical report is received by solicitors
-solicitor reviews report, and sends a copy to you with their views/comments/any concerns/advice on offers etc
-you review the report and either approve content or detail any factual inaccuracies
-if the report is agreed by you AND if it is not a final report ie further evidence and/or treatment is recommended, your solicitors can then disclose and seek an interim payment.
-if the claim is in the MOJ process, there is a time limit for insurers to make the £1k interim payment. If however it's outside the MOJ, then there's no time limit, and it really will depend on how on the ball the insurers are as to how quickly you get a response.

In the past I've gone from receiving a report to getting an interim payment in as little as 2-3 weeks but it really is very dependent on the content of the report and the insurers involved. It could be 3 times longer than that depending on circumstances.

It was a long and stressful road, I think about 5 years for me. They held out right up to evening of court appearance! I had received some sizeable interim payments along the way, but the dispute was over whether my injuries were permanent (which is why it took so long as I think they were hoping that a new medical exam a few years down the road would show all was back to normal).

Yes, if you wanted to settle now, you could ask your solicitors to value the claim for you, and to put forward an offer. If further evidence is recommended, then your solicitors will advise you of the risks of settling at this stage before evidence is complete and whilst you still have symptoms. Their advice will doubtless be to obtain further evidence, but ultimately it is your claim and if you wanted to try and settle now, understanding the risks involved, that would be your decision to make.

It's important to bear in mind that once your claim is settled, that's the end of it, the risk is that you might not recover in line with the expert's prognosis and/or further treatment might be required but again your solicitors should be able to give you advice on that once the medical report is received.

@VelvetSpoon how long do the settlements usually take are they normally quite fast?

Honestly, it's impossible to give you a timeframe because there are so many variables.

If you decide you want to make an offer, and put that forward, then within the MOJ process then there's a fixed 20 working day negotiation period which can be extended. However there's no guarantee insurers will respond within that timeframe although most will do so.

If it's a non MOJ claim, then your solicitors could make a Part 36 offer, the insurers would normally respond to those within 3 weeks. But again, there's nothing to compel them to do so other than the risk of costs penalties if they respond outside the 21 day period.

Ultimately insurers will prefer to settle your claim sooner rather than later but as to 'when' that sooner will be is going to depend on their workload and backlogs (some insurers are significantly quicker to respond than others), whether or not it is a MOJ claim, and whether the offer made is roughly in line with their own valuation.

Apologies I can't give you any more of a timescale than that.

@VelvetSpoon thanks so much for your help what is a MOJ claim

It's basically the process under which all claims for road accidents with a value of under 25k start. It was introduced some years ago to streamline the claims process and put shorter timescales in place around liability decisions, offers etc.

(Assuming your accident was in England/Wales) your claim would almost certainly have begun within this process however if the insurers didn't admit liability within 15 days (this happens if they have had issues getting hold of their policyholder to confirm the accident circumstances, or if liability is disputed) then the claim would have exited the process.

If the admission was made within the 15 days, then the claim will still be within the process and the timescales around interim payments, negotiation period for offers etc will still apply.