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Personal injury claim -- direct to legal, or any other route?

3 replies

thebluestlight · 18/02/2023 14:33

Recently I suffered a fracture at a business due to faulty equipment. I'm trying to keep this vague for privacy reasons, but imagine along the lines of using an exercise bike at a corporate gym and the pedal was broken, resulting in a broken ankle; that gives you a general idea although the details are different.

The injury is now a couple weeks old and I'm not able to bear weight at all, so we've had to take on additional expenses (the biggest being extra childcare). The injury is very painful and I don't expect that I will be functioning normally, even at a reduced capacity, for 2-3 months, and then might do private physio.

DH has queried making a personal injury claim. My hesitations are: personal injury solicitors not having the best reputations, my injury being painful and unpleasant but not life-changing so the money is likely to be small, and also my desire for peace and calm being greater than my sense of risk-taking. If you told me I could get a 1.5k settlement after going through six months of stressful negotiation and legal threats, or have 0 pounds and live in peace and calm, I'd take the calm.

Has anyone gone the personal injury route for an uncomplicated injury (broken hand/foot/ankle) and would recommend it?

And is there any other route, for example, simply writing to the corporate gym and saying hey, this happened because of your broken equipment, would you please consider making a contribution to my additional childcare costs and physiotherapy? (The 'corporate gym' is aware that this injury happened as it was quite severe in the moment; they called later to offer a token gift along the lines of a free month of membership.)

OP posts:
Boomboomboomboom · 18/02/2023 14:51

Solicitors straight away.

You likely cannot handle it yourself.

I tried to navigate the claims portal for a relative and its just not made for litigants in person (cannot recall if this is PI from motor claims or not - my relative's was) and I've given up and will instruct no win no fee Solicitors even though the claim is low value I.e. under £5k because the idiotic insurance company wouldn't settle despite admitting liability!

underneaththeash · 18/02/2023 17:47

I did a personal injury claim for a similar thing, solicitor handled it all and it paid for loss of earnings, physio, taxis (as I couldn’t drive) and a small amount for the injury itself.

all easy and straightforward.

ThreeLeggedCat · 18/02/2023 21:16

I would phone the local council too and speak to their Environmental Health Dept, they may need to investigate under H&S.

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