Personal injury claim

[Dogmatix34]

My mum was injured in a car accident 3 weeks ago.
The other driver has admitted fault and we have been given £2000 for the car from his insurer (Direct Line).
Mum broke 2 ribs in the crash and had to spend a week in hospital.

She is now suffering from whiplash- her back and arm are causing her considerable pain and she has gone from being a healthy, active 82 year old to someone who struggles to dress herself and is on large amounts of strong pain killers.
Direct line have now contacted her about pursuing a case for personal injury. Is she best to go through them or go through a no win no fee lawyer?
any advice gratefully received.

Does your Mum have her own insurers?

Yes, the AA. We closed the case with them as she was not at fault.

Logically you would think it’s not in direct line interest to do their best for your mum as it’s going to be them paying out but I’ve no idea if that is what happens in practise

That was we were thinking but again we weren’t sure. I don’t like the thought of an aggressive lawyer but at the same time I don’t want her to not get what she deserves.

No win no fee solicitors will take their fee as a large proportion of any settlement. Can your mum's insurer provide guidance? And hopefully lawyers? I know nothing about these things but you're right, it seems odd (to say the least) to rely on someone else's insurer. I hope she recovers swiftly

Either way the claim will be started through the official injury portal, which she can do on her own, it was designed for lay people to use to cut out solicitors from the process. Whiplash awards were capped a couple of years back so the whiplash may only be worth a few hundred £s and the broken ribs maybe a couple of thousand. She will need to attend a medico legal examination and she may be offered private physiotherapy. You could see if she has legal expenses on her insurance with the AA they might appoint a solicitor for her. Because of her age and the fractures id say yes make the claim.

If you go with NWNFee lawyers read the contract very carefully before you sign

They take quite a chunk of the settlement.
If, after you've signed up, your mother decides she's not well enough or doesn't want to continue with the case or doesn't want to accept what they think they can get you may find you have to pay the fees. Just read it first.

Insurers are likely to use their own lawyers - and won't pay any costs associated with NWNF lawyers.

Thank you very much everyone.
we had started a claim on the injury portal but Mum was finding it a bit much / too soon. We’ll carry on with that.

Agree with those saying no win/no fee take a big percentage so avoid them.

has she had any treatment for whiplash? She needs to see a physio or osteopath ASAP.

when I had a car accident I claimed for all my treatments and the at fault insurer settled them all, separately to the PI claim

She is seeing an NHS physio.
if she needs more we will consider making a separate claim then maybe?

If the claim is accepted by the at fault insurer you can send them a message through the portal to ask for physiotherapy.

Really? We’ll try that, thank you.

DL will want to minimise their losses so will probably be able to arrange private physio for her and any other treatment that might be beneficial.

They will most likely offer less in damages (at least at first anyway) but going through a solicitor or accident management company will swallow up a % of her award anyway, so it might balance out.

For an easy life I'd go with DL but I'm lazy

Thank you. We will keep our options open.

I’d not go ni win no fee, 0lease use a normal solicitor.