Personal Injury Frequently Asked Questions

December 9, 2014 11:22 am Leave a Comment

Summary

In essence, personal injury is a vast topic that covers various aspects to convey the right message to the targeted audiences globally. If you are willing to know something special about personal injury, please feel free to read various frequently asked questions about personal injury.

Question 1: How do victims/injured parties settle on how much money they are entitled to in consequence of the accident, mishap or tragedy?

Answer: The personal injury solicitors determine the exact compensation amounts by evaluating various important factors like loss of salaries, damages, emotional distress, medical expenses, loss of consortium, periods of disability and mutilation, etc.

Question 2: What are the most important documents or evidences that injured parties should bring with them to show their lawyer.

Answer: This may well includes bystander statements, medical reports from the doctors, and pictures of the accident, injuries and eyewitnesses.

Question 3: What sort of information will victim/injured party need to provide at the initial consultation related to their personal injury, road accidents, accidents at work, and clinical negligence case?

Answer: A personal injury attorney will request for several things such as medical reports, records, names, addresses and past medical records. It may include physical therapists, chiropractors, nursing staffs and other members.

Question 4: What will usually happen at the initial consultation with personal injury solicitor?

Answer: First and foremost, the attorney will tell you whether you have a valid legal claim against the responsible party or not. If you decide to make the right claims against the liable party, it is wiser to sign a fee agreement.

Question 5: What is necessary for the victims or injured parties to have their valid personal injury case?

Answer: All the injured persons or victims need to do is provide essential evidences regarding the personal injuries and damages to solicitors. If you were injured due to road accident or accident at work place, you have then a right potential personal injury cause of action.

Question 6: What is exactly personal injury settlement process?

Answer: It is a systematic process that will mainly cover evidences, medical reports, records, names, addresses, records and reports of the medical doctors. In addition, it includes the compensation amounts for loss of wages, medical expenditures, car repairing expenses, loss of cash, etc.

Question 7: When should you contact with personal injury solicitors?

Answer: It is vital to contact with personal injury solicitors immediately after the tragedy, road accident or mishap.

Question 8: What are the types of accident claims in the UK these days?

Answer: They may include slip and fall, car accidents, motorbike accidents, boating accidents, defective products, wrongful death, medical malpractice, water accidents, occupational accidents, dog bites and assaults, etc.

Commons Select Committee Holding Enquiry into Consequences of LASPO

February 4, 2014 12:16 pm Leave a Comment

The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LAPSO) is one of the most controversial pieces of law to affect personal injury solicitors for years, and has been cited as one of the reasons behind the recent closure of several law firms and the sell-off of personal injury case files.

LAPSO came into force in April 2012 and made a series of changes to the way injury claims proceed. Part 1 of the Act opened the door for reductions to people’s eligibility for legal aid and the amount of legal aid they may receive, Part 2 changed no win no fee claims and conditional fee arrangements and outlawed success fees and other costs, making it more difficult for solicitors to offer honest no win no fee representation, while banning referral fees in the personal injury sector.

The criticism LAPSO endured from the legal services sector was significant, yet the Act still came into force, leaving personal injury solicitors struggling to understand the new regulations they had to work under.

While the ban on referral fees and success fees and other elements of Part 2 of LAPSO look unlikely to change, news that the Commons Select Committee is holding an enquiry into the impact of the civil legal aid cuts under Part 1 of the Act may offer some much-needed relief to the sector.

The government’s amendments through LAPSO were not just to reduce the overall size of the legal aid budget, but also to encourage more people to participate in mediation rather than claim compensation through the courts. The Commons Select Committee intends to discover whether this objective has been reached.

Some of the questions the Committee is interested in include

– What effects has LAPSO had on the public’s access to justice, and have any particular types of litigants or areas of law that have seen pronounced effects from LAPSO?

– Are there any identifiable trends in the number of civil law cases receiving legal aid post-LAPSO and what is behind these trends?

– Has the legal aid budget fallen since LAPSO?

– What impact has LAPSO had on legal advisors, assistants and practitioners, including not-for-profit bodies?

– What effect has LAPSO had on the overall number of civil court cases and on courts’ operations?

– Has LASPO had its intended effects on mediation services?

– How useful and of what quality is the information litigants receive about civil legal aid?

– Are victims of domestic violence able to easily and successfully apply for legal aid?

– Are exceptional cases funding services working properly?

The Law Society is asking people to complete a series of questionnaires to submit to the Commons Select Committee’s inquiry, so it can submit high-quality written evidence about the justice problems LAPSO has caused for law firms. The consultation will close on April 30^th.