I hear that injured miners have successfully sued their former solicitors for under settling their personal injury claims. But how easy is it to value a personal injury claim and how can someone be sure that they are receiving the right level of compensation from a personal injury claim.
It is imperative that injured people seek good, clear advice from experienced personal injury specialists. At Stephensons, we strive to achieve the highest possible level of compensation for our clients.
The aim of compensation is to restore the injured person to the position that he/she was in prior to the accident. The Courts do this by considering the level of compensation which should be awarded for the pain and suffering which the injured person has suffered and for the financial losses which the injured person has incurred following the accident.
For many of our clients, however, they would also like to be compensated for the stress, upset and inconvenience of being involved in a personal injury claim and so it is important that we provide clear advice right from the outset of a claim. At Stephensons, we aim to sort out the financial expenses incurred following an accident early on and seek to obtain a medical report supporting the level of pain and suffering so that we can provide our clients with clear advice concerning the value of their claim.
Valuing a personal injury claim is extremely complex especially if someone is likely to be incapacitated for the rest of their life - without a crystal ball we can not accurately predict what life would have turned out like had the accident not happened. Compensation awards for the pain and suffering attributable to the injury are made on the basis of a subjective test and it is impossible to give a precise figure of what an injury is worth. Reference is made to specialist texts and previous case law so it is vital that a Solicitor handling a personal injury claim has all the up to date text available. Here at Stephensons, we have access to a number of texts including the latest edition of the Guidelines for the assessment of damages in personal injury cases, Judicial Studies Guidelines which is an analysis of previous awards made in the Courts and Kemp and Kemp, The Quantum of Damages (Sweet & Maxwell).
It therefore does not surprise me to hear that the injured miners claims were under settled by their former Solicitors. There is no exact science to valuing a personal injury claims and often those who have been injured simply want to settle their case and move on with their lives. However, if those who are injured want to achieve the best possible award for compensation then they should seek advice from specialist personal injury practitioners – failure to do so will ultimately lead to under settled claims.
By personal injury solicitor, Jennifer Holt
Comments