If you have been involved a road traffic accident or got injured at work or out on the street and it was not your fault, a No Win No Fee solicitor may be the ideal way in which to deal with the aftermath of your accident. No Win No Fee give you full legal representation with no upfront cost.
This sounds to good to be true? Well, actually no.. In fact it is what most personal injury solicitors recommend when it comes to none fault accidents, such as motor vehicle accidents, bicycle accidents, motorcycle accidents and work related accidents as a professional personal injury solicitor will know very early on if the third party is wholly to blame and will simple claim his or her fees along with your compensation…
After the solicitor initially reviews your case it’s usually not a matter of if you’ll be successful and win the case but rather matter of how much compensation you’ll get and the best way to get maximum compensation is to use a No Win No Fee personal injury solicitor.
Don’t No Win No Fee Solicitors take a Big Chunk of Your Payout?
100% No….. This is one of those ridiculous myths that seems to go around and I expect it was started by insurance companies trying to keep all claims internal with there own solicitors.
This is just not how personal injury lawyers work, the claim awarded is all yours, every single penny, the solicitor, as the winning party, will have their fees paid by the other side, maybe in the past there have been one or two rogue personal injury companies taking part of the compensation payout and claiming its for their fees but this was very and rare and rogue solicitors who behave like this don’t last very long in the industry.
To get away with this and not get sued themselves they WILL have put this in the No Win No Fee agreement they provided when they took on your case which is why it is important to read any agreement fully, read all the terms, read all the small print and you’ll be fine.
Is It Not Better to Use Your Insurance Company if it’s a Not Fault Claim?
Definitely not, the worse thing you can do is go letting your insurance company handle it internally, remember you might have got your insurance off Tesco, the Post Office, Swinton etc but these are brokers and a lot of the time both parties are in-fact both insured by the same company (there really aren’t that many to be honest).
When this happen the insurance company wants to pay out as little as possible and I’ve see cases where the driver who was clearly not at fault end up losing because the damages and claim amount of the driver who was at fault was lower and with insurance companies its all about paying out as little as possible regardless of who is to blame and regardless of whether its perfectly clear what they have done.
Real Case: Ford Focus driver with Third Party Fire and Theft insurance driving down a lane on Adsa car park in Horwich, Bolton looking for a space, Fiat driver reverses out of space and hits drivers door of the Focus, no witnesses but clear damage on focus drivers door and clear damage on fiats back bumper, Focus driver took pictures of the vehicles stop positions with fiat half way out of the space and the Focus in front of it, drivers door facing the rear of the Fiat.
Focus driver simply wanted his damaged car fixed knew 100% he was not at fault and left it in the hands of his insurances company. What happened next is hard to believe for anyone outside of the industry and yes, you have guessed it, the insurance company sided with the Fiat driver claiming a third party witness saw the accident and the Focus reversed into the Fiat, disregarding the location of damage on both cars and the photographic evidence. Focus driver asked for the case to go to court with all the evidence but insurance company refused and said they had already paid out.
We heard about this case years after it happened, but even at this stage where the insurance company have done the dirty, paid out and closed the case, the Focus driver could have said “No I’m not having it” and appointment a private solicitor as in the case of a Ford Escort driver from Leigh.
Real Case: The Ford Escort driver was turning left at a filter when a Volvo (taxi) blew through the red light and completely wrote off the ford Escort, this was the 90’s by the way, and caused significant injury to the female driver (a passenger, if there had been one, would have died as the passenger side was completely crushed), now Volvos back in the 90’s where solid vehicles so damage was minor, vehicle still drivable, driver was not injured…
The Ford Escort driver again, as you did in those days, went through their insurance company. At least 2 witnesses had come forward at the scene saying the taxi ran the red light and was travelling 60 plus in a 30 (which to be honest was evident from the damage) and the case seemed clear.
After a few weeks the insurance company sided with the less damaged, un-injured taxi driver and paid out claiming that they had other multiple witnesses come forward (apparently other taxi drivers who where miraculously in the vicinity with clear views of the lights) saying the Escort ran the light.
But the Escort driver said “No she wasn’t having this” and appointed a private solicitor, short story is the Escort driver ended up winning thousands in damages. So even if your insurance company says case closed, payout made, it’s never over…
People who are not at fault know it, Sadly many people believe their insurance companies have their best interests at heart and that if they side with the other party it’s all over…. You can however avoid this initial upset by appointing your own solicitor right at the beginning, this stops your insurance company pulling the lesser of two claims scam regardless of who is at fault..
