If you have been involved in an accident you should think twice before saying “yes” to the compensation offered by an insurance company.
The ordinary injured person will not know how much their injury is worth.
Compensation typically tends to cover pain and suffering for the actual injury, medical treatment, time off work, or even for friends/relatives providing assistance while the person is injured.
By having proper legal advice, the injured person can thoroughly explore their claim.
Following a road traffic collision, the insurers of the driver at fault for the incident may attempt to contact the injured person directly and make an offer to settle any potential injury claim. This is known as ‘third-party capture’, and is when the insurance company hopes that a quick cash offer will prevent the injured person seeking legal advice.
This can perhaps be an attractive proposition to the injured person, who may agree to take the money and move on.
However, once the cheque is cashed there is no going back.
If at a later date you find out that your injury is more serious than you first realised, you cannot go back to the insurance company and ask for more compensation.
In accepting an offer immediately and directly from an insurance company, there is a considerable risk that the claim will be settled for much less than it should be.
The offers are made without knowing the true extent of the injury, with no diagnosis or prognosis made.
A solicitor specialising in personal injury work will make sure that an injured person will have the benefit of a medical opinion to ensure the true extent of the injury is known.
It may be the case, for example, that the medical expert believes your career prospects have been compromised by the injury.
Recently, a client contacted us following an accident he was involved in at work. Shortly after coming to us, the insurance company made an offer to settle the claim at £1,500.
Following our advice, the client rejected the offer and we proceeded to obtain medical evidence.
After thoroughly investigating the injury, our client’s claim settled for £6,500.
In all likelihood, having a suitably experienced solicitor deal with your injury claim will secure you a higher level of compensation appropriate to your injury.
A Financial Services Authority report has shown that, on average, an injured person receives a settlement of 275% higher using a solicitor compared to dealing directly with an insurance company.
The reason is simple whereas solicitors have a duty to act in the best interests of their clients, insurance companies have no duty to the people injured by the negligence of their policyholders.
It makes sense to the insurers to ‘buy off’ any potential injury claims as cheaply as possible, but this is often to the detriment of the injured person.
* By Gary Mannion, associate, personal injury, Thorntons.