£1 million for injured worker whose case had been closed by a leading national firm and senior barrister

We are delighted to report yet another example of The Aston Knight Difference in that Aston Knight Solicitors have successfully recovered £1 million (in fact, a little over £1 million) for an injured worker who thought she had been left without a case after a leading national personal injury firm, assisted by a well-regarded barrister, advised her that she was unlikely to succeed.

Ms J suffered substantial back and chronic pain injuries as a result of having to undertake excessive manual handling at work. She initially instructed a large national firm who profess to be an industry leader in personal injury work and her case was assigned to a senior solicitor there. After investigating the case the firm instructed a senior and well-regarded barrister to advise upon Ms J’s prospects of success. Regrettably, the barrister focussed largely upon a number of unhelpful pieces of evidence in the medical records and was not willing to accept Ms J’s explanation, resulting in the firm terminating their no-win no-fee agreement and advising Ms J that she was unlikely to succeed. The barrister and firm then advised her to try making a “last ditch” offer of £150,000, which she agreed to but, fortunately, the Defendant’s insurers did not accept.

Understandably, Ms J was left devastated by this as she was not only left without legal representation, but then encountered a common problem being that other law firms tend not to accept failed cases, particularly when a case has been closed by a large firm with the input of a senior barrister.

Fortunately, after being rejected by other firms, she contacted Aston Knight Solicitors and met with senior solicitor Mr James Winterbottom. It was identified that her previous firm and barrister had failed to sufficiently consider other items of evidence which could be used to counteract the unhelpful evidence. After contacting numerous witnesses various items of helpful evidence began to emerge, which corroborated Ms J’s account. Various expert witnesses were instructed and  more witness statements taken. Predictably, the Defendant insurers were not pleased to see the case resurrected and this resulted in a protracted and difficult battle over a number of years but ultimately formal negotiations took place. Although the negotiations initially failed as the Defendant’s highest offer was too low, further negotiations took place following and eventually a satisfactory settlement of £1 million was agreed.

Solicitor James Winterbottom comments:

This was both a very rewarding, yet supremely challenging, case to deal with. Ms J’s previous firm and barrister left her in a tremendously difficult position as closing a case and attempting a “last ditch” offer of £150,000 obviously filled the Defendant’s insurers with confidence; they were not pleased to see the case resurrected and this made for very challenging circumstances. The Defendant’s solicitors maintained robust opposition throughout and indeed settlement negotiations failed initially.

Cases such as this, and the others in our Aston Knight Difference feature, truly highlight the dangers of being lulled into a false sense of security in instructing larger firms with impressive websites, as well as senior barristers with equally impressive resumes – in our experience those factors often count for little and we frequently find ourselves “fixing” such cases. In this instance the firm in question and their barrister, despite their claimed expertise, failed to consider multiple key points and lines of enquiry, which very nearly resulted in disaster.

Hopefully this compensation will enable the client to begin to rebuild her life after such a horrendous period.

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