£105,000 for injured worker rejected by 33 law firms

Mr R suffered a back injury when an unsecured wagon door was caught by a gust of wind and blew into him.

His trade union referred him to a large national personal injury firm, professing to be one of the leading and largest firms in the country.   They submitted a claim to the employer of the wagon driver who denied all knowledge of the accident.  Whilst there was CCTV, it did not clearly capture the incident due to the positioning of the camera and the wagon.

Unfortunately for the client, as is often the case with larger firms his case was only handled by junior, non-qualified, staff who, after discussing with one of that firm’s in-house barristers, that his case had a less than 30% chance of success, and then closed his case.  He submitted a complaint to the firm regarding his case being passed between so many junior staff members but there was no resolution and he was then left without representation.

This then left him in a difficult position as many law firms will not accept a case closed by another firm,  particularly when not much time was left out of the three year time limit within which to settle or start court proceedings.  He was unfortunately rejected by 32 other firms on this basis.

Fortunately, however, for him he reached out to Aston Knight Solicitors who undertook a detailed review and concluded that he had been poorly advised.  There had been no efforts to secure supportive statement evidence or pressure the Defendant.  After accepting the case supportive statements were obtained from Mr R’s colleagues who all supported the fact the accident occurred as alleged and then court proceedings were issued.  The Defendant then admitted liability for the accident.

Mr R regrettably developed chronic pain in his back as a result of the accident and so both parties obtained specialist expert evidence from chronic pain experts.  Whilst there were disputes between the parties as to the severity of his injuries, including surveillance being disclosed, ultimately a strong settlement of £105,000 was negotiated, with which Mr R was delighted, commenting:

“I will definitely be leaving you a review and recommending you.”

James Winterbottom, Solicitor, who dealt with the case commented:

“This is a classic example of a client thinking they are in good hands with a large law firm only to find themselves being pushed onto junior and unqualified staff who lack the experience necessary to win large cases.  It also highlights the negative attitude of many other firms who blindly follow the views of other firms rather than undertaking their own detailed and independent assessment.

At Aston Knight we do neither of those – every case is handled personally by an experienced specialist solicitor with a proven case success record and we do not let ourselves be influenced by competitor firms’ views on a case.”

If you have been let down by another firm then please do not hesitate to get in touch as we will be pleased to speak to you on a confidential, free-of-charge and no obligation basis.

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