Choosing a brain injury or SCI specialist solicitor
Warren Collins, chief assessor to the Law Society’s Personal Injury Accreditation Scheme and solicitor-advocate and partner at Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP navigates the difficult decision of choosing an appropriate solicitor to handle a complex claim for brain or spinal cord injuries
Aren’t all solicitors the same? Surely, I should go to someone local or to the solicitor that handled my will, the purchase of my home or my divorce?
Sadly, this is not necessarily the best way to choose representation.
An insurer responding to any claim will use highly specialised lawyers who will do their utmost to either fight the claim entirely or at least try to limit the damages they have to pay.
For this reason, it is really important to select a solicitor that has solid expertise and experience of handling cases for brain injuries or spinal cord injury cases (dependent on the type of case).
Just as the patient may be sent to a specialist hospital for treatment or rehabilitation, a specialist lawyer is key in these cases?
Surely I should find a solicitor close to home?
While it may be helpful to have a solicitor close to home, this should not be your primary concern.
A solicitor that is used to handling catastrophic injury claims will be used to travelling to see clients in their home or clinical setting.
Indeed, it will become essential for a solicitor to see a client at home so they can gain a true understanding of their care and housing needs: an essential element of the claim.
The solicitor I spoke to mentioned being accredited. What does that mean?
Of course, you will want some independent verification of your solicitor’s skills.
Many solicitors will have panel memberships of relevant organisations such as The Law Society’s Personal Injury Accreditation Scheme, the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL – but check membership of its specialist brain injury and spinal cord injury panels) and Brain Injury Group as well as a number of charities such as Headway or the Spinal Injuries Association.
However, it is really very important to distinguish the difference between a firm being a member of a specialist panel (which will inform you of that firm’s systems) as opposed to individual specialist accreditation of the solicitor that will actually be handling the claim.
Some firms of solicitors pay substantial sums of money to hospitals to be designated approved providers of services but note that this is not necessarily an endorsement of any particular individual lawyer’s experience or expertise.
Are legal directories of any use?
The two leading directories for solicitors in the UK are Chambers UK Guide to the Legal Profession and The Legal 500.
These directories are published annually and contain commentaries on leaders (firms and individuals) in various fields including Claimant Personal Injury and Claimant Clinical Negligence.
These guides are based on interviews with peers, opponents and clients so may be a good check for expertise and experience.
While the entries relating to firms may be a good guide, you may wish to check whether the individual that will be handling the claim is listed as a leading individual.
My solicitor won’t tell me what the claim is worth or when it will conclude – surely, they can’t be very experienced?
While an experienced solicitor may be able to give you a broad range of claim value and timescale at the beginning of the claim, until expert evidence has been obtained (which could well take two to three years and sometimes longer), it is simply not possible to give you accurate answers to these questions.
On the contrary, a solicitor that promises you an accurate claim valuation at the outset can only be guessing at what the evidence will reveal.
Should I be “shopping around” for representation?
This really depends upon what you mean. If you are simply looking for the solicitor that will give you the highest valuation of your claim at the outset, that might not be the best way to decide.
The key here is one of trust.
You are likely to be working with a solicitor for quite a long time (two to three years at least) and you have to feel that you feel confident in their abilities, they will guide you through the process, they speak to you in a way that you can understand and that you feel you can trust. Trust is key.
An experienced brain or spinal cord injury solicitor will understand your initial anxieties.
Ask if you may speak to current and/or former clients who have been through the same process so you can get an understanding from other clients as to their experience of that particular solicitor.
I can’t wait two or three years for money or treatment, what can be done now?
You should not have to wait that long.
A specialist solicitor will advise you as to immediate treatment or therapy options under the Rehabilitation Code and advise you as to a clear strategy for seeking an early interim payment of damages.
Each case will be different but a specialist solicitor will guide you through the process?
What percentage of damages will the solicitor take?
Most solicitors will act for clients with claims for brain injury or spinal cord injury by way of Conditional Fee Agreement (no win, no fee) – but be very careful here as not all agreements are the same.
Some Conditional Fee Agreements propose a success fee (an uplift on normal fees) at up to 100 per cent of the normal fees but this success fee has to be capped at 25 per cent of the damages for the injuries and past financial losses.
Many solicitors will act on the basis of a zero per cent success fee and will be happy to limit their fees to those recoverable in the claim on top of and not out of damages. But that’s not the only issue.
It’s really important to understand what hourly rate the solicitor is seeking to charge and whether the solicitor is proposing to charge the difference between their total fees and the fees recoverable from the defendants.
If the solicitor is proposing to charge the shortfall, then you should ask how much this is likely to be.
For brain injured patients (or children) who lack capacity, deductions of success fees or shortfall of costs from damages must be approved by the court.
What happens if things go wrong?
Check the level of the solicitor’s Indemnity Insurance. Sadly, some things can go wrong with a legal. This may not necessarily be anyone’s fault but the law is not always on the side of an injured claimant.
Occasionally, however, mistakes are made by lawyers. Deadlines can be missed, heads of loss overlooked or miscalculated, or simply poor legal advice is given. This is rare but does happen.
Claims for brain injuries or spinal cord injuries can often run into millions of pounds and it is not unusual for claims to be worth £10million or more.
For this reason, it would be wise to check that the solicitor carries a suitable level of indemnity insurance. Ask about this at the outset.
I’m not happy with my current solicitor, can I change representation?
Yes, of course.
Specialist brain injury and spinal cord injury solicitors are very used to being approached by clients who have existing claims.
They will advise you as to the process for transferring the claim and should be willing to do this on your behalf to save you from any embarrassment with your current legal representatives.
About the Author
Warren Collins is a leading catastrophic injuries solicitor based in London. He has represented severely brain injured accident victims for over 30 years.
He is a member of and Chief Assessor for the Law Society’s Personal Injury Panel and accredited brain injury and spinal cord injury specialist by APIL (Association of Personal Injury Lawyers).
He is listed as a leading expert in Chambers UK and Legal 500 “Hall of Fame”.
He is available for an initial chat about a new or existing catastrophic personal injury claim and can be reached at: warren.collins@peningtonslaw.com
