Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions :-

1. I am worried about legal fees, how are these covered?

2. How do I keep in touch with my Maidments personal injury lawyer?

3. How long will the case take?

4. Will I have to go to court?

5. How do I know that my lawyer is a specialist?

6. How long do I have to claim?

Road Traffic Accident Questions :-

7. What if I am only insured third party?

8. What can I do for transport while my car is off the road?

9. Can I claim for any other losses?

10. What about legal expenses insurance?

11. What if the other driver was uninsured?

Work Accident Questions :-

12. What if I am worried about claiming off my employer?

13. My injury was a disease or gradual condition rather than a sudden accident can I still claim?

Slip or Trip Accident Questions :-

14. Is there a rule of thumb that a paving crack causing a trip has to be of a particular depth?

15. Can the local authority argue that they inspected the area?

16. I have heard there are lots of fraudulent claims in this area. Does this affect my case?

Answers :-

1a. I am worried about legal fees, how are these covered?
Maidments runs all its personal injury cases on a Conditional Fee (ie “no win –no fee”) basis. We are sufficiently confident of cases that we take on to agree not to charge in the unlikely event that the case was not successful.

We can also arrange to take out insurance to cover you in relation to any other expenses such as court fees, medical reports or the legal costs of the other party, after checking that you do not already have some legal expenses insurance in place.

We reclaim your legal costs in successful cases from whoever we are claiming against.

Injury Direct does not take any percentage of your compensation. We are not a "Claims Management Company' and therefore you do not pay for an unnecessary middle-man.
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2a. How do I keep in touch with my Maidments personal injury lawyer?
You can contact our lawyers by telephone, letter, e-mail or a personal appointment. We can carry out all the work necessary from our offices and there is no need for you to attend any personal appointments if you so wish. We will arrange for any medical appointments to be within a reasonable travelling distance of your area.
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3a. How long will the case take?
This mainly depends upon whether the other party is admitting liability and the severity of your injury. We are able to conclude most straightforward cases within several months and generally cases do not take years as might have been the case with the system in the past.
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4a. Will I have to go to court?
We are able to settle the vast majority of cases without court proceedings, and in the cases where proceedings have to be issued, it is very rare for the case to go to a final trial. We generally find that less than 1% of our cases involve the client having to attend any court hearing.
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5a. How do I know that my lawyer is a specialist?
Our personal injury Department is headed by Michael Haycock who has been conducting personal injury cases for over 15 years and is a member of APIL (the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers). All of our other staff are specialists in the personal injury field.
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6a. How long do I have to claim?
Usually, court proceedings have to be issued within 3 years of the accident, unless you are a minor
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7a. What if I am only insured third party?
We will correspond urgently with the person responsible for the accident to arrange for their insurers to inspect and repair your vehicle as soon as possible. In the event that the vehicle is written off we would negotiate a settlement for the pre-accident value of it.
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8a. What can I do for transport while my car is off the road?
If liability is straightforward, we can arrange for you to be provided with a credit hire vehicle of a similar standard to your own and the cost of which will be claimed off the other party.
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9a. Can I claim for any other losses?
We may also be able to bring a claim for any excess you have paid your own insurers, loss of use of your vehicle and in some cases a claim for the diminution in value of your vehicle if it is a prestige car.
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10a. What about legal expenses insurance?
We will check whether any legal expenses insurance you have would be suitable for funding your claim, failing which it will be run on a no win no fee basis with "after the event" insurance.
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11a. What if the other driver was uninsured?
You can claim from an organisation called the Motor Insurers Bureau who compensate victims of uninsured drivers. They can also assist if the other party is untraced as it was a "hit and run "accident.
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12a. What if I am worried about claiming off my employer?
The vast majority of employers will have employment liability insurance, so it will be their insurance company rather than themselves that will be meeting the award. Legally an employer is not allowed to victimise a worker in any way because they are bringing such a claim.
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13a. My injury was a disease or gradual condition rather than a sudden accident. Can I still claim?
We conduct many cases for what are known as industrial disease such as respiratory conditions, noise induced hearing loss, vibration white finger for example. Generally you have three years from the time at which you knew you would have a claim to issue proceedings.
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14a. Is there a rule of thumb that a paving trip has to be a particular depth?
The courts have always refused to lay down exact measurements but generally speaking the depth of trip must be three quarters of an inch to be actionable. That can vary however according to the usage of the road and the amount of members of the public that use it.
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15a. Can the local authority argue that they inspected the area?
Often local authorities contend that they had a system of inspection in place, however, we would check it very carefully to ensure that they were actually complying with it in practice.
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16a. I have heard there are lots of fraudulent claims in this area does this affect my case?
Doubtless the courts are scrutinising these types of cases more strictly, however, at an early opportunity we would make sure that your medical notes support the happening of the accident and we would not be put off by the attitude of the local authority if we feel you have a genuine case.
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