Diane* was knocked off her bike, and sustained a mild traumatic brain injury, psychological trauma and orthopaedic injuries. She initially instructed another firm of solicitors to pursue a compensation claim, but she became dissatisfied with the service they were providing and lost confidence in their advice as they weren’t specialists in brain injury claims. As a result, she transferred her case to CFG, and we secured a six-figure settlement for her.
Challenges
As Diane’s initial solicitor was not a specialist in serious injury claims, they provided insufficient guidance to her about what was happening.
- She had agreed a 25% success fee with the firm (this is the amount of money they would take from any compensation she received).
- Whilst with this solicitor, the defendants made an offer to settle the claim for £10k, which was much lower than the true value of her claim.
- Aside from the legal difficulties, Diane’s recovery was also lacking proper rehabilitation support to help her to recover from her injuries.
How we helped
When Diane transferred her claim to CFG, we immediately recognised the importance of prioritising her rehabilitation.
- We appointed a case manager who arranged for a rehabilitation plan, including specialist neurology, neuropsychology and physiotherapy to address her injuries.
- The case manager also arranged for input from an NHS occupational therapist and speech and language therapist as part of the team.
Results and outcome
We settled the claim for significantly higher than the initial offer of £10k, reaching a six-figure settlement for Diane.
- The original solicitors tried to argue that they were entitled to the 25% success fee from the settlement as per their original agreement. We conducted a thorough review of the case and evaluated the work done by her previously solicitor and found that only 3% of the work was carried out by them.
- We challenged their claim for the 25% success fee on this basis and agreed a much lower amount with them, meaning that Diane didn’t have to hand over a large chunk of her compensation.
- What’s more, because Diane transferred her claim to CFG, and we do not take any success fees or shortfall fees, she kept even more of her compensation.
This outcome not only provided financial security for Diane, but also facilitated her continued recovery with the necessary rehabilitation put in place.
*not her real name
