Your Compensation Claim and How to Ruin the Outcome?
Any relationship between a solicitor and a client is a relationship of trust. The client expects a solicitor to do their best job for them to ensure they have the greatest chance of success with their claim. However, there is also a reciprocal duty expected of the client. If this duty is not met it can lead to a complete breakdown in the relationship. This article explores the client’s responsibility to the solicitor to ensure that they have a good relationship.
The following points should all be avoided if you want to maintain a good relationship with your solicitor.
You Do Not Mention a Previous Compensation Claim
Your solicitor’s job is to find out the full details of your accident and to consider the full extent and impact of it upon you. This will allow them to measure the amount of compensation that you should receive for your claim. Therefore, if you have been involved in accidents previously they will need to know to see whether the current accident has made your symptoms worse, or whether it has actually had little or no impact on you. If you fail to mention a previous accident claim this will immediately raise suspicion in the solicitor that you are making more of your symptoms than you should be.
You Don’t Mention Previous Injuries
If you have suffered from a bad neck, back or other problems which you fail to mention when you are subsequently involved in an accident claim, this will again arise suspicion with your solicitor. As a part of your claim your solicitor will have to review your medical notes and therefore full details of your previous injuries will be available to them. If you have not mentioned these injuries to the solicitor, they will naturally assume that you are hiding something. Even if you think that your previous injuries are not worthy of mention, it is vital that you tell your solicitor about them. The solicitor can then discount them, but failing to tell your solicitor in the first place may make them unsure about your honesty.
Exaggerating The Level Of Your Pain
The next common reason for damaging the relationship with your solicitor is to exaggerate the level of pain experienced during the accident to try and obtain a larger offer in settlement of your claim. All compensation claims need medical evidence to support them, whether this simply be a letter from your General Practitioner or a full assessment from an orthopaedic surgeon. If you have exaggerated your symptoms, the consultant will discover this when they examine you and will report their findings to your solicitor. If your solicitor believes that you have been exaggerating your symptoms he may decline to act for you any further or may make it clear that the offer in settlement will be a lot less than you had expected.
Exaggerating Your Losses And Expenses
In addition to claiming compensation for your pain and suffering, you can also claim for your losses and expenses. However, once again if you exaggerate the amount of these losses your solicitor may lose faith in you.
This can happen when a self employed person claims that their earnings were far in excess of the actual income they were receiving. The solicitor will have to obtain copies of your accounts or invoices to prove your claim for losses, and when they obtain these and see that they are far less than you have claimed for, your credibility again is put in doubt.
Your claim for losses should only include items that you have genuinely lost as a result of the accident (not, for instance, adding items such as expensive sun glasses which you never owned and for which you cannot produce a receipt for).
Misrepresenting Your Pre-accident Activity
Your claim for your pain and suffering and loss of amenity is designed to put you back in the position you were in prior to the accident. If you claim that you were far more physically active before the accident than you actually were to try to obtain more compensation for this aspect of your claim, your solicitor will discover the truth when they interview family and friends about your pre-accident activity. Therefore, it is not a good idea to exaggerate your sporting prowess or family activity prior to the accident.
Trust
You relationship with your solicitor is a relationship of trust. Taking any of these steps above will damage your relationship of trust and could lead you to your solicitor refusing to act for you any further or advising you to accept a much lower sum in settlement of your claim. Therefore, you should be open and honest with your solicitor at all times to ensure that you receive the right amount of compensation for your claim.
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