Odd personal injury claim question (long)

kdevitt

Am involved in a bit of an odd scenario, and am hoping someone might be able to provide some help or insight. Its a bit long but am at my wits end.

I was involved in a RTA 3 years ago, hit by an uninsured driver who was 100% to blame. He has since been found guilty in court of driving without insurance, not providing his licence and driving without due care and attention ( a grand total of 500eur fine and 3 months off the road:mad: )

Anyway - given that the MIBI handled the claim for the damage for the car very smoothly, and not wanting to involve solicitors unnecessarily, I was advised to put my personal injury claim through them, which I did, and the claim got handed off to an insurance company to investigate. The insurance company eventually decided that because the vehicle the guy was driving was leased, the leasing company had an insurable interest in it. The insurance company then notified the leasing company this was the case, who in turn ignored all correspondance from the insurance company. This was despite the insurance company getting a court order which confirmed their interest.

Because the claim had stalled, I was then advised by the MIBI to initiate a PIAB claim, as the statute of limitations meant I only had 6 weeks or so left to put through a claim (gives you an idea how long this has been dragging on for). I was told to name the MIBI, the leasing company, and the uninsured driver as the defendants. I did this, and unsurprisingly all three said they were not willing to have the claim investigated.

I was issued with permission to start a claim against the defendants, but having spoken with two solicitors, they are unwilling to take the case as I didn't approach them at the very start of proceedings and feel there may be complications which would leave them burdened in a no win/no fee situation??

I'm now uncertain as how to progress. I'm substantially out of pocket from the whole affair, as well as sustaining a bad shoulder and back injury, and just can't believe that I'm being advised to leave it be. Has anyone been in a similar situation, or know of a solicitor worth contacting - or of a reason why my claim is doomed to failure??

dats_right

OP, seen as you don't want to involve solicitors "unnecessarily", why don't you just process the action yourself? In reality though you are not going to be able to do this unless you learn how to draft a civil bill quickly and figure out all the other pre-trial intricacies and proceedings that will take place (presumably) in the County Registrar's Court.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing! And you should have instructed a solicitor from the outset. But, that doesn't solve your problem. I don't blame the solicitors for not wanting to get involved, I personally wouldn't touch your case with a bargepole as there are potentially far too many problems (no win/no fee not being one of them), far more likely they fear that as a novice you will quite likely have already made some serious errors, ommissions or even admissions that may well prejudice your case, and as experienced practitioners they don't want to put in the effort only for it to fail because of something you did.

You have only phoned two solicitors, so you should try ringing a few more. I would think that only solicitors attempting to build a practise or those who aren't adverse to risk and will take pity on you will bring your case. I have no doubt that armed with the Golden Pages you will locate someone or other to represent you.

kdevitt

dats_right wrote:

OP, seen as you don't want to involve solicitors "unnecessarily", why don't you just process the action yourself? In reality though you are not going to be able to do this unless you learn how to draft a civil bill quickly and figure out all the other pre-trial intricacies and proceedings that will take place (presumably) in the County Registrar's Court.

I didn't involve them because I was told there was no point and no need to - not until I was given permission to start a claim. This advice was given by a combination of insurance claims assessors, the MIBI and a solicitor, so less of your attitude.

dats_right wrote:

far more likely they fear that as a novice you will quite likely have already made some serious errors, ommissions or even admissions that may well prejudice your case, and as experienced practitioners they don't want to put in the effort only for it to fail because of something you did.

Serious errors, omissions or admissions?? Its a fresh civil case - nothing has been submitted, and all thats on the MIBI and PIAB claim forms is my name and address, and a summary of the accident - which mirrored my garda statement.

But thanks for your reply, you seem like a sound guy.

Cowboy79

OP just to advise you need to be really careful on the time limits on this. If you only had six weeks before the time limit expired when you submitted to PIAB then the clock will start ticking again on those six weeks six months after the issue of the PIAB authorisation. There are plenty of personal injury solicitors around who will probably take the case.

kdevitt

Cowboy79 wrote:

OP just to advise you need to be really careful on the time limits on this. If you only had six weeks before the time limit expired when you submitted to PIAB then the clock will start ticking again on those six weeks six months after the issue of the PIAB authorisation. There are plenty of personal injury solicitors around who will probably take the case.

Thanks - I have till January approx, so I know time isn't on my side, especially since I've been seconded to Sydney until November. I'll try a few more solicitors and see what happens.

ScouseMouse

john schutte in abbey street. He specialises in personal injury

roger123

I have also heard about John schutte who is considered good for not only Personal Injury but also as Accident Lawyer .:cool: