One question I am asked very often is: ‘How do you change solicitors?’
In these Pod Casts I concentrate on questions that have been raised on the forum to discuss legal issues in relation to motorcycling and accidents. As you know I am a Specialist Motorcycle Accident Lawyer and I look after people who have been knocked off their bike and often sustained catastrophic injuries and need their lives rebuilding.
One question has come off the forum this week, it’s been a question about somebody who has already instructed solicitors and has asked can they transfer the case and if so what are the consequences. This is a question I come across two or three or more times a week, nowadays what happens is bikers when they have an accident do the knee jerk reaction everybody does, they ring their insurers. Everybody believes you have got to ring your insurers and it can be good sense, but the problem with that is that the insurers will quickly get to grips with the case and find out whether it is a none fault case and whether there has been an injury sustained. If that is so they will say to the customer or their insured that they will put them in touch with a solicitor, they may even say that they have legal expense insurance for that purpose. People will then end up in the hands of a solicitor that they haven’t chosen that has just been selected by the insurers and what actually happens behind the scenes is that the insurers will charge the solicitor £800.00 or so just to receive the case; that’s called a referral fee. I personally don’t like it and I don’t do it, but that’s how people end up in the hands of solicitors.
The solicitor is not selected because they are good, they are not selected because they know anything about bikes and bike accidents and the idiosyncrasies of bike accidents, they are selected just because they have paid the insurers a sum of money. So the poor unfortunate client ends up with those solicitors who may not be up to the job and it is a sad reality that there are good and bad solicitors and I come across it all the while where people have a case in with a solicitor that has become difficult and the solicitor has merely put it in his filing cabinet and not done much about it.
So the way I advise clients is that it would be very easy for me to say that I am the best Lawyer in the World and everyone should transfer their case to me but that would be wrong. What you should do is try and address any concerns with your solicitor, contact them, speak to the person dealing with the case, if they are not senior try and speak to somebody more senior. Every firm of solicitors has a complaints procedure they have got to have that, the Solicitors Regulation Authority insists upon it, so try and use that to try and get some satisfaction as to what’s happening on your case and why you haven’t got any answers. If you can’t resolve your complaint like that then you should look at changing, you have a right to be represented by a solicitor of your choosing. Now if you want that to be a solicitor who specialises in bike accidents make sure you choose that solicitor very carefully you do not want to jump from the frying pan into the fire.
If you want to transfer your case the solicitor acting for you is probably acting on a conditional fee agreement and or on legal expenses and you can transfer, see your new solicitor tell them about the case, tell them you are dissatisfied and you have lost confidence with your solicitor and they will ask you to fill in a very simple authority which authorises them to get the papers from your previous solicitor. What they then do is they write to that solicitor with that authority and give the original solicitor an undertaking to look after their costs at the end of the case and that is just about it. You should get the file of papers and your new solicitors should be up and running, they will review those papers and get on with the case and hopefully you will be more satisfied. You only get one chance when you issue court proceedings to achieve the maximum amount on your case so it should be in the right hands.
If you have any more questions about that or wish to speak with me directly you can contact me through the website www.lampkins.co.uk and click on the ask a question button. You can also contact me via Twitter at ‘Compensateme’ on the twitter system, also if you want to subscribe via iTunes search for Mark Lampkin’s Biker Pod Cast and you will find this and other important questions on bike accident cases.
Mark Lampkin
“My son Jason, who as you may know (because I tell everybody!) plays for the Aston Villa Academy (under 18’s) has now reached the semi-finals of the prestigious FA Youth Cup a trophy won by such players as David Beckham no less.
As our 
Our ride-out will take place on 30th May 2010 from each of these dealerships and we will raise money in aid of our chosen charity this year which is Nightingale House Hospice in Wrexham. The rides will start at the dealerships and will finish at the Ponderosa Café on the Horseshoe Pass which is a famous biker refuge. There will be trade stands in the car park and we expect hundreds if not thousands of bikes depending on the weather.