Lawyers & Legal Insurance

I consulted a solicitor who specialises in accidental injury 11 days after my accident.She was really helpful & competent & was very confident that there is definitely good case to answer.

I have the photographs my daughter took on the day of the accident & of my battered face the day after, plus a detailed statement from her perspective. My Blog is a record of the impact on me physically & on my life. I have a statement from D, who is a physical trainer, so has First Aid & H&S skills. I also have a statement form J who found me. There are medical records at the JR hospital & my GP's.

The whole thing is very complicated. The claim has to be registered in something called a Portal. This stage can take 40 days. All parties then decide what their response to the evidence will be. Hopefully, at this point the other side will accept liability & if they do there are guidelines for General & Special damages which have to be agreed.

If they don't accept liability the case goes to Court. Then I may have to have medicals with possibly 2 consultants because there are head injuries & shoulder/arm injuries. The prognosis for any permanent, future, neurological/orthopaedic repercussions will have to be assessed. That could involve a year's wait.

The real b..... is my Legal Insurance with Saga. Apparently it isn't what I assumed 5* Insurance meant - Why am I not surprised? Initially I have to use their Panel Solicitors, Lyons Davidson. Everything would have to be done over the phone or by email because their nearest offices are in Bristol. My solicitor is 5 minutes walk away. I can actually speak to her face to face, which is very important to me.

When I purchased Legal cover I had no idea it was so restricted. I am a 72 year old widow. This accident has affected me physically & mentally. Recovery is very slow. I only started resuming my normal activities after a fortnight. I would find dealing with everything with Lyons Davidsons even more stressful than they already are. I don't think it is reasonable to expect me to deal with all of this remotely. I also think it is unreasonable to expect me to deal with the Portal part of the suit with a different solicitor to the Court section. It would cause disruption & needless repetition, putting much more stress on me. Coping with the accident & injuries is bad enough. This is just making it all worse at a time when I'm really not feeling wonderful.

I've contacted Saga & asked them to re-consider & allow me to use my solicitor - I won't hold my breath. In my experience Insurers are really good at avoiding fulfilling the expectations of the insured. The small print is so lengthy & so small that everyone knows no one reads it or understands it. The law is a closed shop for Lawyers, us mere mortals really can't grasp the intricacies.

Insurance & the Law is meant to protect us - Personally I'm not convinced it does. It just costs a lot in stress, time & cash.

PS - 28th April
6 weeks / 42 days after my initial contact with Saga about my legal cover I still have no clear answer from them  about whether they will let me use my local solicitor. Why on earth does it take so long for a fairly simple decision. All through I have been emailing to try to progress the request & get a decision. If their unreasonable delay means that my case runs outside the timescale for the Portal stage I am going to be a very angry customer.