As matters stood until 21st April 2020, the reforms, part of the Civil Liabilities Act stood to come into force on 01st August 2020. From that date onwards, anyone with a “minor” soft tissue injury arising from an incident where they were the driver or passenger in a car, would be unable to recover any legal fees whatsoever from their opponent. Whilst injured people can still instruct a Solicitor, they will be encouraged to deal with their claim personally, using a specially designed online “Portal”. 

 

MG Legal, your Personal Injury Solicitor Lancaster, believes that this system is inherently unfair in that it pits you, the individual with little or no experience of legal matters, against the might of an insurance company. The upper limit of the value of this type of claim is £5,000.00, a not inconsiderable amount of money and so, you can be seriously injured, signed off work and incurring medical expenses, all whilst trying to make a claim from a large insurance company, arrange your own medical evidence and dealing with the vehicle damage to your car. Because of this, once the new system is in place, we will still be offering our services on an affordable, reasonable, fixed fee basis. 

This is not the first time this has happened, the new system was meant to be implemented on 01st April 2020, however, due to the fact that neither the Portal, nor the associated systems for enabling individuals to move the claim into the Court process were anywhere near ready. 

 

Around three weeks after the decision to delay the changes until August 2020 was made, the Government became aware that the Covid-19 situation was going to be far worse than they initially believed and so, all attention is now on efforts to minimise the impact and length of the Covid-19 virus itself and the various restrictions, as well as dealing with a host of other pressing, linked matters. Here at MG Legal, your Personal Injury Solicitor Lancaster, we are working from a variety of locations to ensure we are all safe, however, our offices remain operational and our service is unaffected. 

Absolutely, the statement released has made it clear, so far as any politician’s statement can be clear, that the date is once more subject to change. Presumably, if the Covid-19 situation resolves sooner rather than later and likely to some degree dependent on the progress in the now delayed EU post-withdrawal agreements, it may be that this date is earlier. Again, with so many massive factors in play, the new date of 01st April 2021 may prove to be unrealistic. 

As ever, our advice is to call MG Legal, your Personal Injury Solicitor Lancaster, to discuss your claim with one of our dedicated Personal Injury Specialists. We will carry out a brief assessment over the phone and following this, we will have documentation sent out to you the same day. 

 

We handle all types of Personal Injury Claims including those from Road Traffic Accidents, Accidents at Work, Slips, Trips & Falls and Medical Negligence. We aim to accept all claims on the basis of a Conditional Fee Agreement (no win, no fee agreement) to ensure that you have the access to Representation at a time when you need it most. 

 

Contact us by phone, email, web-contact form or at any of our offices in Lancaster, Garstang or Longridge. We will put you straight in touch with the right member of the team and we will have the ball rolling the same day.