At James McNulty & Co our primary focus is on those victims who unfortunately sustain a brain, spinal, amputation or other serious injury.  Making a claim can be broken up into a number of distinct but sometimes overlapping stages:

  • Free Initial Legal Consultation
  • Letter of Claim
  • Rehabilitation Needs, including Interim Payments
  • Where Liability is Admitted
  • Where Liability is Wholly or Partially Denied

1. Initial Legal Consultation

Establishing the relative merits of your claim needs to done at the outset. The likelihood of success will guide your decision as to how to proceed.

Catastrophic injury cases can last for years, so it is important to appoint a specialist lawyer. There is no substitute for meeting the lawyer with whom you will be working closely. They will be able to provide clarity about the major stages in the process, the likely value of your financial claim and your options for funding your case.

James McNulty & Co. Solicitors offers a free initial consultation which covers the merits of your claim, the methods of funding open to you, the need to focus on early rehabilitation, the potential elements of your financial claim, any other issues specific to your case and any other matters which you wish to discuss.

2. Sending Letter of Claim

A first set of tasks for us is to ensure that all Defendants are correctly identified and to compile key information and evidence in order to prepare for a Letter of Claim in accordance with the Pre-Action Protocol for Personal Injury Claims.

Once everything is in order, the Letter of Claim is sent to the Defendants, who have three weeks to acknowledge its receipt. Following that, the Defendants have three months to investigate.

3. Rehabilitation, including Interim Payments

Obtaining funding for rehabilitation is an immediate top priority and continues throughout the case in parallel with the claim process. The goal is to enable you to live your life to the fullest extent possible. Early rehabilitation is essential to achieve this, so an early task is to identify priority rehabilitation needs and seek interim payments to fund their treatment.

The medical needs in serious injuries are complex and often long-term. Whether you need replacement limbs or intense recovery therapies, it is crucial that they are funded as early as possible. For many, it is usually not possible to return home without at least some adaptations to enable as much independence as possible. A new home may be required and any additional care needs to be factored in for your everyday needs, as well as additional help when going on holiday.

4. Where Liability is Admitted

The Defendant may admit full liability, admit partial liability and allege contributory negligence against you in that your actions contributed to the accident so you would lose a percentage of the value of your claim, or deny all liability.

Where liability is admitted, there is still a good deal of work to be done to ensure that you receive a fair and just entitlement. We will provide advice and clarity on the level of compensation which you should receive now and, in the future, including medical costs for example ongoing private physio, loss of earnings past and future, the need for care and assistance, rehabilitation treatment and therapies as well as the legal costs.

See article: How is Personal and Injury Compensation Calculated?

There are likely to be intense negotiations over the level of compensation, especially when calculating the future cost of rehabilitation and care, as well as loss of future earnings and any accommodation adaptions claim. We will retain a number of specialists whom we work with on an ongoing basis, to quantify and present expert reports on the care and financial loss resulting from your accident.  These include medical consultants, Forensic Accountant, Physiotherapists, Occupational therapists and Care consultants.  We will instruct a junior and senior barrister who deal with life changing injury compensation claims on a regular basis.  we will set up a settlement meeting with the insurance company’s representatives and if we can agree the level of compensation, the case will settle and there is no need to go to court.

5. Where Liability is Partially or Fully Denied

Where liability is partially admitted, we will review the liability with a view to potentially settling. We will require disclosure of documentation from the insurance company before discussing settlement so that we can advise you if you should accept a reduction in the percentage of compensation you are to receive.  We may instruct an engineer to review the documentation and meet with you and gauge if your level of experience for the work you were undertaking was appropriate in accordance with the training you had received.  At this stage if we can agree on a compromised level of compensation for you, the case ends and the insurance company pay you as agreed.

 Were liability is fully denied, both parties will have to review the position and we may issue High Court proceedings against the Defendants. Even at this stage either party can make an offer to settle. If accepted, the case ends and the Defendants pay you as agreed. 

If no compromise can be reached the case will proceed to trial in order to determine liability and level of compensation.

Get in touch if you have suffered a severe injury and you need legal advice. 

Disclaimer: This guide contains general information only and does not constitute legal advice.  You need to consult a suitably qualified solicitor from the firm on any specific legal issue.  

Organising your free initial legal consultation is straightforward: please either enter your details in the Request Personal Injury Legal Consultation form on this page, or email cathal@jamesmcnulty.co.uk We will be in touch promptly. The consultation can be by phone or videocall, as you prefer. We will arrange a time and day for the consultation which works for you.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Cathal Murray  

Head of Catastrophic Personal Injury