Urgent help please for Personal Injury Claim

[islandgirl]

In that case what do you have to lose by changing solicitor? There is no way I would go into the trial with the one you have.

[Willow75]

Thank you, I really appreciate your reply.

i don't suppose you can recommend a solicitor.

Kindest regards

[atticus]

Try the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers: https://www.apil.org.uk/injury-lawyer

[Manxman]

[QUOTE=Willow75;n1634422

...We have just received a hand posted letter through our letterbox stating that our solicitor has served a notice of discontinuance of the no win no fee agreement.
The letter states that we can represent ourselves, pay our solicitor by the hour or drop the case...

[/QUOTE]

So what happened with the notice of discontinuance that you mentioned above in your original post?

You seem to have implied in your last couple of posts that your original solicitor is still advising you. Have you still got some arrangement with him?

[Willow75]

At the moment we are paying for his services on a private basis as he as ended the no win no fee arrangement.

He has given us until 10am on Monday to either serve a notice of discontinuation or keep paying privately.

But he has advised us that we may have to pay the defense costs if the courts cancel the claim.

[echat11]

This is the key paragraph that needs countered,

'Our solicitor informed us in November 2022 that one of our key witnesses has undermined the case when preparing the joint engineers report. (Although the engineer has said that his comments have been misinterpreted)'

So would an expert witnesses opinion help to clarify what this key witness was trying to convey?

https://www.jspubs.com/

[islandgirl]

I would not pay your solicitor another penny!

[Willow75]

But if we don't pay our solicitor any more money he said that he will serve a notice of discontinuance and then we are really struggling because we would have to represent ourselves or find another solicitor.

Our solicitor is being quite rude and really it is his fault because it was the engineer that he recommended who has undermi Ed the case in his statement.

Our solicitor is saying that we are not able to prove causation due to the engineers report.

Our claim was based on the schools staircase was not maintained (the schools specialist report confirmed this) so the 14 year old child was able to kick the spindle out.

but our witness engineer has stated in the joint report that even if the staircase was maintained the wrought iron spindle could still have been kicked out.....this statement has apparently u derived the case.

The engineer has said his comments have been misinterpreted.

[Willow75]

**undermined the case (sorry,)

[echat11]

But if we don't pay our solicitor any more money he said that he will serve a notice of discontinuance and then we are really struggling because we would have to represent ourselves or find another solicitor.

Our solicitor is being quite rude and really it is his fault because it was the engineer that he recommended who has undermi Ed the case in his statement.

Our solicitor is saying that we are not able to prove causation due to the engineers report.

Our claim was based on the schools staircase was not maintained (the schools specialist report confirmed this) so the 14 year old child was able to kick the spindle out.

but our witness engineer has stated in the joint report that even if the staircase was maintained the wrought iron spindle could still have been kicked out.....this statement has apparently u derived the case.

The engineer has said his comments have been misinterpreted.

So what you need to do is get a new expert witness, to look at the facts / evidence to state 'that had maintenance taken place, then the wrought iron spindle would remain in place if it was to be kicked'. They can do all sort of tests to show what sort of force it would take to knock out a wrought iron spindle. EG. no doubt there are a run of 'spindles', so one next to another, would strengthen the run, so less likely to be kicked out.

[Willow75]

Thank you for your reply.

We had a report done a while ago which stated how many newton's of force it would take to kick out a spindle of the same weight.

Our only problem is time.

We need to file certain documents to the court by 31st May and our solicitor has said that he wants to know by 10am on Monday if we want to increase our spend budget to £8000 for him to do the necessary work and pay for the barrister to attend court.

But he is 'frightening' us by saying if the judge decides that we don't have a case he could strike out the case and make us oay the Defendants costs and that we could be in danger of losing our house.

I know that he wants us to pull out and discontinue but I don't see why we should.

My thoughts are...would another solicitor take on a case that the existing solicitor is saying will fail.

I would oay for someonebody to look through the edocuments of evidence that I have to let me know their thoughts on whether we still have a chance of winning.

[Willow75]

The General Form of Judgement or Order from the court states that judge HHJ Burns requests the following:

The case will be listed for a listing hearing and pre-trial review on the 1st date available after 12th June with an estimated time of 2 hours.
by 4pm on 31 May we must provide availability dates for trial between 01/09/23 and 01/06/24

And we must file and serve on the defendants:

A paginated, indexed bundle for use at pre trial review/ listing hearing

A case summary including list of agreed issues and issues of law and or fact which the court is invited to resolve at trial

A trial timetable

A list of dates of availability for witnesses, & experts

A draft case management order for consideration.

[atticus]

Can your solicitor ask the engineer to clarify his comments? CPR Part 35 gives the parties the right to ask questions of an expert about his report.

I have in the past used this to get an expert witness to correct what seemed to me to be an obvious mistake.

I stand by the recommendation of asking the engineer to clarify his comments.

If your present solicitor has no confidence in the case you need to find another

[echat11]

If the solicitor is putting pressure on you, then you can speak to his senior management who can tell him, that he needs to act professionally. There are 'routes' to complain.

Have you checked your household insurance for 'legal expenses cover'.

[islandgirl]

As a layman I do not see why the report is fatal to the case? The staircase maintained or not was surely not fit for purpose. A solicitor who does not believe in your cause will hinder not help. The time is short as you say and the issue of costs is very worrying and I would be terrified of being a huge sum being awarded against me. I wish I could help further.