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Hi there, I know this isn’t exactly a personal “injury” as such, but I believe it falls under the same category - here’s a description on an ongoing legal case that my no-win no-fee solicitor is leading for me
thanks so much for having a look and offering your opinions!
1. I had a very upscale hair salon basically wreck my hair about a year ago, they didn’t time the bleach bath correctly and used the wrong product and it fried my hair completely. I need to look professional and trendy for my job (self-employed, run my own company which is related to the fashion sphere), so this was damaging for me from a professional sense as well as moral. I had to chop it off and start re growing it from scratch. I had to take few promotional photos last year for news publications during awkward transition pixie haircut phases and it really wasn’t ideal. Previously I had quite long hair. I am really working very hard (12 hour days all the time) growing this company to try to begin to turn a profit so setbacks like this are really no fun.
2. My partner found a no-win no-fee solicitor and they said we had a very strong case, and they don’t take cases on that they don’t think they will win. They also said we would not pay anything out of pocket, but only when the case was won (a percentage out of the settlement).
3. The solicitors arranged a consultation with a trichologist (hair doctor) which would form the basis of the claim, the opinion of said doctor was that the salon had indeed improperly applied the product and chemically burned my hair. There was no charge for this consultation.
4. The salon, the defendant has been pushing back the whole time and have not wished to settle, we’ve now established that we have to go to court. My solicitor didn't provide any explanation or thoughts on why they think the defendant didn't agree to settle with the proposed deal, not did they provide any professional advice on how to proceed or what they think the outcome would now be. At the beginning of the process they had said that the defendant is very likely to settle within 6 months, but it's been over a year now and they haven't settled. I haven't seen any of the defendant's replies and feel that I'm in the dark on what is going on.
5. The solicitors have now told me that I have to pay court fees of upwards of 400 pounds - and have threatened me to charge retroactively for their services if we do not proceed.
6. I have gone along with this*and agreed to pay the court costs but they are now asking me for my NI number (national insurance) but not specifying for what reason they need it, only that it needs to be provided for the court. I cannot independently verify anywhere that the courts require my NI number. Can anyone verify this?*
Why would they be asking for my NI number? Is this legit? I’m starting to not trust these guys every since they basically threatened to countersue me if we didn’t agree to pay the court fee and continue with taking the case to court.
