Should You Settle Your Personal Injury Claim Early?
The Injuries Board has been in the news quite a bit lately expressing concern about early settlements, somehow suggesting that this might involve claims being paid that might not otherwise or that this might involve lawyers getting some sinister extra cut as a result.
The fact that these suggestions are given any credence just beggars belief. But I have seen it accepted without question in certain parts of the media and I’ve seen some simply idiotic and outrageous analysis based on this asinine premise.
Derisory early settlement offers by insurance companies
The only reason insurance companies settle early is that they can do so cheap on claims that they know are going to be paid anyway but that if they go through the system, and are awarded their full value as a result of proper representation, they will end up paying a lot more. It is far more likely that the type of person who is induced to settle early isn’t represented as if they were they would be advised not to take the derisory low ball offers that insurance companies make to try and buy off those unfamiliar with the system.
It is shameful exploitation of innocent accident victims, but we don’t hear anything about that anywhere, rather a smear that it’s all got to do with dodgy claims and dodgier lawyers and all this coming from a supposedly independent state agency.
Anyway, John has been hard at work putting together some excellent videos on this very subject. His first one is below:
If you have any questions regarding personal injury settlements in Ireland, feel free to contact our personal injury claims team in complete confidence and without commitment on 1800 390 555 or email John McCarthy at john@mccarthy.ie.
In contentious business, a legal practitioner shall not charge any amount in respect of legal costs expressed as a percentage or proportion of any damages (or other moneys) that may become payable to his or her client or purport to set out the legal costs to be charged to a junior counsel as a specified percentage or proportion of the legal costs paid to a senior counsel. A legal practitioner shall not without the prior written agreement of his or her client deduct or appropriate any amount in respect of legal costs from the amount of any damages or moneys that become payable to the client in respect of legal services that the legal practitioner provided to the client.