Why specialist personal injury solicitors matters

A man injured at work was advised by another Scottish law firm to abandon his court case for compensation after dragging the case out for three years, leaving him high and dry. He was unable to work for over a year because of his injuries. 

His daughter, a solicitor, wanted to see the best for her dad and had initially sought help from her peers. After various delays, they commenced court proceedings only to recommend dropping the case at the first sign of resistance. 

“When they said they wanted to drop the case it was a total blow. There was no warning that it was coming and it took years to get to that point. It meant there was no more funding to carry on the case – we would need to pay for it ourselves or get another solicitor.”

The original law firm offered many services and whilst they did a bit of personal injury work, they did not specialise in it. That made a big difference.

“As a solicitor myself, I was very disappointed with the service my dad received. They were a commercial multi-service firm and it felt like they were more concerned with their own exposure to costs than doing what was best for my dad.”

Completely different experience with Digby Brown

The family came to Digby Brown for a second opinion as they felt it was too big a decision to make based on only one person’s advice.

Simon Hammond, Partner in our Edinburgh office, decided there was merit in the case. We took it on with Compensate no win no fee funding, arranging transfer of the file and funding from the original firm. As court proceedings were already underway, there was not much time to deal with the case.

“We had such low confidence after what happened but from the very onset, Simon was on the ball with everything.

“Simon wiped the floor with anything the other firm had previously done. We had multiple consultations with Digby Brown and they undertook detailed investigations to consider angles that had not been considered before. I remember my dad saying “Do you know I’ve met with Simon more in the last few months than I ever met with the other firm and they had the case for three years?””

Proving employer was at fault

It was not a straightforward case. Our client was blown off a lorry tail lift at work when the wind caught the trailer door. At the time, he was an agency worker as well as an employee of a haulage company.

“Simon was not put off by the difficulties of the case and considered and covered all angles. My mum and dad said “We know they’ll do the very best for us so if it doesn’t come to anything, we know it wasn’t possible.”"

The original firm had focused their efforts on the employers training regime. However, Digby Brown unearthed that his employer had already identified the risk of high winds blowing the trailer doors – but they didn’t do enough about it. If they had, it may have prevented the accident from happening.

In the end, our Edinburgh office successfully settled the case for £40,000.

“It was a phenomenal result Simon achieved for us. In a matter of months it settled, and it was all down to the work Simon put into the case.

“We were all incredibly impressed from start to finish and have no hesitation in recommending Digby Brown and Simon Hammond to anyone else.”