No win no fee solicitors are destroying small bizz

[nonkydyson]

I think the way your own insurers are behaving is appalling, who are they? I, for one, would like to know who they are. They should not have let this get this far, the stress of it alone is awful for you!

I just don't get why they said that they could see it wasn't our fault, that we kept clear concise records, our training was up to date and that we should def defend ourselves and then let it drift this long - hiking the payout to the solicitors for the other party, I almost wonder If the others Sides solicitors were bribing my insurers.

 

[Beauti-listics]

I too am appauled at the way that your insurance company are handling this. If the so called burn is near her temples then i do not feel applying EE would be responsible for this, as we do not apply lashes to the eyebrows.
Can i ask why and what you wrote in your accident book though? as i do fear by writing that an accident occured in there, that already you have accepted responsibility? Personally i would not have done so. xx

 

[nonkydyson]

Have you taken any proper legal advice? I mean, rather than just the advice from your insurers. (In my experience, staff who work in claims depts. are not usually legally qualified.)
If it is a frivolous claim, the courts will see this. If she is claiming injury and negligence then she will have to prove her claim with solid medical evidence. She will have to prove that not only did she suffer injury but that your service caused the injury and from what you have said, this seems highly unlikely.
If it was me, I would dispute the claim and following the case, I would probably refer the issue of increased premiums to the Insurance Ombudsman.
Some people try it on but judges aren't stupid.
(Well most of them anyway :lol

Thank you - I am wondering if I approach NHF to defend me, my insurers are saying that because we acknowledged that she came in without a Mark on her face but left with a Mark on her face - the action of her coming into the salon means it is likely to be our fault!! It's called probability - nothing about proof. I can't prove we didn't do it - she can't prove we dud, but she wins, my insurer rolls over and we get ripped off!?? Totally unjust unfair system

 

[nonkydyson]

What accident happened to require it to be noted in the accident book? I would seek independent legal advice, some solicitors offer this for free. Sounds like your insurance company aren't being very helpful. X

No accident - I logged that she said her skin was stinging as she was leaving the salon, I documented that I looked at it, could nit explain it's cause - bathed it with sterile water and what after care advice I gave. That appears to be confession?!

 

[Ruth Mills]

Thank you - it wasnt around her eyes it was almost on her temple!!! - she has also sued various other business.s for slips trips and falls!,

She's a blatant fraud by the sound of it! An evil little parasite sucking the blood out of small businesses; shame your insurers can't do a database check on that insurance database they mentioned on Watchdog last week; I'm sure they'd find that she'd put through a hell of a lot more injury claims than anyone would ever be expected to have.

Wouldn't surprise me if she deliberately inflicted that scar on herself just so she could put in a fraudulent claim against you!

Here you go - do yourself a favour and shop her here... https://www.insurancefraudbureau.org/report/

 

[nonkydyson]

I am doing phone battle with my insurers tomo - will update you guys then. Thanks for the support and input xxx

 

[Beauti-listics]

No accident - I logged that she said her skin was stinging as she was leaving the salon, I documented that I looked at it, could nit explain it's cause - bathed it with sterile water and what after care advice I gave. That appears to be confession?!

The fact that you have noted this in your accident book, is a confession in the eyes of the court. Unfair yes, but a big lesson learnt. In future if this happens i would be inclined to make no notes of this and just say to my client. there is no explanation for this as the treatment that you have recieved does not touch the area of pain! xx

 

[Ruth Mills]

I am doing phone battle with my insurers tomo - will update you guys then. Thanks for the support and input xxx

I'd make darn sure that your insurers know about these other personal injury claims she's been putting in - it might put a completely different spin on things - I know if *I* was in charge of your insurance company, I'd be getting the Police or a private detective on the case to gather evidence against her for a fraud case!

Are all these other claims of hers with the same solicitors too? If so, then it would be extremely dishonest of them to be continuing to try and pursue so many concurrent cases on her behalf!

Fraudulent insurance claims forcing up premiums - Telegraph - sounds like there's a lot of this sort of fraud going on, it's "easy money" for people who can't be bothered to put in the hard graft that everyone else is having to at the moment!

 

[Ruth Mills]

No accident - I logged that she said her skin was stinging as she was leaving the salon, I documented that I looked at it, could nit explain it's cause - bathed it with sterile water and what after care advice I gave. That appears to be confession?!

Was there any visible evidence though? You were doing the right thing to keep a record of what she said; that counts as "due diligence" in my book.

All you know is that she said that her skin was stinging - which for all we know could be a blatant lie! Now suppose she (accidentally or deliberately) manages to burn the skin in vaguely that area with her hair straighteners, or she's frying the bacon and gets spattered in the face with hot fat... both those are perfectly logical reasons why she may have ended up with permanent scarring in roughly that area.

Bet you that it's the sort of scarring that nobody would give a second glance at though!

 

[The Guild]

I am seriously considering getting clients to sign a disclaimer stating that they use these premises and have treatments at their own risk and that we except no responsibility!???

Just to let you know that this is generally discouraged as disclaimers are not worth the paper they are written on, and do not stand up in court.

 

[airendaie]

Are all these other claims of hers with the same solicitors too? If so, then it would be extremely dishonest of them to be continuing to try and pursue so many concurrent cases on her behalf!

Just thought I'd mention my family's experience with these 'No win no fee' solicitors. My Mum went to one after slipping on a sign outside a newsagents. I did not condone this behaviour but I think she did it mostly because the owner was quite rude to her when she complained.

Anyway, this was about a year ago and at the time the solicitors got her to go to the doc take photos etc. A few weeks ago they contacted her again asking her to see another specialist. She was reluctant as it was a lot of hassle and didn't particularly want to see it through now as its been a long time since the incident. They told her that she is obliged to go through with everything now or she will have to pay their fees!

Now I'm not sure if this is entirely true or if its bully tactics. Either way I think these companies are disgraceful! Although this lady sounds like a seriel complainer, somebody else might feel bullyed into continuing a claim by unscrupulous solicitors!

Also can't believe your insurance companies behaviour, how can they put a price on a claim premptively (sp?)

I really feel for you this must be so stressful and for it to go on for so long is awful. Is it possible to get quotes from other insurers to see if their premiums would be as high? I'm no expert but even if you change insurers don't they have to continue with your claim as it was made with them?

Hope this works out for you x

 

[Ruth Mills]

I think the best line of defence here would be in demanding proper, concrete proof (with independent medical evidence) that the alleged scarring would in all likelihood have been caused by the treatment and not by something else.

The problem, as I see it, is that these "no win no fee" lawyers really are the dregs of the legal system, aggressive ruthless opportunists who bombard you with crass advertising on daytime television and spam you with speculative text messages along the lines of "You could claim up to £3750 for the accident you had" - irrespective of whether you've actually *had* an accident or not! Sadly, we all end up paying for their inflated fees and some frankly frivolous personal injury claims (like the "phantom whiplash" that so many people seem to have after a trivial car accident) in the form of greatly increased insurance premiums.

Then you have these unscrupulous little frauds who exploit the system as a means of getting "easy money" by putting in fraudulent and frivolous claims via these "no win no fee" lawyers - who you can bet your bottom dollar will throw everything in their arsenal at trying to secure a claim at all costs - as they know that they won't make a penny for their time otherwise; probably your insurance company has got fed up with wasting time dealing with these parasitic companies and has a policy of settling up as early in the process as possible and bumping up your premium to a ludicrous level to recoup their costs for the privilege! Simply to save time and paperwork! Cheaper to pay out the claim than to pay staff to contest it!

I *so* wish that there was a solicitor out there who would send one of those personal injury companies an "Arkell vs. Pressdram" letter when it's so blatantly obvious that the claim is frivolous and an excuse to milk money from hard-working small businesses!

 

[marymint]

I too would like to say that I hope this turns out well for you, I can only imagine the stress and worry you must be going through, this whole 'Claims Culture' has gotten totally out of hand, will be watching this post in the hope that you have good news soon x

 

[Ruth Mills]

Just thought I'd mention my family's experience with these 'No win no fee' solicitors. My Mum went to one after slipping on a sign outside a newsagents. I did not condone this behaviour but I think she did it mostly because the owner was quite rude to her when she complained.

Anyway, this was about a year ago and at the time the solicitors got her to go to the doc take photos etc. A few weeks ago they contacted her again asking her to see another specialist. She was reluctant as it was a lot of hassle and didn't particularly want to see it through now as its been a long time since the incident. They told her that she is obliged to go through with everything now or she will have to pay their fees!

Now I'm not sure if this is entirely true or if its bully tactics. Either way I think these companies are disgraceful! Although this lady sounds like a seriel complainer, somebody else might feel bullyed into continuing a claim by unscrupulous solicitors!

That's APPALLING! Actually... is there any chance that you could get your Mum to get in touch with BBC Watchdog about this? I would *so* love to see Watchdog do more about these "no win no fee" companies - especially if they use bully-boy tactics like threatening to charge their client for their extortionate fees so far if they decide to retract the claim. It's that high-pressure sales and unfair terms & conditions again that I've seen before so many times with dodgy advertising companies and dodgy search engine optimisation companies... businesses that are too greedy to make a living by honest means, and end up bullying and extorting money out of their clients, and generally acting exceedingly unfairly!

Yes, the purpose of a business is to make money - but never by treating the customer in such an appalling way!

 

[Ruth Mills]

Another thing that has just struck me - if a client went straight to a "no win no fee" solicitor over an alleged injury caused by a service that I had provided, without actually having the courtesy to discuss this with me first, then I'd certainly smell a rat!

 

[airendaie]

That's APPALLING! Actually... is there any chance that you could get your Mum to get in touch with BBC Watchdog about this? I would *so* love to see Watchdog do more about these "no win no fee" companies - especially if they use bully-boy tactics like threatening to charge their client for their extortionate fees so far if they decide to retract the claim. It's that high-pressure sales and unfair terms & conditions again that I've seen before so many times with dodgy advertising companies and dodgy search engine optimisation companies... businesses that are too greedy to make a living by honest means, and end up bullying and extorting money out of their clients, and generally acting exceedingly unfairly!

Yes, the purpose of a business is to make money - but never by treating the customer in such an appalling way!

That is a good idea Ruth I will mention it to her, its horrible that these companies prey on vulnerable people like pensioners! I would love to see some sort of crackdown on these companies as it costs honest people their livelihoods!

 

[Ruth Mills]

That is a good idea Ruth I will mention it to her, its horrible that these companies prey on vulnerable people like pensioners! I would love to see some sort of crackdown on these companies as it costs honest people their livelihoods!

Hear hear! I can't believe that they are so aggressive at bamboozling people into going forward with potentially tenuous claims like that!

 

[Lolly22]

Thank you - it wasnt around her eyes it was almost on her temple!!! - she has also sued various other business.s for slips trips and falls!,

Then it's clear that she loves a good bloody claim!!! I am sorry that your insurance aren't sticking up for you here and once this is all over I would change insurance companies. This one is hopeless!!! This really annoys me as it could happen to anyone and a thing like this could destroy your confidence! X

 

[essentia]

My thought is how do we protect ourselves against this sort of unscrupulous claim - ask on the record card if they have ever sued another therapist, take photos after the treatment???? At present I get clients to sign after treatments to say all is well and they have aftercare advice - what else is feasible?

 

[Ruth Mills]

My thought is how do we protect ourselves against this sort of unscrupulous claim - ask on the record card if they have ever sued another therapist, take photos after the treatment???? At present I get clients to sign after treatments to say all is well and they have aftercare advice - what else is feasible?

Good idea to ask up-front if they have ever sued another therapist - perhaps even when and why - at least then if they say no, then you will have proof that they lied to you on that matter.