LEGAL Q&A

This information is provided by Stephen Hattersley, of WildWood Legal, a firm of solicitors specialising in claims for injured scooterists. Stephen, a qualified solicitor for 25 years, has been riding scooters for more than 30 years, and has acted for injured riders across the UK. He knows the tricks and pitfalls that insurers use and pulls no punches in his dealings with them. He rides to work every day and understands the challenges you face out there.

Q. I was knocked off my scooter and both I and my passenger were injured. It wasn’t my fault – how come you can’t act for both of us?

A. We get asked this quite a lot. We'd love to act for both of you and sometimes we can.

What we need to do first of all though is make sure that there is no ‘conflict of interest' as it is known legally. Even though you may be convinced you weren't at fault – and we may well agree with you – the defendants may take a different view and suggest that you were partially to blame. If that happens and we have brought a claim for both of you, we would then have to stop acting for both of you, which is really annoying.

So, what we normally do is start the claim process for just you and see if we can get a full admission of liability. If we can, all's good and we can then act for your passenger as well.

If you need advice on a scooter-related legal question, email stephen@wildwoodlegal.co.uk and the best Q & A will be published in Scootering magazine in confidence.