Car crash claim is still not paid years later

J.F. writes: I was the innocent party in a motor accident three years ago, and the other driver’s insurers admitted liability. My car was written off and the claim for this was met with no problem. I also suffered injury and the loss of personal belongings, and this claim was being handled by solicitors Slater & Gordon. But they stopped processing the claim and I cannot get replies to phone calls or emails.

YOU have told me your claim became complicated because you were studying for a doctorate at university and had to miss a year’s study. It was at this point, you say, the solicitors stopped pressing your claim. You have since completed your doctorate in business, so hoped to concentrate on bringing the claim to a successful end.

Your last contact with the solicitors in Liverpool was in early March, by email, and an automatic reply said the firm would ‘be in touch as soon as possible’, after which you heard nothing.

I invited Slater & Gordon to comment, and less than 24 hours later the firm called you and spoke to you. However, the firm’s left hand doesn’t seem to know what the right hand is doing.

Two weeks after it resumed contact with you, it told me it had made repeated attempts to contact you, with no success.

I asked Slater & Gordon specifically whether it was correct that neither the case handler nor the firm’s complaints department had replied to your emails.

I asked whether it was correct that your last email in March had not been answered despite the auto-reply. The firm has answered neither, telling me vaguely that ‘Our files do not show repeated emails and calls that have gone unanswered’.

The firm does accept ‘lines of communication have not reached the client’s expectations’. Solicitors have now resumed work on your claim and instructed a barrister to take it to court.