If you live in Leeds and have been involvedin an accident and suffered injury and loss you want to make sure that the personal injury solicitor you chose to deal with your claim for damages knows what they are doing.

Be careful if you contact one of the companies who you see advertised on television, quite often they are not solicitors firms but marketing companies, known as claims management companies, who will sell your claim onto one of their panel solicitors who could be at the other end of the country.

You may not know it but your claim could be sold on for upto £700.00. If the solicitors buying your claim are paying this much just for your details you have to wonder how many cases their lawyers are carrying to make them pay. It is always best to go to a solicitors direct so that your claim isn't dealt with by some poor, over-worked claims handler whose only goal is to settle your claim as soon as possible without really caring about you. The writer of this article recently settled a claim for £6250.00 for a victim of road traffic accident who had been recommended, by his previous solicitors, to settle for £1750.00.

When you phone them up ask them these questions:

• Who will deal with your claim– if they reply ‘one of our experienced team of lawyers' ask them for a name and how long they have been dealing with accident claims.
• Ask if your claim is to be sold onand, if so, for how much. By law claims management companies have to provide this information if asked.
• What experience they haveof dealing with accidents such as yours; make sure that the person who is going to deal with your claim has the knowledge and ability to get you the compensation you deserve.
• Make sure that your claim will be dealt with on a ‘no win-no fee' basisand that there will be no deductions from your damages or costs to pay if you lose your case. If they start talking about administration fees hang up and move onto a solicitor who guarantees you 100% of your damages.

Choosing the right solicitor to deal with your claim is an important part of making sure that you get all you deserve so phone around until you are happy and confident that you have made the right decision.