Keep a diary, borrow a camcorder of someone, get dates and video proof of this nasty peice of works behaviour and if all else fails get your own back ... if they leave the poor rabbit out again in that state ring the RSPCA. Not that you want to turn it into an all out war or anything. Best of luck with the police Teddybear xx

I think you are right. It was my mobile number that they called me on which I haven't changed for a few years. I had a postal redirect for 6 months from my old address and didn't get anything from them over that period. Thanks for reassuring me guys Teddybear xx

I don't have a statutory demand but they might have sent it to old address, funny how it takes them 7 months to make a phone call though! I'll have to wait until they call again and see what's happened. If they did make me bankrupt what would happen to my loan and credit card that I owe money on? Hmmm...will have to see what happens. Cheers for the info, couldn't find anything like that online earlier. Ta very much xx

Hello all Just after some info, advice, anything really. Got a call this morning and apparently Legal Collections who bought a debt off Citifinancial have forwarded my file onto a firm (didn't catch the name) to start bankruptcy proceedings. I have to admit I've been stubborn, I have argued with Legal Collections about this for a while but I haven't heard from them since the beginning of the year when they refused to provide me written info rather than demand letters. I defaulted on my agreed payments as I made an offer to Citifinancial to clear my debt, this was about July/August 2005, didn't get a response from them. I should have kept up payment regardless, I was a bit daft. Anyway once I knew that it had been passed to Legal Collections I paid off the balance as per my CCCS statements. That was in November 2005. Then they claimed that the interest and charges were payable - a total of £1290.00. These charges and interest were frozen by agreement with Citifinancial. I have kept up repayments perfectly fine on a loan that I have and my one credit card and would be loathe to have an IVA or bankruptcy just because of the hassle and it would mean changing bank but I don't have any assets to be seized, I don't anticipate wanting to be a company director in the future and I'm blacklisted anyway still from my past so I wouldn't ever be applying for credit. Plus being in that unlucky generation unless I come into money I think I'll be renting for the rest of my life. At the moment I'm waiting for the berks that called this morning to call me back. I tried explaining situation to this firm but the idiot on the other end of the phone wouldn't let me get a word in edgeways, even when I tried giving him my correct address...how ridiculously stupid of him, so I ended up hanging up out of frustration instead of being abusive. It appears they have been corresponding with my previous address which I was at in March this year. I don't know if I have a CCJ in relation to this but as I said I'm not that bothered about my credit rating although I do promise to get a copy of my Experian report asap. Any views on any of this? Cheers Fluffyted xx

If the firm is keeping same name you should be fine, if not a simple application to the court to amend name in proceedings should suffice and continue as normal. Court can give you more info, or check out court service website... Her Majesty's Courts Service - Home All the best Teddybear xx

Employment law is totally supportive of pregnant women in situations such as this. She should get herself signed off and if they decide to take it any further get a solicitor, her and her baby's health is paramount not pandering to selfish employers needs. Employers have a duty not to put any employees under stress or anxiety regardless of whether they are pregnant or not, especially in relation to work load, for this to be effective she must report all occasions to a supervisor, office manager or HR of when she feels stressed, anxious or unwell and relate them to her working conditions. It would help telling her GP so that it can be noted in her records and support can be provided that end. Her employers need to appreciate that she needs the support and they are legally obliged to provide it. I think it's really sad when pregancy can cause people in a workplace to turn. Having a baby should be a happy time, not one full of depression because you can't enjoy your work, or at least for it to be bearable. All the best, bug hugs and good luck Teddybear xx

Local Authority tripping accidents make me shudder. If they can prove a half decent record of repair, even it is only every 6 or 12 months then claiming is going to be difficult. It is a statutory defence and councils everywhere in England will use it unfortunately much to the detriment of people who genuinely injury themselves on neglected or damaged pavements. It's the same with claiming against cleaning companies if you slip in a shopping centre or something, if you slipped on a chip and they'd just swept the floor 5 minutes before, or they can prove that they have a regular and reasonable cleaning plan then claiming will be tricky. Sorry to hear of your bad luck with this case, thanks for sharing it, hopefully it will help others. Teddybear xx

I agree with other posters that 8 months isn't too bad at all to be at this stage. By the sounds of things you have two ways forward: *You can settle now and risk undercompensation - your solicitor can put forward what is known as a part 36 offer forward to the other solicitors or can issue court proceedings; or *You can continue with any treatment and wait until the end of the prognosis period (as per your medical evidence) and then review your symptoms - you can either settle the claim if recovered or if not recovered at end of prognosis obtain further and more specialised expert evidence. I don't see the harm in getting a barrister's advice however it is not always a recoverable cost unless proceedings are issued (if I am right in saying that this is a fast track matter in which case the costs will fall under the predictable costs rules). Might be worth asking your solicitor to get your barrister to advise on liability and quantum and draft particulars of claim if necessary - Particulars of claim are court documents that are filed with a claim form - then get the claim issued asap in order to ensure that the fee would be recoverable. This would be a bonus for your solicitor as if the claim is issued then the file can go to cost draftsman and therefore his costs will be a lot more. The matter can still be negotiated and settled without having to go to a final hearing but if liability is still an issue when it is clear cut then I would find it hard not to have issued on this one. Counsel's advice isn't filed at Court or disclosed to a third party insurers or solicitor unless it is a minor claim and the matter is going to court for an infant approval hearing (which is just to authorise damages on behalf of a child and then get them invested in court). Counsel's advice is not a discoverable document as it is covered under legal professional privilege so third party cannot demand sight of it and counsel will have greater specialism and knowledge of case law/current Judicial Studies Board Guidelines plus knowledge of what local Courts/Judges have awarded at final hearings for similar claims. Having said that I don't know what the prognosis is, it might be fairly straight forward, for £2500 - £3000 just for personal injury you are looking at at quote bad soft tissue injury/whiplash 2 - 2.5 year prognosis, personally I would value general soft tissue injury and general whiplash prognosis of 6 - 8 months at £1500.00 depending on how intermittant symptoms are at the time of examination. Having said that courts occasionally throw a spanner in the works and award damages right at the bottom end of the spectrum of damages just to p!ss us off and make us look crap!! Don't know if my waffling on is of any assistance but it might give you some insight into personal injury/road traffic accident claims. All the best Teddybear xx

Evening Rock the boat my friend and hopefully your lack lustre laywer will fall out the boat into shark infested waters...sorry bit over the top but I do this for a living and cannot abide poor service. The relationship with your solicitor has well and truly broken down. Complain to the complaints partner in the solicitors firm threatening to go to the law society, your acting solicitor needs his/her client care to be noted and have wrists slapped then find another set of solicitors who are really specialised and get your file transferred. You deserve a better service than this. Hastings may provide Legal Expense Insurance see who they have on their solicitors panel. Get both the files transferred as it is always better to have the same solicitor as there can be an interplay between injuries which will need to be addressed. Alternatively get online and find a good RTA Solicitor firm most will have an email service for enquiries and ask them for advice. All the best with your claims and hope you have a speedy recovery. P.s. has anyone offered you complimentary physio or osteo treatment for the injuries you have sustained, it is in their best interest as it will mitigate your loss. P.p.s. If you have any other queries feel free to reply to this post, just bear in mind I don't have conduct of your file so I don't know all the ins and outs.

Insurance companies use computers (because a lot of their staff are trained monkeys...just kidding...monkeys are cute) solicitors however use case law, JSB guidelines and experience. Is it just me or does anyone else despite those 'I fell over a pebble and got £7,000' adverts. Bear in mind that it isn't just the injury that you claim for if you have a vehicle you can claim accident repairs/write off value, loss of use, diminution, hire charges, policy excess and there are other things such as treatment expenses, travel expenses, loss of earnings, Smith and Manchester Awards, damaged property/clothing...the list is not exhaustive.

*It's a free market, you should have tried another solicitor. *Solicitors fees are payable by the defendant insurance company. *If you deal with the insurance company direct it is in their best interests to under compensate you, hence the need for independant advice. I hope you aren't that jaded with the legal profession, I deal with fatal and serious RTA claims and I can appreciate that a lot of 'claims handlers' or 'litigation executives' in firms are not properly trained and that big companies are more like factories than solicitors firms. I would just like to say that if you are not happy with your solicitor complain via their complaints procedure and if you are still not content with that approach The Law Society for further information. All the best to all who read this section. Teddybear (my stage name obviously!)xx

They should have the facilities to check if their cheque has been cashed the cheeky busturds unless their accounts department is totally crap! Best of luck, if proceedings haven't been started and it turns out that you do need to repay money then you have an opportunity to arrange payments, just make sure you can realistically pay them and don't default on them. Best of luck Teddybear xx

Evening First of all this sounds like a typical low velocity impact case. Secondly it sounds like a fraudulent claim. Stress to your insurers that they need to defend this action, however they may like to take the view that it would not be economical to fight it. These people need engineering evidence to claim for anything so unless they can pick holes in this evidence they are stuck. They can get their own engineers out and get their own approved repairers to deal directly with the Claimants if need be. Personally I would take photographs of the accident location, do a sketch plan to accompany it together with a statement of exactly what happened, without feeling just factual and send it to RAC with a covering letter citing that it was clearly a low velocity impact and you believe that the claimant's are making a fraudulent claim. Ask if they have been provided with a copy of the claimant's engineering evidence and suggest they obtain the claimant's GP notes to see if there are any entries around that date of them having been in a road traffic accident. If it was that high speed they would be claiming for personal injury as well. Might be useful to get RAC to compare your repair details with their repair estimate, if the areas of damage and degree of damage don't tally up then RAC have a stronger chance. All the best Teddybear xx

Evening, Round about accidents are notoriously tricky to deal with and in this case is seems essentially to be one person's word against another. If in doubt ask your solicitor for written advice from a barrister, if he asks you for money on account the fees are not covered by LEI or CFA then you can get a reasonable advice for say £117.50 however you may want to say that you would like a second opinion from another solicitor and would like to transfer the file and that might force their hand into getting an advice. Did you get the registration of the lorry that you were behind, if he can be traced (using DVLA and reg number) then you have a witness, in that he may confirm what the lights were doing at the time. You have the following options: Ask for your solicitors supervising partner to review the file; Ask for a conference in person with your solicitor and supervising partner; Ask for their credentials - are they specialised in RTA, how long have they been acting for RTA claimants, what is their experience? Ask for a barrister's advice to be drawn up for you; Or lastly you can ask for a conference with a barrister where he can proof you in person and basically test if your story would sound good in Court to a Judge; It's a long shot but you could even ask your solicitors to threaten the Defendant with increased costs in obtaining a traffic light sequencing report from the local authority. You will have to appreciate however that without witness or police evidence if it goes to Court it will be down to whose story of the accident the Judge likes best, sometimes you get a Judge who is pro-Defendant so you'll lose even if your case is good or a Judge who is pro-Claimant and you will win hands down even if your case is full of holes. It is a lottery, it isn't fair but it is there to save Court time and to keep costs down as there is more encouragement to settle the case out of Court. Unfortunately without seeing your file of papers it is hard to advise because all cases are based upon their own merit. I wish you the very best of luck, if nothing more to get 100% out of the services of your solicitor and bear in mind you are always free to have your file transferred if your relationship with your solicitor breaks down. Teddybear xx