Legal services can support road victims

One of the first things people often do following a road traffic crash is seek legal support to help navigate through what can be an unexpected and difficult time.

Being involved in a crash can place a victim and their family under a huge amount of stress and see them lost in a process they’ve often never been through before.

More serious injuries can impact a person’s ability to work, their hobbies and their enjoyment of life all while placing them under financial strain.

That is having a legal team on board to help can feel like such a relief.

Daniel Yelland is a customer support centre advisor at Minster Law and on a daily basis takes the initial call from clients who have been injured in a road traffic crash.

Recently he took a particularly emotional call from a young mum who called through not long after her accident.

“She’d just got home and called her insurer straight away,” he said.

“She seemed okay at first but as we spoke about the accident she just broke down.”

The client was still covered in glass and the reality of what had just happened seemed to hit her as they talked about it.

“She told me she was a single, working mother and money was tight, the person who hit her had fled the scene so her insurer couldn’t cover the cost of her repairs and she needed her car to do the school run.”

“I told her to take a moment to herself, to change out of her glass-covered clothes and make herself a cup of tea.”

He said the client started thinking about what could have happened if her children were in the car and that upset her quite a lot.

“I reminded her that though the accident was terrible her kids are safe and healthy and that we’re doing everything we can to make sure their mum is too.”

“She had a lot of questions about how the claim would work with it being a hit and run but I advised her carefully of the process, joked about her choice of tea as she was a Tetley drinker and I prefer good old Yorkshire tea and reassured her that she has nothing to worry about and we’d be fighting in her corner for her.”

That initial call can often be a challenge for road traffic crash victims because they are still in a state of shock and looking for support.

At Minster Law clients are then passed through to a team of specialists who deal with serious injuries, Georgia Bedford is part of that team.

“Most cases I deal with are of a serious nature, however, I find fatal cases the most devastating,” she said.

“We are often required to speak with family members on behalf of the deceased which is particularly challenging.”

These calls can often be from wives, husbands, children or parents who are grieving the loss of a loved one.

A client claims journey can last months, or years, so it provides routine support throughout their recovery.

Bike team claims handler Georgia Grimshaw said regular communication with clients was important in supporting them through the difficult situation they’re in.

“I think the utmost important thing to support our clients at such a difficult time is to be clear with the clients and to sign post the next steps of the claim, so the client is aware on what to expect and reassure them.”

Throughout lockdown she said the team had been sure to keep things business as usual and continue putting the clients first.

Over the course of 2019, there were a total of 153,315 injuries of all severities on our roads.