The structure of our bike team – one size doesn’t fit all

A common misconception in bike claims is that having one claim handler for the duration of the case provides the best outcome – at Minster Law we believe differently.

A personal injury claim isn’t a straight journey from accident to settlement, so our specialist bike team are prepared for all outcomes with experts across all different aspects of a claim.

We believe the best approach to providing the best advice and service no matter what happens with the claim is to ensure it moves through the specialist sections of our team.

All our cases at Minster Law start in our customer support centre where we provide a human approach to taking a client’s information, speak to them in-depth about their injuries and circumstances and support them through the initial stages of establishing their claim.

Dependent on the severity of the injuries clients then speak to our designated team, whose job it is to assess the nature of their injury and align them with the most relevant case handling team.

Clients who are seriously injured are passed through to our serious and catastrophic injury teams, who specialise in head and brain injuries, spinal injuries and injuries resulting in amputation and limb damage.

Meanwhile, any bike cases which are appropriate to go through the MOJ portal are assigned to our specialist bike team.

The bike team is overseen by team manager Ryan Trigg and two team leaders Matthew Midgley and Joanne Jewell-Perves.  Each section of the respective team is built up of four experienced lawyers and a legal assistant.

The MOJ section of the bike team are experts at obtaining evidence of losses, medical evidence and running cases through to settlement via the MOJ portal. The portal is technical and runs to set timescales, so having a team of people focussed solely on MOJ cases means they know the ins and outs of the MOJ system and can maintain a close focus on all portal cases, ensuring all deadlines are met.

For those cases which fall outside the MOJ portal, then the non-portal side of the bike team are specialists at gathering liability evidence for bike accidents and preparing the cases for progression as well as investigating causation, formulating outstanding medical evidence, and collating any uninsured loss evidence.

Part of this includes speaking to defendant insurers to get the best possible liability outcome, then either entering into negotiations to settle cases or preparing cases for litigation if there is a tangible dispute.

If the non-portal team are unable to settle, or there is an ongoing liability dispute, then the case will transfer to the litigation team, who specialise and deal solely with litigation.

Their key focus is to continue to correspond with the defendants to achieve the right liability and financial outcome for our clients.  They do this while operating within the timescales dictated by the court with a view to concluding the case without the need of a final trial.

However, if settlement is unachievable without a trial the lawyers within the team are skilled and experienced in preparing the case and the clients to give them the best opportunity of success within the court of law.

Once settlement is achieved, in any of these three teams, the respective lawyer hands the case to the end of claims team, who chase the agreed settlement money and ensure that this is obtained in a timely manner and processed accordingly.

The MOJ portal team, non-portal team and litigation team handle cases up to the value of £25,000, but at any given time, while the case is with these teams, a case can be transferred out to the serious injury team if the evidence suggests this is the best place for it.

Our model ensure all claims remains with the right person, at the right time which means the customer can expect the right outcome.