Life changed for Tony from Sheffield when he sustained a brain injury in a road traffic collision in April 2007. The accident happened when the Defendant pulled out of a side road and hit Tony’s vehicle, and as well as his brain injury, Tony also had serious orthopaedic injuries, breaking both his legs. Tony went from running his own successful business, to being dependant on his wife and daughters. Tony found it incredibly hard to go from being so independent and in charge, to not even being able to make himself a cup of coffee.
Initially a firm of solicitors were instructed to investigate a personal injury claim via his insurance company. Tony did not choose the solicitors, and did not know that he did in fact have the right to choose his own solicitors. He did not know whether the solicitors appointed for him were experts in dealing with brain injury cases. The solicitors were not local to him, and he in fact never met them. Tony was not kept up to date with progress on his case, and quickly became frustrated and stressed because he constantly needed to chase them up. In September 2009, Tony reached the decision that he needed to change solicitors.
Tony instructed Rachael Aram, a Solicitor from Irwin Mitchell specialising in brain injury. Rachael and Tony worked closely together, meeting in person and discussing his case frequently on the telephone to bring his case to a successful conclusion in January 2011. Rachael's assistant Solicitor Stacy Gee also worked on the case which meant Tony had two people to call if he had any questions.
"Everything just ran well once I changed solicitors to Irwin Mitchell," Tony explained. "The communication was so much better. Rachael and Stacy always kept me up to date with what was happening and what they were doing. Every little thing was explained to me, which was important to me when the whole situation of the accident was so stressful. I was very happy with how we worked together."
It is a scenario that Rachael Aram is seeing again and again. "Working with clients who have sustained a brain injury is very niche work. It is a specific type of injury that really needs an expert lawyer to manage the case to make sure that the client is able to access everything they need, such as rehabilitation and interim payments, and to ensure that complex issues such as future care, accommodation and loss of earnings are properly and thoroughly explored. We are seeing more and more clients come to us after becoming disillusioned with their solicitors in the same way Tony did. We are very pleased that Tony enjoyed working with us."