One woman’s experience of a Manchester solicitor

(Author: John Patterson | Article Views: 15 | Word Count: 901 | Published: Sep 28th 2007)

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When I first moved to Manchester in 2002, I was so excited about it. It was the UK’s fastest growing city. There was so much happening – theatre, opera, urban regeneration and England’s biggest football club.

Little did I know that I would soon suffer a terrible personal injury in a work accident that would hold up my career and prevent me from being able to fully enjoy Manchester’s immense cultural and commercial life.

During this difficult beginning there was one bedrock that would keep my faith and strength in the future: the no win, no fee Manchester solicitor who took on my accident claim and would eventually secure me compensation.

I think that when I suffered my work accident, I experienced the same series of emotions that anyone who has suffered personal injury in an accident at work goes through.

Why me? I thought. Have I done something wrong? Am I somehow to blame for this work accident? Is it morally acceptable for me to make a compensation claim? How do I find a Manchester solicitors who are right for me?

The work accident itself seemed to stem from nothing. One minute I was an up-and-coming set designer, who, young and healthy, had already worked on several high-profile theatre productions in Manchester, Edinburgh and London’s West End.

The next minute I was lying on my back staring at the ceiling with a gash in my leg and a painful, pulsating neck injury.

It was a simple accident, one that could happen to anyone. I had been on the penultimate rung of a wooden ladder (only now do I realise that the ladder was nearly as old as the theatre itself), painting a gloriously colourful vertical backdrop for a new musical, when the rung gave way leaving me to hopelessly tumble to the ground.

Being taken out of the theatre in a stretcher wearing a neck brace was one of the most frightening and bizarre experiences of my life. Several worst case scenarios went through my mind. Will I work again? Have I suffered, God forbid, a disabling spinal injury?

As it was, the work accident had caused a soft tissue neck injury. The doctors described it as being akin to a whiplash injury a person might sustain in a serious car accident.

I was devastated when I was told I was not considered fit enough to continue working on the musical production. Such jobs are hard to come by and it would have looked great on my CV.

Both my union and several of my colleagues urged me to contact a Manchester solicitor to make a work accident compensation claim.

I admit that at the time I knew practically nothing about the compensation claim process. I did not even know of a single Manchester solicitors firm, but I realised that in order to manage my neck injury and keep myself financially solvent – I had only just taken out a long-term lease on a gorgeous tenement flat – I would have to make an accident claim.

A friend who only a couple of years previously had had a traumatic experience of medical negligence recommended I make a no win, no fee claim.

For a while I hesitated. Weren’t no win, no fee claims and no win, no fee solicitors the terrible twin social evils that the media so liked to berate under the derisory banner of ‘compensation claim culture’?

But my friend who had had a positive experience in obtaining medical negligence compensation persisted.

“Do you want to sit at home feeling sorry for yourself, claiming disability benefit while you start to incur debts that spiral out of control?” He asked.

“Or do you want to do something about it? By making a no win, no fee claim you will at least be in control of your own destiny and certainly less of a burden to society. Surely your employers take out work accident claim insurance to cover themselves for situations exactly like yours.”

The argument won me over. So, not without a little trepidation I dialled the telephone number my friend had given me for his no win, no fee Manchester solicitor.

It was such a relief. Once I had given the Manchester solicitor my medical records and the photographs a colleague had taken of the work accident scene, she practically did everything for me.

Within weeks I had the compensation I needed. The settlement happened out-of-court and was really quite amiable. I don’t know what I’d been worrying about.

Five months later, after extensive patience and rehabilitation, I gained another job working on an independent theatre production in Liverpool. It may not have been as well paid as the previous job I’d had to abandon, but it was a reasonable commute from Manchester and represented the first step on the road to career recovery.

I’m still based in Manchester and am thankfully now spending more time shopping at the Trafford Centre, eating in Chinatown and going to the theatre than sitting at home wondering if I can pluck up the courage to call a Manchester solicitor.

This article may be published on another website free of charge, on the condition that a link is provided from this article to our website: http://www.youclaim.co.uk/leading-manchester-solicitors-waiting-to-help-you.htm

About the Author

YouClaim are the leading online personal injury compensation claim people with an excellent claim success rate. Call 0800 10 757 95 or visit http://www.youclaim.co.uk/leading-manchester-solicitors-waiting-to-help-you.htm for more details.

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