HELP!!

woodturner

I had put a claim in against my employer for an accident that happened in work. You have 2 years to make a claim from when it happened. Before i made the claim I thought maybe they would look after the chiropractor expenses and that without having to go down that road. I gave them the receipts from the chiropractor and didn't get them back when I went to make the claim. The deadline was almost on top of me. By the time I got another copy of the receipts from the Chiropractor and sorted out a few other hiccups on the claim application i was gone about 2-3 weeks past the date. The application was sent back twice because some of the details weren't correct. Can I still pursue this claim in court or should I forget the whole lot. I will always suffer from my injury and feel my employer obstructed the process of my claim. My solicitor says he wants €1000 up front to take the case but said there's only a 20% chance I would win my case.

Milk & Honey

Have you been to PIAB?

woodturner

No but just checked it out there now, cheers bud. Just so frustrated at the moment knowing they withheld my receipts to delay everything.

blueythebear

woodturner wrote: »

No but just checked it out there now, cheers bud. Just so frustrated at the moment knowing they withheld my receipts to delay everything.

If you are beyond the 2 year statute there's a high likelihood that you will fail in your claim. You can take a claim but if your employer pleads in his defence that hte claim is statute barred then you're snookered and you could get an award of costs against you. What stage is the Injuries Board application at? Has it been rejected ?

It does not appear that you instructed a solicitor to submit the application to the Injuries Board. If you did and the solicitor missed the statute, then you may be able to seek compensation from that solicitor for professional negligence.

The preceeding obviously is not legal advice. Ultimately, these are questions you should be asking your solicitor. €1,000 upfront is not too much to invest in your case when medical report would cost a couple of hundred alone.

woodturner

From what the Injuries board said, i took it that I only needed a solicitor if it had to go to court. I sent the claim in myself.

blueythebear

woodturner wrote: »

From what the Injuries board said, i took it that I only needed a solicitor if it had to go to court. I sent the claim in myself.

The injuries board was set up to make it easier to make a PI claim so as to avoid court but unfortunately, you're generally always better off going to a solicitor for an injuries board claim (unless it's extremely straightforward and minor). A solicitor will get you a better settlement if there are negotiations with insurers, etc and will also ensure that any deadlines are not missed. Unfortunately it would seem that you have missed the deadline.

If the other side realise this they would have a total defence to any court case should they choose to highlight it in court. Ideally you should discuss the matter further with the solicitor you referred to in an earlier post or get a second opinion.