Insurers & personal injury

Insurers & personal injury

With a variety of insurers engaging us to settle personal injury claims of old, this has become one of our core activities. This is one of the reasons companies and organisations facing personal injury claims come to us as well. Handling personal injury claims is a delicate process, which calls for attorneys with a proven track record.

Where necessary, we raise a well-founded defence against claims. The outcome of individual cases, after all, touches on society as a whole, including the management of the cost of claims and thus the insurability of risks. Considering the vulnerable position of injured parties and surviving relatives is one of our core values. In our experience this consideration contributes to rather than contaminates a pure legal debate.

The case and the circumstances decide what is the best approach. There is not a sub-aspect of personal injury claims that we have not handled, often up to the highest court. But setting a precedent should never be an end in itself. This is why whenever possible we opt for alternative dispute resolution, like mediation or the Division for Long-Term Personal Injury Cases. The case and the circumstances decide what is the best approach

In cases in which settling loss is complicated, i.e. where children or young adults have sustained serious injuries or claims from entrepreneurs, our clients often involve us at an early stage to contribute our ideas or to advise on specific issues.

We are also frequently asked to assess whether or not liability should be admitted. This can be in traffic accidents, passenger transport, in the workplace, during sports practice or events. Our years of knowledge and experience in these areas, in combination with our profound insight into the subject matter, we usually manage to settle claims efficiently without any admission of liability.

A large chunk of our practice consists of cases involving several liable parties and insurers, where we combine our knowledge of personal injury claims with our special expertise in recourse and concurrence matters.. It is important to ‘begin with the end in mind’: one of our strong points is that we are very good at making proactive steps with our clients, both offensively and defensively.

Recently, we have:

• advised on complex issues of the mandatory deduction of collateral benefits, in cases of children sustaining personal injuries and in cases of investments in alternative accommodation;
• advised on capitalisation issues, including the notional interest rate and tax issues;
• negotiated prolonged personal injury cases out of court;
• advised on the possible recourse against a foreign benefits agency;
• won an action about a loss of dependency claim under a driver and passenger insurance policy;
• successfully litigated about reliance on error and undue influence to nullify a settlement agreement made years ago.

Our team for this expertise: