Unhappy with my insurance‑appointed solicitor

Hi Andrew. I have lost patience with the law firm my insurance company provided to me to use after my accident in May last year. They visited me in hospital following my accident and I agreed to instruct them without ever thinking to do my own research on which law firm to use. I hardly ever hear from them and they don’t return my calls.  I am worried that they are not making any progress. What is the procedure for changing my solicitors and will I have to pay them for their work they have done to date?

Ben W, by e-mail

Answer

This issue comes up frequently: you can of course use a law firm of your choice and you do not have to use the firm that your insurer arranged on your behalf. We regularly have clients with serious injury claims coming to us from other firms – the majority being from firms arranged by insurers.

Your new firm will send you a form of authority to sign instructing the current firm to release your file to the new one. The new firm will likely give the old firm an undertaking (a legal promise) confirming that they won’t prejudice the old firm’s entitlement to their legal costs which will be paid at the end of the claim. Therefore you should not worry about having to pay the costs to the old firm. It is almost always the case that the old firm will accept an undertaking provided by the new firm and provide your file.