As Solicitors who act for clients who have suffered personal injuries in Belfast, Newtownabbey and indeed throughout Northern Ireland we often come across situations where the Insurance Company for the other party make a pre-medical offer.

WHAT IS A PRE-MEDICAL OFFER

A pre-medical offer is when the other parties Insurance Company recognises that you have a valid claim and they offer you a sum of money to dispose of your case before you obtain medical evidence.  For example say you were involved in a road traffic accident and suffered injuries to your neck and back (commonly known as whiplash type injuries) the Insurance Company might write to us after a few weeks saying that they were making you an offer of £X.  This would be before we would have had an opportunity to send you to see a Consultant to obtain a report on your injuries and the likely prospects for recovery.

SO WHAT SHOULD I DO IF I RECEIVE A PRE-MEDICAL OFFER

Very often the answer is that they should reject the offer as being less than what they are likely to get if they have a medical.  We would not recommend pre-medical offers but sometimes it suits clients well if the Insurance Company have come up with a figure which is in the average region for this type of injury and if our client is telling us that they have made a very full recovery.

The difficulty always is that if you settle your claim too early and the problem hasn’t fully resolved then you can’t get any more compensation.  For this reason we don’t normally send clients to see a consultant too soon because your compensation relies not just on how sore you are at the start but on how long you are sore.

So if you have suffered injuries as a result of a road traffic accident, an accident at work, a slipping or tripping accident and we are acting for you we will be very happy to give you advice in relation to any pre-medical offers which are received.