Huge advantage of using personal injury law firms in RTA cases - Craig Snee

Scotland’s roads are very dangerous. The very geography of the country makes this so. In fact, the recent rise in staycations will have acquainted many people from other parts of the UK with just how dangerous our roads can be.

Craig Snee is a Senior Solicitor, Thompsons

The frustrations of being stuck behind an agricultural vehicle or more likely the now-ubiquitous camper van can make the otherwise cautious driver take a risk they normally would never consider. In no other aspect of our daily lives would we be so ready to take that life-changing gamble or be the possible victim of someone else’s foolhardiness.

Personal injury lawyers will always have cases involving serious road traffic accidents. It’s something I deal with regularly and while large personal injury (PI) firms are often involved in high-profile, headline-grabbing cases, Thompsons is no exception. It is the terrible deaths and injuries caused by RTAs that stick with you. The loss of life or permanent disability caused by them are so needless and avoidable.

Running the Thompsons Dundee office, the infamous A9 and the rural highways and byways of Perthshire and Angus bring a steady flow of RTAs to my door. To be fair, recent improvements on the A9 have lessened the amount of accidents that earned the route the reputation as the most dangerous in the UK - but when accidents do occur they tend to be extremely serious.

Local drivers are affected more than others simply because they use the route and its side roads every day. When a driver or their passengers have been in a serious accident once the immediate medical repercussions are dealt with legal concerns come to the fore. Local high street family law firms can often be the first port of call for rural residents but as those solicitors will often tell you, they can often lack the expertise to deal with a complex RTA case.

Many cases I currently handle in Dundee come from Thompsons referral service where we provide first class service to local solicitors who want to maintain control of their case whilst availing themselves of Thompsons expertise.

I could go on at length about the huge advantages of using a specialist PI law firm to handle serious RTA cases. The fact we only act for the victims. The fact we are able to secure the best specialist reports from Scotland’s top medical consultants. And our ability to make sure our clients are given the best medical recovery through physiotherapy and every other benefit Scotland’s excellent medical profession can provide. However I don’t need to as the reputation of myself and my colleagues speaks for itself. But we do provide these benefits to our clients and their families at the most upsetting time of their lives and that is something from which I take immense pride.

On a human level, I sincerely wish that my office never had to deal again with another catastrophic road traffic accident case. They can be legally complex and are always extremely emotional for the family and by extension the legal team who deal with what needs to be done. But so long as we drive our cars round Scotland’s beautiful landscape, we will have RTAs. And as long as we do, myself and my team in Dundee will make sure that victims and their families are given the very best empathetic and legally expert support we can.

Craig Snee is a Senior Solicitor, Thompsons