Law firm lifts off with Rocket Claims division

A NORTHWICH-based specialist injury law firm has launched a small claims division ahead of government changes set to be introduced next year.

Rocket Claims is a new division of specialist personal injury law firm PIP Law established by senior partner Dominic Moss.

It has been set up in response to incoming government changes to legislation, the most significant of which is the value of the small claims court limit increasing from £1,000 to £5,000 for injury claims.

It means that from 2017, many accident victims will have to pay their own legal costs even if they win their case.

Moss says that as a result many members of the public will be disadvantaged with some likely to try to handle their injury claims directly.

Rocket Claims’ claims-handlers will progress applications either online or over the phone, ultimately processed via the Government Claims Portal.

The new division will ensure individuals can pursue smaller claims of under £5,000 with as little impact as possible from the new changes in the law, whilst speeding up what has become a notoriously slow-paced industry.

Moss said: “Claimants who have a legitimate low value personal injury claim will find themselves significantly disadvantaged as a result of this change in legislation, in direct contrast to insurers and commercial organisations who will find themselves in a much stronger and significantly better position.

“With many individuals unable to afford legal representation we believe that in the future a high proportion of cases will be settled at much lower values or not pursued at all. The lack of legal representation removes key assistance to claimants and means they will struggle to understand the true value of their claim.

“Crucially, and in advance of these changes, we also wanted to accelerate a process that has a reputation for being sluggish and slow-moving. We wanted to bring the personal claims process out of the dark ages and harness IT and the internet to make it much faster.

“Effectively we are doing what we can to remove the lengthy legal processes and court appearances, ultimately making the process much slicker and frictionless than is currently in place.”