A service for HR professionals, insurers, solicitors, and anyone going back to work and needing vocational rehabilitation after a personal injury
“We are extremely grateful for all you did for us and I can't thank you enough for giving my husband his self esteem back. With all the encouragement you gave him he started to believe in himself again.”
Personal Injury Rehabilitation
The Rehabilitation Code was introduced to ensure that an injured claimant’s medical and employment needs are addressed urgently, without waiting for final settlement of the damages claim. Early intervention can help preserve the claimant’s job, and prevent the effects of the injury becoming any worse, and that way everybody wins.
We carry out Initial Needs Assessment reports under the provisions of the code. In straightforward cases we do this by phone, or if the issues are more involved, we will arrange to visit the claimant at home.
We will then implement those recommendations if the parties wish us to do so. Our specialist field is employment, but we will take on and case manage whatever else the claimant might need as well, e.g. physiotherapy treatment, aids or adaptations at home, pain management etc.
Claimant-led Rehabilitation
Most Rehabilitation Agencies are instructed by the Insurance Company. In our experience this can cause a conflict of interest. If the agency receives regular work from that insurer they may feel pressure to favour the insurer by limiting the costs of what they recommend, and the claimant too may feel that anyone appointed by their adversary, the insurer, cannot really be acting in their interests.
Wright v Sullivan established that a rehabilitation case manager does not act for the insurer, but for the claimant alone.
For this reason, it is our policy to accept instruction from the claimant’s solicitor rather than from the insurer, and it is this which marks us out from other Rehabilitation Agencies.
So, how does the funding work?
There are generally 3 alternative ways to fund claimant-
1/ The Rehabilitation Code encourages a collaborative approach between insurer and claimant’s solicitor, allowing either to instruct a rehabilitation agency. Normally it is the insurer which instructs and then pays the agency. However, where a claimant wishes to appoint an agency through his or her own solicitor, rather than accepting the insurer’s choice of agency, the insurer will usually still agree to pay the costs.
2/ Under no win no fee arrangements, the claimant’s solicitor may seek a payment to cover the costs of the rehabilitation from their funder, which will then be recovered at the end of proceedings along with other costs.
3/ The claimant’s solicitor can apply to court for an interim payment to cover the rehabilitation costs of his chosen provider.