Firm Strategy

Dickinson Solicitors have an innovative approach to personal injury litigation.

We prefer to set new standards, rather than follow a traditional approach to this type of litigation. Most firms of Solicitors operate under commercial and managerial pressures that stifle innovative thinking. We believe in maximising the prospects of success of each and every case we handle by meticulous attention to detail. We manage cases in a different way to most Solicitors.

In particular:-

• We run a very low caseload enabling us to give each case our maximum attention. Our clients receive a very personal service and a very high level of client care. All cases are handled by Chris Dickinson with assistance from his PA Lisa Taylor-Stout.
• We prepare and protect our clients at all stages of the process, particularly when they attend the Defendant’s medical experts.
• Our clients are usually provided with a video camera and invited to make their own video diary, and that evidence being important admissible corroboration of day-to-day functioning. The strategic advantage of a video diary is that it gives a real insight into the Claimant’s life. Usually the Defendant undertakes covert surveillance of the Claimant but this cannot provide evidence of subtle changes in cognition, behaviour and mood because such changes cannot be seen from a distance. The more intimate video diary by comparison is usually hugely revealing. The Defendant either has to accept what it depicts is accurate or allege exaggeration – a defence we find Defendants are increasingly reluctant to plead since our cases of Williams v Komatsu and Clarke v Maltby. In both of these cases indemnity costs were sought and awarded against the Defendant when they alleged and failed to prove exaggeration.
• We obtain multiple supportive witness statements from friends and family to confirm the changes in the client since the accident. This crucial part of the evidential process is often overlooked by Solicitors or is inadequately investigated.
• We always try to ensure that our clients undergo funded rehabilitation, especially from anxiety disorders that often develop following head injury. Recovery from psychological disorder prevents the Defendant from arguing that the symptoms are all psychological, which is the usual differential diagnosis advanced by Defendant medical experts.