Defendant Fee Earner
A well established Merseyside firm are looking to recruit a Defendant Fee Earner for their Personal Injury Team.
Duties will include, but not be limited to,
- Deal with all aspects of litigated and non – litigated Defence personal injury claims, including RTA claims, and pursuing Part 20 claims on behalf of clients when appropriate.
- Have a good working knowledge of the CPR and/or and other relevant case law and/or legislation and progressing defences in a timely manner in accordance with the CPR.
- Have a working knowledge and where appropriate advise on/progress claims involving technical arguments such as indemnity/RTA/Article 75 Insurer issues, resiling from admissions, and pursuing non-parties to litigation.
- Instruct Counsel, to attend conferences, hearings and CMC’s etc.
- Undertake telephone advocacy when appropriate e.g. allocation hearings and CMCs.
- Take a pragmatic commercial approach to settlements and advising clients as to litigation/cost risks.
- Ensure any appropriate instructions are obtained from any relevant insurance clients.
- Ensure any appropriate instructions are obtained from any relevant lay clients.
- Prioritise urgent schedule entries and dealing with remainder of daily tasks on To Do list.
- Achieve and exceed various targets set in relation to fee income, closures and issuing etc
- Ensure clients (lay and insurance) are kept informed and up to date on a regular basis throughout the life of the claim.
- Build a rapport by speaking/meeting with clients when possible to ensure a consistency of service and to ensure insurers loyalty to the Firm
- Check the authenticity and validity of claims by speaking with clients regularly on potentially difficult files
- Build a relationship with clients to minimise the possibility of complaints and to enhance the reputation of the Firm and the service it provides
- Ensure that any relevant insurer is kept updated and fully informed as to the progress of any claims to reduce any potential exposure/liability and to increase saving
- Maintain pro- active communication with clients (lay and insurance) to ensure all heads of claim are discussed with the client at the outset and throughout the claim.
- Obtain all relevant documentation from clients at the outset.
- Discuss liability and/or quantum offers with the relevant parties, making use of the telephone rather than letter whenever possible.
- Consider, and advise clients on, issues of contributory negligence as and when they may arise.
- Prioritise incoming daily post/emails and dealing with anything needing urgent attention while the remainder of the post is dealt with expeditiously and in order of importance and productivity
- Assist new or less experienced members of the team with any issues in terms of clients, referrers, external agencies and procedure etc.
- Liaise with Team Leader and/or Head of Department to take more contentious files and deal with them under supervision to expand knowledge and experience
- Where applicable increase numbers of multi-track cases within caseload to further develop own level of experience
Successful candidate must be a Solicitor, ILEX qualified or file handler of at least 2 years’ experience in the personal injury field.
For more information on this role, please contact [email protected]
