Irwin Mitchell Profile

As one of the largest law firms in the UK, Irwin Mitchell is a highly respected company. Having been around for a number of years – having been established in 1912 – they have become one of the most respected law firms in the field of personal injury, medical negligence and even travel claims.
People from all over the UK have been helped by Irwin Mitchell’s solicitors over the years and they now have 9 national offices all over the UK; in Birmingham, Glasgow, Bristol, Leeds, Leicester, London, Newcastle, Manchester and Sheffield. They also have international offices in both Malaga and Madrid.
More than a million people in the UK have been helped since their inception back in 1912 and as a whole, the company employs more than 2,000 people, specialising in a range of different legal fields. Irwin Mitchell’s employs include 113 partners, 900 associates plus consultants and senior advisors.
As well as being well respected by the people they help with their legal needs, Irwin Mitchell are also recognised as a key company in the legal world. This is recognised by several awards that have been won by the company, including Law Firm of the Year in 2007, Winner of the South Yorkshire Corporate Law Firm of the Year 2009 and Client Care Law Firm of the Year in both 1999 and 2002.
Irwin Mitchell specialise in personal injury claims, however they can help you with a wide range of personal legal issues including employment disputes, family law, investment services, environmental law, human rights, insolvency, motoring offences and estate administration and probate.
Irwin Mitchell’s tagline is that they are a law firm for life, because at some point, everyone will need a solicitor in their lives and Irwin Mitchell strive to be that firm.
The Irwin Mitchell accident claims Sheffield page on www.irwinmitchell.com has a lot of information if you are interested in knowing more about the claims process.

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Posted December 21st, 2011 in Uncategorized |

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Professional Indemnity Insurance

Whilst few have sympathy for solicitors and many believe that all solicitors are “fat cats”, this is in fact different from the reality, except generally in very large commercial practices. We understand that solicitor’s hourly charging rates appear expensive, but few are aware of the overheads. Running a solicitor’s practice requires significant staffing costs, together with the usual business premises costs many office based companies must pay. What many do not realise is that the compulsory solicitors professional indemnity insurance, which provides very significant comfort for all clients, is hugely expensive, and can range from anywhere between 5-15% of turnover. Take all the overheads into account and most solicitors net profit margins are 30% or less, apply this to the hourly rate or fixed fee, and you may have a different perspective on the charges. having said this, many solicitors do not help themselves by failing to be clera and transparent about these kinds of issues, so hopefully, this short post may help !

Posted July 13th, 2011 in Uncategorized |

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Employment law problems rising

Employment related referrals to solicitors on the rise

Contactlaw is one of the leading legal leads referrals companies in the Uk. It advises that the number of employment law related enquiries it has received have increased markedly by just under 30% from the corresponding period in 2010, many of these being related to public sector cuts. Those cuts are only just starting to bite. Somewhat depressing news except for employment lawyers.

Posted June 26th, 2011 in Uncategorized |

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Medical negligence update

Damages for medical negligence exceed £1 bn for the first time.

Figures released this week show a large jump in the amount of damages paid out medical negligence claims, topping the £1 billion mark for the first time. These figures are unlikely to be repeated in the near future due to the legal aid cuts as many of these claims can only proceed with the help financial help and due to the complexity, time input and need for medical expert evidence, it remains to be seen whether no win no fee can fill the void.

The law society, perhaps presaging the inevitable shouts of “fat cat lawyers2 have suggested that the damages jump is caused by an unnecessary attitude on behalf of defendants to these claims and the NHS Litigation Authority and that many claims should never get near a court which would reduce the bill. We should emphasise that the £1billion figure is for damages and not legal fees, which amount to some  £286 million in the last year..

Apparently, in the last year, around 25% of all medical negligence claims were funded with legal aid and around 30% were actions regarding  children.

Posted June 23rd, 2011 in Uncategorized |

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Scaffold Fall Brings Compensation

Scaffolding on buildingA maintenance operative who carried on working after suffering a fall was found to have ruptured a tendon in his knee after seeing his doctor the next day.
 
The 45 year-old man was carrying equipment down steps attached to scaffolding when he lost his balance. One of the steps had not been properly secured and, as he stepped on it, it tilted forwards causing him to fall heavily onto his left knee.
 
After surgery to reconstruct his tendon, a wire was inserted into his knee to support it while it healed. Four months later, he had a further operation to have the wire removed and then began a course of physiotherapy. In total, he was unable to work for eight months while he recovered, resulting in a substantial loss of earnings. Although he has now returned to work, he has been told that he will never fully recover from the injuries he suffered.
 The man commenced a personal injury claim against his employer. The employer’s insurance company admitted liability for the accident and the claim was settled for £44,000.

If you have been injured at work through no fault of your own, you could be entitled to compensation. Contact us for advice on making a claim.

Posted June 17th, 2011 in General |

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Belgium Authorities to Release Account Details

15,000 Britons with bank accounts in Belgium will have their details
HMRC2
opened up to HM Revenue and Customs by 1 July according to an announcement made today.
 
The move is the latest in a series of agreements between fiscal authorities in Europe to trade information on bank accounts held by non-nationals.
 
Also released today was the news that the Spanish tax authorities are to investigate the UK chief of Santander, Ana Botin, for tax evasion relating to monies held in Swiss bank accounts.

Posted June 17th, 2011 in General |

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Home on the Farm Policy to Tackle Rural Housing

Village HouseThe availability of affordable housing in rural areas has been a problem for many years, with young people often having to move away in order to find employment that will enable them to get on the housing ladder.

 
Such housing as is available in the countryside is often bought as holiday or weekend homes by people from outside the area, keeping the cost of housing unaffordable for those employed locally and, in some cases, causing the creation of ‘ghost villages’; which are virtually deserted a lot of the time, especially on weekdays in the winter. The effect on the local retail economy can also be devastating.
 
In a bid to combat these issues, the Government has suggested that councils in rural areas consider changing their planning policies to allow unused farm buildings to be converted to use for residential purposes, rather than insisting that they only be used as farm buildings.

This idea is part of the 'Home on the Farm' scheme, the aim of which is to turn unused farm buildings into affordable housing. It is hoped that young families will thereby be able to remain in their local communities, rather than having to move to cities to find housing.

The Government hopes to adopt the scheme nationally. It has been outlined in the Government's response to the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee's report into farming in England's upland areas.

Posted June 16th, 2011 in General |

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Half a Million Face Offshore Cash Probes

Hotel Pool 2HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) claim that they have been informed of half a million people who hold cash in offshore tax havens…indicating that the stashing of cash in low-tax areas is a pastime of the middle classes as well as the wealthy.

 
The discovery has led HRMC to increase their estimate of the potential tax yield to ‘billions of pounds’. The information has been obtained through a series of information-sharing agreements between HMRC and foreign tax authorities and includes information from banks and ‘whistleblowers’.
 
HMRC offered a series of amnesties for taxpayers to ‘come clean’ about such accounts in exchange for beneficial treatment by tax inspectors, but it would appear that their entreaties have been largely ignored.
 
Recently, a whistleblower based in Geneva gave HMRC the names of 7,000 UK customers who collectively hold some £13 billion in accounts in Switzerland.
 
The information received to date has led to many raids by HMRC officers and eight arrests.
 
A specialist unit is being set up by HMRC to investigate those with undeclared offshore assets and those who seem to have lifestyles which cannot be financed by their disclosed income.

Posted June 16th, 2011 in General |

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Prize Scam Resurfaces

We recently ran a news item dealing with the successful prosecution of firms running bogus ‘prize draws’ which promised prizes to people. The catch being that the procedure which had to be followed in order to claim a ‘prize’ cost several pounds.
 
The prizes allocated to most ‘winners’ were of far less value than the payments made to the organisers and the scheme was designed to yield a good profit for them. The Office of Fair Trading successfully prosecuted the organisers and it was hoped that this would be the end of this type of scam.
 
Regrettably, the scam is back, offering prizes as before, but with a subtle twist. Now, the procedure requires you to apply for a ‘claim number’ (to see if you qualify for a prize) at a cost of at least £9.
 
The scheme is clearly designed to run at a profit for the organisers and is based at a very similar address to that of the companies prosecuted earlier in the year.
 
The OFT have been informed. If you have relatives who might be inclined to enter such prize draws, it is worth having a word of warning with them.
 

Posted June 15th, 2011 in General |

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Land Scam Firms Closed Down

Stone wallA scam which traded on the greed of the gullible has been closed down by the the Financial Services Authority (FSA) after nearly £4 million was ‘invested’ by people seeking returns promised to be between 200-300 per cent.

 
The ostensible investments were small plots of land that it was claimed would be sold at tremendous profits. Normally these were presented as being potential ‘ransom strips’, areas of land which would have to be acquired for large property developments to go ahead.
 
These were never likely to achieve the values claimed. Indeed, one site being marketed is in a designated area of outstanding natural beauty, making planning permission for development a near impossibility.
 
After making a series of injunctions against so-called ‘landbank’ companies, the FSA has started to issue winding-up proceedings against them
 
However, because the businesses were unauthorised investment schemes, investors are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and are unlikely to get their money back. An FSA spokesman commented that ‘by the time we can catch up with the operators, most of the money has disappeared and investors are left with land that has a value which simply does not reflect the money paid for it’.
 
If an investment opportunity seems too good to be true, it is normally because it is not true.
 
 
 
A scam which traded on the greed of the gullible has been closed down by the the Financial Services Authority (FSA) after nearly £4 million was ‘invested’ by people seeking returns promised to be between 200-300 per cent.
 
The ostensible investments were small plots of land that it was claimed would be sold at tremendous profits. Normally these were presented as being potential ‘ransom strips’, areas of land which would have to be acquired for large property developments to go ahead.
 
These were never likely to achieve the values claimed. Indeed, one site being marketed is in a designated area of outstanding natural beauty, making planning permission for development a near impossibility.
 
After making a series of injunctions against so-called ‘landbank’ companies, the FSA has started to issue winding-up proceedings
Trading Estate form the Air
against them
 
However, because the businesses were unauthorised investment schemes, investors are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and are unlikely to get their money back. An FSA spokesman commented that ‘by the time we can catch up with the operators, most of the money has disappeared and investors are left with land that has a value which simply does not reflect the money paid for it’.
 
If an investment opportunity seems too good to be true, it is normally because it is not true.

Posted June 13th, 2011 in General, Trusts Wills and Probate |

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