Archive for December, 2008

PI Awards : Team of the Year!

Whilst I was in hospital my team won the ‘team of the year’ award at the national PI awards. This is such a GREAT accolade for the practice and the culmination of 10 years work building the team. The following is the press release……….

“Fletchers Solicitors wins Personal Injury Team of the Year award

At the Personal Injury Awards 2008 ceremony held in London on 4 November, the Serious Injury team at Southport-based specialist RTA and serious injury law firm Fletchers Solicitors was voted Personal Injury Team of the Year.

Accepting the award on behalf of Serious Injury team, Fletchers managing director Rob Fletcher commented: “This award should have been collected by the serious injury director Ed Fletcher but he is recovering from surgery. So without fear of immodesty I can say this award is richly deserved. I honestly don’t believe there is another team in the country that can match Ed and his colleagues for knowledge, experience, empathy and personal motivation. Their true reward is helping injured clients get a fair settlement and rebuild their lives. But this award – and the peer group recognition it signifies – are certainly very welcome. I believe this industry is making real strides towards a more enlightened and constructive way of treating seriously injured people. And I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the many companies and individuals who have worked in that spirit with Ed and his team to make possible the work they do.”

In deciding the award, the judges were specifically looking at the variety and type of work covered by the winning firm, good communication with clients and other parties to claims, innovations in management/systems, team-member job satisfaction, contribution to the wider legal community, and a principled approach to resolution, rehabilitation and costs management.

More than 300 PI professionals including solicitors, barristers, insurers, rehabilitation providers, and claims management companies were gathered for the ceremony held on 4 November at London’s Café Royal. The event was hosted by former BBC Legal Affairs Correspondent Joshua Rozenberg, Legal Editor of the Daily Telegraph and regular contributor to The London Standard and The Law Society Gazette. 

Established in 1987, Southport-based Fletchers Solicitors employs around 100 staff and handles RTA and serious injury claims on behalf of a range of clients in the insurance sector, specialising in particular in motorcycle injury cases.”

Syrinx/meningitis

Well, it has been quite some time since I have written a post however I do have a genuine excuse! Over the course of this year I had been experiencing odd physical changes which I could not explain – increased spasms, sweating below the level of spinal cord inury ( T9/10) and pain above the level of my paralysis. After an MRI scan I was found that I had a fluid filled sack ( called a syrinx) in my spinal cord just above the site where the sever occurred 9 years ago. It was decided that an operation was desirable at this stage to firstly try to stop the progress of the syrinx and symptoms and secondly hopefully improve the symptoms and shrink the syrinx by allowing the CSF ( cerebo-spinal fluid) to flow more freely.

The spinal surgery went ahead on 23rd September but there were complications meaning I lost a lot of blood and the original procedure was substituted by necessity for a more invasive one.

 

2 weeks later I fell extremely ill, the operative wound burst and cerebo-spinal fluid was leaking freely. I found I had contracted post operative meningitis. I was immediately put on 3 weeks IV antibiotics and a drain inserted in my spine for 2 weeks. A second spinal surgery operation was carried out.

I am delighted to say I am feeling much better now, gradually spending more hours work and increasing the time I spend in my wheelchair.