John here, blogging again and this time it is on the occasion (well, tomorrow on 3/10/25 actually) of the 20th anniversary of the admission as a Solicitor of my wonderful colleague and great friend, Rebecca.

Rebecca is not one to make a fuss, unless it is to help our clients, so I had to press her to take the opportunity to reflect and share a few thoughts. Here are her words. In many respects very wise and in one respect very cheeky.

“In October, I will have been a qualified Solicitor for 20 years.

I’ve worked in the personal injury world throughout that time.

For those who don’t know me, I started work at Ibbotson Brady back in 2003, as a paralegal and then a trainee Solicitor, before qualifying in 2005.

I left in 2008 and after a few years working elsewhere I came back in 2015 and I’m still here today.

A lot has changed over the past 20 years; John certainly had more hair back then, and I was reminded today of a time when we used to advertise our firm in the Yellow Pages (now I really am showing my age…I bet most people don’t even know what that is!)

There have been lots of challenges and changes along the way; LASPO and the Jackson reforms, the introduction of fixed costs, technological advances and the use of online claims portals, more fixed costs, fixed tariffs for whiplash claims, increases in the small claims limit, and DCP/CE filing to name but a few. I’m not even going to mention the global health pandemic, which now seems like a distant, surreal memory.

Technological advances which are deemed to make the claims process more streamlined and cost effective have made the job of a personal injury lawyer more computer based, and I worry that face to face contact with clients could easily, over time, become a thing of the past.

Personal injury work has certainly had its fair share of bad press over the years; terms like “ambulance chasers” “compensation culture” and “where there’s blame there’s a claim” have been banded about in a pretty derogatory way, yet here I am, 20 years on, still striving to get the right result for injured Claimants.

Thankfully, some things do remain the same; not least the way that I feel about working in the world of personal injury. I remain passionate about client care and guiding my clients, who have quite often suffered serious injuries, through no fault of their own, through the claims process.

For most people, making a compensation claim is not something they have done before and so it can be quite daunting, or scary even.

I’ve said it before, but it remains true, I want my clients to feel their claim is in safe hands and let me take away any potential stress associated with making a personal injury claim.  

If you have been injured in a non-fault accident in the last 3 years, and you’re thinking of making a personal injury claim, then please pick up the phone and give me a call.

I’ll be happy to chat it through and offer you advice on whether I think you have a claim.

Even if I can’t help you, I will try and point you in the right direction to make sure you get the help you need.

Alternatively, just fill in our online enquiry form and I will come back to you as soon as possible.”

Rebecca, you have my very great thanks for all that you do and have done and we will celebrate this milestone well tomorrow.

John