I watched in fascination as the founder of SickHolidays.com explained to Holly and Phil that he is there to help people whose hard earned holiday had been ruined by illness and he would tackle the tour company on their behalf and yes, he had earned a salary of £300k last year by doing so.
As someone who has spent all of my working life in the hospitality industry, I can remember the work that went into answering requests for information from customers and previous employees who had slipped, tripped or fallen within the previous 6 years, all of whom had employed the services of the fast growing ‘no win no fee’ sector within the legal world.
Why am I telling you this?
Well, that experience was put to use when I received a letter at my own business in June 2015 relating to an alleged slip and fall incident during a delivery in December 2012. The letter was incorrectly addressed, contained a request for all sorts of reports and documentation and a brief narrative on how this incident had changed the claimant’s life.
The challenge I faced was; I had no recollection of the incident and that was just the beginning of a 2 year time consuming defence that became a bit easier when it was revealed that the claimant had not reported the incident to his employers, nor was there a statement from his co-driver on the day, or any witness for that matter.
Despite this a court date was booked, a barrister briefed and finally common sense prevailed when the claimant’s legal team withdrew the claim shortly before the court date.
So now we have the next target market – sick holidaymakers, what next? Tackleateacher.com; my life was ruined as I only got 9 A stars or Baldat60.com; sue the shampoo that ruined your life…
Michael Duffy