Serious Injury Team
30 August 2024
Want to know more about The Serious Injury Team?
Carol Hopwood is a Solicitor and Head of our Serious Injury and Intermediate Track Teams. We asked Carol to tell us more about herself, her role and the Serious Injury Team here at Carpenters Group.
“Our Serious Injury Team acts for our most catastrophically injured clients and those who have sadly lost their lives. Our clients may have serious traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, amputated limb(s), complex and life changing orthopaedic injuries or severe post-traumatic stress disorder to name a few. These injuries often mean that they can no longer work, they cannot live independently, cannot drive and cannot look after their own basic needs. Others can no longer walk, talk or make any decisions for themselves. Many need 24 hour care and support just to stay alive and many have to deal with relationship breakdown due to the pressure that living with these injuries can cause.
Our early focus is on meeting the client and/or their families to understand not just their injuries but what is important to them in terms of the longer term goals and outcomes. We will make early contact with the Defendant Insurance company to try and secure early collaboration to work together to ensure that our client is able to maximise their potential for physical and psychological recovery. Ensuring that their rehabilitation needs are identified and delivered in a timely manner by excellent clinicians is critical so it’s important that we have a good working relationship with our opponents to secure early interim payments and rehab funding. The support package is critical. It needs to be a good fit because they are the people who work with the injured client day to day with their rehab goals, helping their adjustment to their new life and ensure they are living their best life.
An essential skill of the lawyers in the SI team is being able to deal with the emotions of someone facing a life changing injury or whose loved one is dead. We deal with clients who are scared, frustrated, angry and helpless, those in severe pain, depressed or suicidal. Clients who are losing their homes, families, jobs and identities. Often we are on the receiving end of emotional outbursts and sometimes we have to seek urgent medical intervention for our most vulnerable clients. We also have to be mindful of different cultures and traditions as we navigate our way through this journey with our clients. We have to balance client demands and expectations (evening and weekend calls) with our own wellbeing and down time and we do this by ensuring we have boundaries and an extended support network that clients can contact in a crisis.
Our team is made up of lawyers and file handlers with different levels of experience and different skill sets. We try to match the client with the lawyer best equipped to deal with their particular case to ensure the client has the optimum outcome. Our apprentices and assistants play a critical role in the client journey particularly in ensuring that our communication with our clients is regular and relevant. We all take pride in the job that we do, knowing that our efforts have resulted in a positive outcome for our clients. Securing positive client reviews are a critical part of our role and everyone is targeted to secure these.
Finally, as well as the day job, our team are very generous with their own time. In the last few months our colleagues have run a 10k to raise funds for a charity we work with that supports bereaved families. Some of our younger apprentices and paralegals have organised a fundraising quiz and fizz night to take place in October and others give up their time and energy to help run support groups and take brain injury survivors away on holiday. There is never a dull moment.
This job is difficult and challenging but immensely rewarding.”
