Keoghs are seeking a Complex Injury Paralegal to join our growing Complex Injury Team in Southampton.
The role offers an excellent opportunity to gain experience in large loss and complex injury work including assisting on both catastrophic cases and large loss cases valued from £100k to £5M. You will also have the opportunity to develop your understanding of liability issues in motor and EL/PL claims.
In this role you will be required undertake a variety of file handling tasks to support a small team within our Complex Injury Claims Team. Your work will be supervised and feedback given as you develop your skills in this area. The role would particularly suit someone who already has experience working in a paralegal or similar role in a personal injury team and is looking to develop their skills and career in complex injury claims.
Key Accountabilities
You will work as part of a team, supporting those with responsibility for progressing each file from receipt of papers from the insurer client to resolution of the claim. The role will include:
- Delivery of agreed performance targets and quality standards
- Preparing basic court documents; filing and serving court documents; and diarising of court orders and hearing dates
- Liaising with experts and counsel regarding CVs, fees and availability for conferences, JSMs and hearings
- Liaising with insureds and witnesses regarding attendance at conferences, JSMs and hearings. Drafting of witness summons.
- Liaising with courts regarding hearings, applications and consent orders
- Registering and updating CRU, notifying CRU of settlement
- Maintaining experts summary, interim payment records and offer history within case management system
- Arranging appointments for claimants to be seen by medical experts; chasing for reports; drafting medical records mandates; applying for records and police accident reports
- Review of medical records and drafting summaries of those reviews using the records review spreadsheet
- Review of photographic evidence and surveillance footage and preparing a precis of the evidence
- Redaction of documents to ensure legal privilege maintained and/or no GDPR breaches
- Fielding telephone calls and dealing with general queries received from parties involved in the claims including the insureds, insurers, experts and witnesses
- Arranging payments where required
- Conducting legal research.
- To ensure compliance with the SRA Standards & Regulations
As competency in role increases, tasks will also include:
- Preparing instructions to counsel to advise on papers, in conference or to attend hearings
- Liaising with parties involved in claims including the insured and witnesses to obtain evidence and draft witness statements
- Preparing disclosure lists of own evidence and reviewing third party disclosure, cross referencing with own evidence and expert evidence, identifying basic anomalies and inconsistencies
- Attending client meetings and note taking where client approval given
- Drafts non-strategic updates to clients and more complex court documents, subject to supervision.
Working Hours
35 hours per week, Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm with 1 unpaid hour for lunch. Primary location for this role is Southampton Office.
Essential Skills and Attributes:
- Minimum education standard of 5 GCSEs grades 5 or above or A-C with established interest in law either through further education (e.g. LPC or ILEX) or experience within a legal environment
- Experience of and understanding of the litigation process, preferably in a file handling role
- Good telephone and communication skills with people at all levels inside and outside the business
- An ability to organise and prioritise tasks using initiative
- Calm under pressure with the ability to re-prioritise and delegate effectively when required
- An ability to maintain attention to detail when dealing with repetitive tasks
- Self-confidence, with good literacy and IT skills
- Good team worker with the flexibility to do what is required to get a result and ensure client service levels are met
- Ability to work effectively within the Keoghs shared values framework
Required Soft Skills:
Personal Effectiveness
- Team Commitment : Values others perspective
- Resilience: Demonstrates self-control
- Passion for Growth and Improvement: Systematically improves performance
- Embracing Change: Responds positively to change
- Business Focus
- Client Care: Works to add value for the client
- Decision Making
- Negotiation, Influence and Persuasion
- Commercial Insight: Considers and understands commercial implications
What you can expect from us:
- A learning culture with employee development at the heart of the people development pathway
- Health Care Cash Plan - a Keoghs' sponsored healthcare scheme which provides cash contributions for a number of healthcare services including optical and dental services.
- WeCare - 24/7 online GP, mental health support and virtual wellbeing covering a whole host of topics to do with health, mental health, wellbeing & healthy living and financial & legal wellbeing
- Annual Leave - 25 days plus 8 bank holidays (opportunity to buy & sell 3 days), increases to 26 days after 5 years' service and 27 days after 10 years' service
- Death In Service - after 1 years' service
- Pension Contribution - provided as a contributory scheme in which if eligible, the Company will contribute fixed at 3%, employee contribution 5% as standard
- Cycle to Work Scheme
- Tech Scheme
- Season Ticket Loan
- Gym Flex
Values
Our culture is focussed on making Keoghs sustainable and successful for our people and clients, with this our four values are at the heart of everything we do. Keoghs values:
We are connected
We are Dynamic
We are Innovative
We succeed together