Skills and expertise passed down through Minster Law’s Serious Injury Academy

Minster Law’s Serious Injury Academy have spent lock down learning skills and expertise from our Associate Solicitors remotely. The academy aims to train lawyers in how to work with and best support our most seriously injured clients.

The sessions have touched on liability in bike cases, special damages and Ogden calculations, witness statements and expert evidence. Samantha Thompson said the academy had strengthened her knowledge across the topics and areas covered.

“The training has made me think about my current cases from a different perspective and consider the different ways a claim can benefit our clients. Having the training remotely worked much better than I anticipated however I have missed the social interaction and getting to know the rest of the team properly.”

Elizabeth Birkinshaw said the sessions were really well organised, as soon as we went into lockdown the sessions were swiftly converted to remote sessions.
“They have helped how I support clients, because the sessions have made me aware of issues facing clients and what we can offer to help with this.”

For the solicitors, who have previous experience working with lower value claims, the sessions have opened their eyes to more complex injuries and vulnerable clients.

“I believe the knowledge I’ve gained will help me maximise the client’s compensation claims and make sure we are getting the right outcome for the clients,” Ruth Chalkley said. She said when locked down happened she thought the Serious Injury Academy would have been put on hold, but she was happy to hear they were going to try remote sessions. “I found the sessions really helpful and we were still able to engage and ask questions.”

Charlie Williams was also impressed by the way the remote sessions were held.

“The training sessions have benefitted me massively and given me a great insight of what it would be like to eventually work in serious injury,” he said.

Associate Solicitors Phil Austick and Chris Bowman held the training session on witness statements.

“Collectively Phil and I have 40-years’ experience and it feels great to be mentoring up and coming lawyers,” Chris said. “It was a lot of work to provide comprehensive but concise training but it’s well worth the effort.”

Phil said the transition to delivering the training online, rather than in the office environment, was made easy by the working from home policy and support being put in place by Minster Law.

“Cases are often won as much by tactics as they are by the application of the law and rules, and so being able to collectively pass down over 40-years’ worth of experience and tactics is a worthwhile and satisfying experience,” he said. “It is time consuming, but the end result is key to development.”

Kerry Hodsdon, Serious Injury Team Manager said “developing our people is vitally important to us here at Minster Law.

“With the Serious Injury Academy, we were determined to not let lockdown put a hold on our colleague’s development.”

Minster Law won an Investors In People Platinum Award earlier this year for demonstrating its commitment to high performance through good people management and strong company culture.

“It is fantastic to see our colleagues from other areas of the business engage with the sessions to build on their current skills and knowledge, advancing the service they give to clients as well as their personal careers,” Kerry said.