Manchester’s Express Solicitors acquires McKays Solicitors
Manchester-based personal injury (PI) law firm, Express Solicitors, has acquired Liverpool’s McKays Solicitors. The package includes 1,400 ongoing client matters and the continued employment of 18 members of staff.
Managing Partner at Express Solicitors, James Maxey said: “We’re delighted to have acquired McKays Solicitors and look forward to working closely with its employees and clients to provide a seamless transition and continue to provide exceptional service.
“A key element of our strategy this year is to identify other PI firms with owners who may be looking to exit the market and whose expertise would complement our core offering. We strongly believe that McKays Solicitors is a natural fit in this regard.
“Express Solicitors continues to grow, despite the current challenging market conditions, and we remain focussed on becoming a powerful force in the PI sector”.
The firm recently appointed Pauline Reeves as Chief Financial Officer, who has the specific experience to be able to analyse potential purchases and thereafter swiftly integrate the finances of any firm bought into the Express Group.
James Maxey continued: “With Pauline on board, the process for carrying out due diligence and financial analysis was much quicker than having to refer to external financial advisors at several stages.”
During the acquisition, the firm was also offered advice and support at key stages from accountants, SBN and corporate law firm, O’Connors Solicitors.
Owner of McKays Solicitors, Adam McKay said : “For some time I’ve been looking for a suitable successor firm for McKays so that I could pursue other interests. Express Solicitors’ strong presence within the market and reputation for excellent customer service and results made them an excellent fit for McKays and its clients.”
Over the past six months Express Solicitors has managed to continue to grow its caseload and now has over 14,500 cases.
As part of this acquisition, a further 1,400 cases will now be managed by the growing firm. The McKay Solicitors cases span Personal Injury Claims, Tenancy Deposit Claims, Commercial Litigation and Debt Recovery and Insolvency.
Express Solicitors is ranked in The Lawyer Top 200, its lawyers and the firm are recognised in The Legal 500 and the firm is noted in Chambers and Partners. Express Solicitors specialises in personal injury and accident claims, clinical negligence claims and serious injury cases.
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Express Solicitors Group increases turnover to £27.4m
Manchester-based personal injury law firm, Express Solicitors, has announced its best ever financial results, with group turnover reaching £27.4m.
Caseloads have grown despite the COVID 19 outbreak by 6.7% to 14,545.
Group turnover of Express Solicitors Limited and its sister company Ontime Reports Limited (a medical reporting agency) grew by 29% from £21.3m in 2019 to £27.4m in 2020.
The Pandemic has brought on numerous challenges for the two companies. During the latter part of its trading year, the strength of the firm’s robust IT infrastructure has paid dividends during lockdown as 85% of staff were successfully working from home within 10 days of the lockdown being announced. Only 12% were furloughed and 3% remained in the office to deal with essential day to day business.
Express Solicitors has also followed this with 45 promotions right across the business including Jennifer Lutton and Seetal Sagar-Jhanji who have been promoted to Partners, bringing the Partnership up to 31. Head count has remained the same as the planned recruitment and training had to be put on hold from March onwards. The firm has a policy of promoting from within and is proud to carry on the tradition of bringing bright new talent through the ranks.
It has also promoted five Litigation Executives to Trainee Solicitors. The number of new cases has dropped in the past six months due to lockdown with a large proportion of the country furloughed and not attending work, and there has been a steep decline in the number of road traffic accidents and accidents at work. Some reports have shown a decrease of 60% in RTA cases and a 40% decrease in accidents at work during this time, this will impact the business in 12 to 36 months due to the nature of the cases as they conclude. In view of this Express Solicitors has uplifted the anticipated marketing spend by over £2m in the upcoming financial year in order to try to combat this with substantial investment in online marketing as well as the routes that it has used successfully over the past 20 years.
The firm has been approached by numerous firms and brokers of law firms who are looking to exit the PI market over the last six months, some of which it is pursuing and if successful will increase both turnover and caseloads help cement itself as one of the top firms in England and Wales, which specialises purely in Personal Injury.
Express Solicitors are ranked in The Lawyer Top 200, its lawyers and the firm are recognised in The Legal 500 and the firm is noted in Chambers and Partners. Express Solicitors specialises in personal injury and accident claims, clinical negligence claims and serious injury cases.
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Article in The Business Desk Announcing partnership between Express Solicitors and Frenkel Topping. 
Finance firm partners with solicitors to provide life after settlement advice
Leading PI firm plots post-Civil Liability Act growth
To read the full article click the link below
Leading PI firm plots post-Civil Liability Act growth
Express Solicitors gears up for legislation changes with senior promotions
As part of its strategy to deal with changes brought in by the whiplash reforms next year, Manchester-based personal injury law firm, Express Solicitors, has promoted partner Kimberley Kirkby to Head of the RTA department and Rachel Price to associate partner in the same team.
Kimberley joined the firm as part of its very first new client team in 2007 and has worked her way up through the ranks to the position of partner in the Employers’ Liability department and then head of RTA, where she will lead a team of 53 fee earners and support staff.
Joining the firm two years ago, Rachel worked as an associate solicitor in the Occupiers’ and Public Liability department before gaining a promotion to associate partner, which includes a move to the RTA department.
Express Solicitors has undergone a complete reorganisation of its RTA department in preparation for changes in legislation in April 2020, which will see a tariff system for whiplash claims introduced, settlements without medical evidence banned, and and the small claims threshold raised to £5,000.
Commenting on her promotion, Kimberley said: “I’m delighted to have achieved my goal of becoming a partner and head of department at the firm, which was something I was told was possible at the very beginning when I started out in the new client team.
“Heading up the RTA department following the whiplash reforms will be challenging, but we have prepared for them as much as possible and will adapt when they come to ensure claimants continue to get the justice they deserve when they’ve been injured in an accident that wasn’t their fault.”
Express Solicitors’ Managing Partner James Maxey said: “It is a policy of the firm to promote from within, where possible, in order to reward those lawyers who’ve shown commitment, tenacity and expertise.
“These current promotions have been part of our strategy to protect the department against the dramatic reforms that will be brought in next year. In Kimberley and Rachel, we have two experienced lawyers with the skills to guide the team through these challenging times.”
Express Solicitors continues to grow at pace and now has 290 employees, including 29 partners and 55 fee earners. It is ranked in The Lawyer Top 200, its lawyers and the firm are recognised in The Legal 500 and the firm is noted in Chambers and Partners. Express Solicitors specialises in personal injury and accident claims, clinical negligence claims and serious injury cases.
£23m settlement for brain injured child – with no real winners
A multi-million pound settlement for a brain injured child has been achieved by a Manchester law firm.
Early this week the High Court approved a £23m compensation settlement for a 10-year-old boy who suffered brain damage at birth as a result of medical negligence, one of only a handful of personal injury settlements awarded over £20m.
Ben Gent, head of clinical negligence at Manchester-based personal injury law firm, Express Solicitors, acted on the case.
The settlement is thought to be in the top five highest awards ever reported in an injury claim.
The child, whose identity is protected under an anonymity order, developed cerebral palsy after hospital staff missed signs of distress during his mother’s labour in 2008.
Investigations revealed that neither the consultant obstetrician nor the midwife at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, London, were paying attention to the CTG trace, which recorded the pattern of his heartbeat.
As the trace deteriorated there was a delay in the delivery, which meant the child was deprived of oxygen for the 15 minutes before he was born.
Injuries include significant behavioural problems, special educational needs and impaired movement patterns.
He is incontinent at night, has difficulties with communication and poor social awareness and will need support throughout his life.
In November, lawyers at Express Solicitors agreed a compensation package consisting of a lump sum payment of £5.3m to help buy and adapt safe, accessible accommodation, compensate him for the fact he will never have a job, and pay for his therapy costs.
In addition, he will receive index linked annual payments of up to £200,000 to pay for a team of carers for the rest of his life.
Solicitor Ben Gent said: “The financial and emotional consequences of this negligent obstetric care are immense and will endure for decades into the future, and this money will ensure AC is taken care of properly in years to come. “Patient care can only improve when mistakes are acknowledged and investigated openly and independently. The political trend to see access to justice as an expensive luxury undermines patient safety and makes this kind of tragedy more likely to happen again.”Express Solicitors end of year results
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Express Solicitors success in Arriva North London case
Wrong instructions with Little Tikes slide leads to nine-year-old girl suffering multiple facial fractures.
Case against Little Tikes who added the wrong instructions to a wooden slide which resulted in serious injuries for a child
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/girl-nine-suffered-seven-fractures-11375820
Express Solicitors reports best ever financials
18 Sep 2017 North West Business Richard Frost
Express Solicitors, the Northenden-based personal injury law firm, has posted its best ever financial results.
The firm has generated a turnover of £13.75m in 2017, up by 12 per cent on a year earlier. Sister medical company Ontime Reports contributed a further £3m.
Caseloads grew to 8,385 from 8,041 over the same period. Express Solicitors now has 198 employees including 78 fee earners and 22 partners.
Managing partner James Maxey said: “Our ability to grow in this tough sector is down to our skilled, dedicated and compassionate team of lawyers and other staff who remain fully committed to getting injured people the justice they deserve.”
Express Solicitors added that the firm is progressing well towards achieving its goal of reaching £20m turnover within five years.
http://www.claimsmag.co.uk/2017/09/express-solicitors-group-increases-turnover-16-75-million/9444
Anna Pearson gives comment on the growing area of Cosmetic Vaginal surgery.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/4422019/barbie-vagina-cosmetic-surgery-fabulous-investigation/
Johnathan Flattery’s client who’s son burnt his hand on a faulty Beko Washing machine Also published in two other newspapers and 3 online news wires.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4869910/Baby-suffers-burns-Beko-washing-machine-door.html
Jonathan Flattery’s client who was injured playing Bubble football. Publishing in 4 other newspaper and Online
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4217225/navy-chef-skull-fracture-bubble-football-bulldog-accident/
Jonathan Flattery’s client who’s Sony Phone caused burns to his hands. Reported in The Star and The Telegraph. Published in 7 different languages across the world as well as 2 newspapers and 12 online news wires
Jonathan Flattery Speaks to ITV News about his client Sarah McManus after her accident at Flipout Chester.
Richard Lowery on Radio 5 live discussing the proposed changes to victims of road traffic accidents and the government’s decision to deny compensation to those victims
Audio of James Maxey Speaking at the Litigation Futures Conference Sept 2016
Listen to Senior Partner, Robin Patey, appear as a guest speaker on BBC Radio 5 Live discussing the tragic accident that occurred at Alton Towers theme park.
Watch James Maxey discussing ABS at a Claims Management Seminar.
