Hugh is Senior Partner and Head of the Personal lnjury team at Potter Rees Dolan Serious Injury Solicitors. Since qualifying as a solicitor in 1988, Hugh has acted on behalf of clients with brain and spinal cord injuries of the utmost severity and achieved record court settlements with a reputation recognised nationally.
Meet the Team
Nicola is a Partner at Potter Rees Dolan, Specialising in Personal Injury. Nicola predominantly deals with brain injury claims, as well as spinal cord injury and amputation cases of various degrees - from catastrophic to the more subtle, but nevertheless devastating injuries - caused by accidents at work, road traffic collisions and assaults.
Gary is a Partner within Potter Rees Dolan’s Personal Injury team and has dealt extensively with clients who have sustained life-changing catastrophic injuries for over 18 years. He specialises in acting for children and adults who have sustained traumatic brain injuries. Gary has acted for clients with all types of brain injuries – from those able to return to supported work to those who have been left in minimally conscious states - and has acted in a number of cases where therapy and substantial compensation has been secured, even when earlier medical investigations were inconclusive. He is a Board member of the Salford Headway Group.
Greg is a Solicitor within the Court of Protection team & Director of Potter Rees Dolan Trust Corporation Limited. After qualifying as a solicitor in 2005, Greg specialised in Private Client work including wills, probate, estate planning and powers of attorney. Greg is also a Trust and Estate Practitioner having passed all the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioner (STEP) diploma exams as well as the STEP advanced certificate in will drafting and the advanced certificate in cross-border estates.
Suzanne is a Welfare Benefits Advisor at Potter Rees Dolan. Suzanne’s role involves carrying out a full holistic assessment of entitlement to welfare benefits to maximise household income for injured and disabled people. Suzanne is passionate about access to justice and social security entitlement and has worked in legal roles for 22 years. Prior to joining Potter Rees Dolan, Suzanne worked at Citizens Advice and Macmillan delivering high quality welfare benefits advice to a wide-ranging client base.
Since May 2012 Salford Royal has offered a free legal advice service to all seriously injured patients on wards CCU1, CCU2, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B8, C2, H5, H6 and L1. This includes all patients who have suffered head and spinal injuries or serious orthopaedic injuries. It doesn’t usually include other patients, for example, those who are in hospital because of an illness or have suffered a stroke or burst aneurysm, although this is under review.
The advice is given by experienced solicitors employed by Potter Rees Dolan who specialise in helping seriously injured patients and their families. Please take a look at the profiles of Hugh Potter, Gary Herbert, Nicola Mepstead, Greg Poole and Suzanne Sutcliffe for more information.
The Legal Advice Surgery was created to fill the gap left by the reduced state funding for Law Centres and Citizen Advice Bureaux. The Board at Salford Royal Trust recognised the need for seriously injured patients and their families to receive specialist advice on such matters as employment, finances and welfare benefit entitlements at a most crucial time.
The advice is available free to injured patients whether or not there is any claim for compensation. Since it started, hundreds of patients and their families have benefited from free legal support at a time of crisis and when they most need it.
To book an appointment with one of the Legal Surgery solicitors or Welfare Benefits advisors, please click 'Book' below.
Other legal services
If you have been injured in an accident or sustained an injury that was not your fault, you could be entitled to claim compensation. The caring and professional team of personal injury solicitors at Potter Rees Dolan is highly experienced in such claims and are here to guide you through every step of the process, from beginning to end. Personal Injury services include:
- Head injury claims
- Spine and back injuries
- Amputations
- Criminal injuries (CICA Claims)
- How to make a CICA application
- Orthopaedic injuries
At Potter Rees Dolan, we have a dedicated Court of Protection team who are experienced in dealing with all Property and Affairs matters as well as acting as Professional Trustees. We tailor our service to the specific needs of each client, working closely with that client and listen to his or her family and/or carers and other professionals involved, to ensure that the client’s needs are met and decisions are made in their best interests.
Personal Injury Trusts
Where clients retain capacity to manage their own finances we can advise on establishing a Personal Injury Trust to protect their entitlement to state benefits and funding for care now and in the future. We do this on a fixed fee basis.
We can act as a Trustee if required and can assist lay trustees to ensure that they fulfil their fiduciary duties. We can also introduce clients to specialist financial advisors who are independent and specialise in dealing with personal injury awards.
Welfare benefits can help you financially should you suffer a serious personal injury and be unable to work as a result. You may also be entitled to them if you have not been injured, depending on your circumstances.
It is not something most of us think about, but were you to suffer a serious personal injury that affected your ability to work, how would this affect your financial situation, and would you be able to cope? The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) provides a range of welfare benefits to sick, injured and disabled people, their carers and families. Some welfare benefits are there to:
- Help injured people/individuals with disabilities and their carers who are unable to work at all
- Help injured people/individuals with disabilities and their carers who are unable to earn much or over a certain amount (whichever is more apt)
- Click here for more information on welfare benefits available for people of working age.
How we can help
The welfare benefits rules and application forms can be complicated. At Potter Rees Dolan we have a dedicated welfare benefits team who work closely with our clients after injury. We talk to clients in depth to find out about their personal circumstances, doing all we can to ensure they are claiming all of the welfare benefits to which they are entitled. Our welfare benefits supervisor is a qualified solicitor with substantial relevant experience. We operate at the highest quality level and achieve an excellent success rate in benefits appeals.
More information can be found via www.prd.uk.com
Other sources of help
We work closely with charities which offer support for patients:
BASIC – Brain and Spinal Injury Centre
554 Eccles New Road Salford M5 5AP Tel: 0161 707 6441 HELPLINE: 0870 750 0000
Headway Stockport and South Manchester
The Heaton Centre,
Thornfield Road, Stockport Cheshire SK4 3LD United Kingdom
Telephone: 07733 320 049
MYA 65-67 Hanover Street Liverpool Merseyside L1 3DY United Kingdom
Telephone: 07967 770 772
SIA House 2 Trueman Place Oldbrook Milton Keynes MK6 2HH
Telephone: 01908 604191
