First Notification of Claims Handler

Shakespeare Martineau is a leading law firm that combines creativity, commerciality and clarity. We work with blue-chip companies, leading organisations, high street brands and individuals across the country.

Our multi-disciplinary team delivers a broad range of specialist legal services, and particularly stands out for its expertise across sectors including, but not limited to: energy, education, banking and financial services, investment funds, healthcare and advanced manufacturing. 

We’re proud of our people’s varied backgrounds and expertise. Our different qualities stand out and make us interesting to our clients.

We firmly believe in working hard and being ambitious. We look to recruit and develop talented people to achieve their potential - and who will contribute to achieving ours too.

Here you can fulfil your ambitions, whatever they are and however rapidly you want to achieve them. Together, and individually, we create exceptional results.

Our Volume & Consumer Business sits within our Litigation & Dispute Resolution Group, and has a long-standing experience of working with some of the most successful and influential businesses in the UK and also internationally. Our specialist teams combine expertise with a sound understanding of the commercial landscape to provide exceptional solutions for every aspect of our clients’ corporate requirements.

Our First Notification of Claims Team based in Birmingham services the administrative requirements of the teams within the firm’s Volume and Consumer Business. This includes:

Our niche Uninsured Loss Recovery team (Corclaim), which consists of specialists who solely focus on recovering uninsured losses for businesses in the public and private sectors who have sustained loss or damage to property resulting from the actions of others. We recover these costs and losses from the “at fault” party or their insurers. We have particular expertise in the application of the Road Traffic Act, European regulations in relation to vehicle insurance and all matters relating to the Motor Insurers Bureau so far as these matters relate to the recovery of damages.

Our Debt Collection and Asset Finance teams offer significant recovery expertise and act for several large national companies. We have loyal clients who we have served well for 25 years or more and our client base continues to grow at a steady pace, with many new referrals coming from our existing clients. We operate a fast, efficient and cost-effective bulk debt recovery service using both the County Court Bulk Centre (Money Claims Online) and the County Court Money Claims Centre (manual claims) - speeding up the debt collection process for our clients. 

Our Costs & Negotiation team handle cost negotiations for a number of clients, dealing with both pre-litigated and litigated matters. We offer a full service including advice and file handling in relation to claims of all sizes, drafting points of dispute or replies, all aspects of cost budgeting, drafting skeleton arguments on technical challenges, drawing bills of costs, negotiating settlements, attending detailed assessment hearings and dealing with part 8 cost procedures. Our team has a wealth of experience in preparing Precedent H cost budgets and attending cost management hearings.

The role:

We are looking for a First Notification of Claims Handler to provide administrative support to help our legal teams within the Volume and Consumer Business deliver great service to our clients. 

Your key duties will be:

• opening claims on the firm’s financial system and case management systems
• using a case management system to process and progress queries and workflows
• undertaking conflict searches
• undertaking preliminary enquiries on each Uninsured Loss Recovery claim including DVLA searches and driver questionnaires
• assisting claims handlers with the processing of claims
• sending letters before action (LBA’s) to third parties
• drafting own correspondence and documents
• sourcing witness questionnaires
• informing the client of the progress of a claim and taking new instructions over the phone, by letter or email
• general administration including photocopying, scanning, archiving, filing, cheque requests, billing and file management
• identifying personal injury and referring to the appropriate team
• answering telephone queries
• processing incoming and outgoing post
• maintaining data on Excel spreadsheets

Skills and experience you will have:

• a minimum of grade C pass at GCSE (or equivalent) in English Language and Mathematics
• confidence with IT systems to include Microsoft Word and Excel
• some previous office experience would be beneficial but not essential

No previous legal experience will be necessary for the role.

Key competencies you will need:

• the ability to work well in a team and develop good working relationships with colleagues and others
• good communication skills with the confidence to liaise openly and clearly with colleagues and clients
• the ability to produce a high standard of work, sometimes under pressure, whilst maintaining accuracy and good attention to detail
• to be able to demonstrate flexibility, initiative and confidence in your own ability

About you – you will be:

• highly enthusiastic, willing to the extra mile and be happy to go beyond the job description
• respectful towards others and have a positive, willing and ‘can do’ attitude
• keen to learn, interested in driving your own career progression and be proactive in taking ownership of this

Due to the nature of the work undertaken, confirmation of employment will be subject to a variety of checks which will be carried out once an offer of employment is accepted. Details of the checks can be found here.

Shakespeare Martineau is a committed equal opportunities employer. We seek to attract, develop and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures. We value and respect individuality and encourage a culture within our business where people can be themselves and be valued for their strengths and experiences. Everyone who either applies to or works for the firm is treated equally, regardless of their gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, marital status, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.