Liverpool Law Bulletin December 2013 December 2013 | Page 24

Feature Lawyer in Lights This month we feature Mark Hunter of Mackrell & Thomas Solicitors Mark Hunter is the sole principal of Mackrell & Thomas solicitors, a specialist firm of personal injury solicitors and lives with his family in West Kirby. Mackrell & Thomas are based in Page Moss and have been serving the community there for the past 30 years. The firm is growing and opened a second office in Norris Green earlier this year and has just expanded its team with a new solicitor. How has your legal career developed? I did my training contract at Wayman Hales in Chester with Simon Parrington. I was given a wide variety of really good quality training and the firm had an excellent reputation and merged with Hill Dickinson not long after I had qualified in 1996. I used to visit courts all round the North West and in North Wales as a trainee and I could find myself doing 4 or 5 hearings a day. All before phone hearings of course. My first job as a qualified solicitor was at Forster Dean in Widnes. I had decided by then that I wanted to do personal injury and I much preferred winning for claimants rather than just reducing how much innocent accident victims should receive. I spent 16 years at Forster Dean, during which time the firm grew under the ownership of Peter Forster Dean and then following an MBO, from 2 offices to 25 offices. I progressed from being a newly qualified solicitor to being one of owners and the Head of the Personal Injury Department. I then joined Mackrell & Thomas and am thoroughly enjoying running my own firm. We have a small but specialist team who are dedicated to helping our local clients with their personal injury claims. I am assisted by Louise Gillespie, who is the Practice Manager at Mackrell & Thomas, and who in her spare time runs her own jewellery business. She received the Merseyside Businesswoman of the year award in the summer. What changes to legal services have you seen? I have always worked at firms where clients come to the firm because it has a good reputation. At Mackrell & Thomas, clients come to us knowing they will be properly looked after and will have a qualified solicitor to fight on their behalf. My approach to dealing with injury claims has not changed much over all these years. It is simple; if you do a good job for people and provide an excellent service then people will come back to you and will recommend your services to others. The commercia lly astute firms that quickly saw the benefits of recoverable ATE premiums and success fees used this system and did very well over the past 12 years. However it was probably the high level of costs routinely claimed by many North West firms in RTA claims, which led to the government deciding to give in to the insurers’ arguments on reforming the claims system and making almost all the changes that the insurers wanted. Claimant personal injury firms are now having to face how to deal with over a 50% reduction of turnover and whilst there have already been many redundancies and mergers, there must be more change to come. What is your favourite TV programme No dancing, no singing, no soaps and no period dramas! That probably doesn’t leave much left nowadays but what I have really liked recently is the Ambassadors and so I hope they make some more episodes. If you left law today, what would you do? Is it a bit sad to think that I really like doing personal injury and so I have not considered what to do if I left? Probably. You get to win your cases almost all the time, so what’s not to like! What is your guilty pleasure? I have tended to work in the suburbs of Liverpool throughout my career and I was in Widnes for 6 years so coming into the centre of Liverpool was a rarity. Whenever I come into town, my rule is that I have a cake with my lunch at Philpotts if a court hearing or a conference has gone well and no cake if they have not gone well. If the hearing or conference is after lunch, but I am feeling confident then I get a cake anyway! Do you have a tidy desk? I have a very neat and tidy interview room where we see our clients; it is sometimes a marked contrast to my own room. What is your favourite meal? This is the hardest question of the lot. I love all types of oriental food but my favourite is Thai food. I went to the Liverpool Food and Drink Festival for the first time this summer and wished I had more time there. I was playing cricket nearby so during our cricket tea interval, I ran to the festival and fuelled up with a Thai pie and some chocolate wine. I then played the best cricket I have ever played so I can recommend those Thai pies! How do you relax outside the law? I watch Liverpool with my wife and son and I assist the coaching of my son’s football team. A lot of the year is dominated by cricket and I play at Caldy cricket club and manage my son’s junior team. I have only been to a couple of England cricket matches and will soon be very envious of the people that are in Australia watching cricket in the sun. What is best holiday you have ever had? I spent my third year at University, studying in Athens and I also met my wife when I was there and so we both love going back to Greece as we have so many great memories there. There is one trip that sticks in my mind however and although it was only a short trip, the 24 hour visit to Istanbul in May 2005 was quite memorable. CHESHIRE & MERSEYSIDE: COURT OPENING TIMES 24 DECEMBER 2013 TO 2 JANUARY 2014 Civil, Family & Tribunals All Courts/Tribunals will be open as follows: Monday 23 December – Normal Business Hours Tuesday 24 December – Normal Business Hours Wednesday 25 December - CLOSED Thursday 26 December CLOSED Friday 27 December CLOSED Monday 30 December Normal Business Hours Tuesday 31 December Normal Business Hours Wednesday 1 January 14 CLOSED Thursday 2 January 14 – Normal Business Hours Friday 3 January 14 - Normal Business Hours Counters are open 10am – 2pm on the days where Courts are open. Liverpool County Court counter is operated under an appointment system which will 24 Liverpool Law continue during the Christmas Period. There will be Reduced Courts sittings from 24th December 2013 to 1st January 2014. Urgent out of hours Court Business will operate as normal. Magistrates Courts • • • 4pm) • • • • • • • Fri 20th Dec - Usual Sittings (Telephones 5pm, Counter 4pm) Mon 23rd Dec - Usual Sittings Telephones 5pm, Counter 4pm) Tues 24th Dec - Reduced Courts (Telephone/Counters open until Wed 25th Dec – Closed Thurs 26th Dec – Admin Office Closed - Occasional Courts Fri 27th Dec – Admin Office Closed - Occasional Courts Mon 30th Dec - Reduced Courts (Telephones 5pm, Counter 4pm) Tues 31st Dec - Reduced Courts (Telephones 4pm, Counter 4pm) Wed 1st Jan 14 – Closed Thurs 2nd Jan 14 - Usual Sittings (Telephones 5pm, Counter 4pm)