Seeking legal redress from a holiday park? Make sure you choose the right company

Press release - 12 May 2025 07:10

How to choose the right Holiday Park claims company

There are many different ways to take legal action against rogue holiday parks. And many different experts offering to fight for compensation on your behalf. So how do you make sure you deal with the right company?

No Win No Fee group actions

No win no fee is a convenient way to claim, especially if you are financially constrained or less than certain of the strength of your case. But bear in mind that you may pay more for the convenience of NWNF than you would do if you paid for your own legal actions.

This is similar to paying extra for buying a car on finance: you don't have to pay upfront, but you often pay more overall for someone else to outlay upfront on your behalf. Remember, a NWNF lawyer is not a charity. They are offering this payment arrangement for what they consider to be convincing commercial reasons.

They believe they will earn more money by taking their payment after the case is complete. To offer this arrangement, they must be convinced of the chances of success.

The keys here are to

retain a lawyer with a proven track record of success
check conditions thoroughly. What is the percentage you will end up paying? Do costs come out of your share before you get paid? Do you have to get your own ATE insurance, and if so what does it cost?

Tailored individual claims

If you have a strong case, you may want to disassociate yourself from other people's legal actions in order to focus on your own.

Going it alone. Sometimes it makes more sense

This will generally mean paying your legal fees before, rather than after the case completes. However when you win, you will get significantly more of the money. And weaknesses in other people's cases will not negatively affect your chances.

The following factors should be considered when retaining a claims expert to fight on your behalf:

No cold calls

If someone has called you unexpectedly and without your permission, steer clear. Cold calling without consent is illegal and demonstrates a lack of integrity.

You should be careful to only deal with a company when you have contacted them and requested information.

Public reviews

Before retaining claims experts, check out their online reviews. These should be overwhelmingly positive, on sites like Google and TrustPilot.

Every company has the occasional bad review. But what do the majority of their customers say about them?

Client testimonials

Do the company publish testimonials from past clients on their website? And more importantly are there video testimonials?

Testimonial videos: Clients in their own words

When you can actually watch the clients talking you are in a better position to judge their credibility for yourself than just reading written testimony.

How long have they been in business?

Only the most trustworthy and successful claims companies stay in business long term. Fraudulent enterprises often fold in a matter of months as their negative online reputation closes in on them.

Companies who are honest, but perhaps don't have the ability to litigate successfully against the lawyers of rogue companies stay in business longer, but commercial realities eventually catch up with them and they too close their doors.

Proven success record

Can the firm you are considering publish verifiable consumer victories? Do they demonstrate the scale and frequency of their successes?

Legal victories: Click to see ECC's record

If they are vague or non-specific about how much they have won, against who, and on behalf of which consumers, then you can be sure that they do not have a record worth shouting about.

Overwhelmingly positive press coverage

Have plenty of high quality, and/or national level, popular media covered the company's work? You can find negative press about any company if you look hard enough. But what is the general theme? If well respected publications like The Sunday Times or Reader's Digest have written positively about the firm's work then you can have confidence that those outlets have researched thoroughly before publication.

Other, lesser-but-still-important factors are:

General quality impression

Companies who are fraudulent or not particularly successful generally have poor quality marketing material and website production value. You may notice mistakes in spelling and grammar. Pictures and video may appear amateurish.

In the case of fraudulent companies, perfection just is not worth the investment. If they can look 90% presentable with 10% of the time and money investment that is good enough. They know they will probably not be around long enough to justify further effort.

However with the honest company who still presents themselves poorly, this can be because they do not have the resources to maintain a polished looking internet presence. Nobody wants to appear sub-par. If they look cheap and cheerful, they may not be successful enough to invest the resources necessary to look professional and this is a huge giveaway.

Could you imagine Barclays or BMW allowing their online footprint to be anything less than perfect?

Physical offices

What is the company's office presence? Do they have multiple locations, where you can visit them in person or by video call? If so this is a good indication that they have nothing to hide.

These should be professional office addresses when checked on Google Maps. Not a residential street.

A chain of offices that have been established for many years indicates a certain level of success. Being able to operate in several different countries further confirms the scale of an operation.

Your next move

Remember, just because you have researched and found a capable and trustworthy claims firm, it does not mean that an individual, tailored claim is the best option for you as an individual.

Before committing to any course of action, seek expert advice.

Get in touch with our team at European Consumer Claims (ECC) for a free, no-obligation consultation. We will let you know your best course of action.