From Underdog to Impact: How FT Chronic Pain Solicitors Is Disrupting Personal Injury Law

Hello and welcome to this episode of the Unnoticed Entrepreneur. Now, my guest today managed to transform the life of one client who had been offered a measly £20,000 by some lawyers and they managed to take that workplace compensation claim through a long and involved legal procedure and got a transformative £2.4 million for the same case. Workplace injuries and other kinds of injuries can be life changing and there is some culpability quite often. And my guest today runs a new practice specialising in helping really the victims of those workplace incidents to get the full compensation they deserve. So delighted to have Paul Turner, who is the co founder of a company called FT Chronic Pain Solicitors based here in Westbury, Wiltshire, which is just down the road from me here in the west of England. Paul, welcome to the show.

Good morning, Jim. Thanks so much for having me on the show.

Well, look, it's wonderful to have you because we all know that the person who suffers an injury has a loss in the first place of mobility and possibly livelihood and then they have to do battle with a big company that has big fancy lawyers. And I've been in a legal battle myself and it's not pleasant. And they basically outspend the person who is, you know, in pain already. And it can be a very humiliating but also very frustrating process. So we're going to talk about how you've been building your practice and as an entrepreneur, how you've been squeezing into a very crowded, mature market in the personal injury space, what you've learned from building up the FT Chronic Pain practice and a mistake and also a number one tip that you're going to recommend to our fellow unnoticed entrepreneurs. So, Paul, do share with us first of all about FT Chronic Pain. First, a little bit of background to the story.

Yeah, of course. Thanks so much, Jim. Yeah. So FT Chronic Pain Solicitors was born only in 2020 came about registration of the business in between lockdowns. This was after 20 years in practice. Anne Felmin, my business partner, and I had both worked in medium and large sized commercial firms and during those 20 years, I guess we'd always felt squeezed from above in terms of fees and targets and we were on that sort of slippery pole to success. And frankly, clients we always felt suffered as a result of being a commodity. And so the idea was that we could do this for ourselves, we could put clients at the center of what we do. And the beauty of that model is that ultimately you get paid anyway, but you get a lot of happy clients along the way. Yeah.

Which is wonderful. And people that really need your help now, Paul. It's a mature and really a market probably dominated by big law firms that have been around for a long time. Brave to set up on your own. How did you muscle into the market or squeeze into the market? How did you start to build the brand?

Yeah, well, thanks. It was difficult as you say. It is a saturated market. It's been decades of law firms, large multi million pound organizations that we're competing against. So setting up and going head to head to them was just clearly not an option. You're not going to get the visibility and the brand is just an unknown quantity and so with it you've got to build confidence, haven't you? So that's a tricky one. So going out with PPC as a route to market was an expensive one to go out as a generic personal injury law firm. So what we decided was as we developed our specialism of chronic pain over the last, well about five or six years before we set up in practice ourselves. Yeah we felt it was a good opportunity to carve and niche within a sector of law and that enabled us to actually get traction with PPC because people were looking for far more specific search terms like fibromyalgia lawyer complex, regional pain solicitor and we were able to appear on those searches in a far less saturated position.

So PPC is pay per click, right. For anybody that's just wondering what that is. So it was a paid for keywords on Google strategy, is that right initially?

That's right. And we've used social media as well of course, but that's slow to build an audience and we're not putting out pictures of cats and dogs where you gain thousands of visitors per day. What we do is quite difficult to translate often in social media in when you've got a very short window to capture people or capture their attention.

So what have you been doing from a socials point of view? I mean on your website you've got case studies and you've also got a blog. So what have you been doing on the inbound marketing then Paul? Because some of the terms frankly I've never heard of before. I guess I'm. I'm blessed not to have heard of them. But what's the strategy when you're so niche? Are you talking about the injury and the illness or are you talking about the law? What's your sort of content strategy when it comes to social?

The easiest way to get across our expertise is to case study examples of cases that we've dealt with in the past. For sure that way people will feel more confident and comfortable that we've got the expertise to take them forward. I mean, you know, socials and SEO and our website have actually formed, surprisingly, a small part of the growth of our business. We thought that it would have a much greater impact having an attractive website and putting blogs up and telling stories about the success we've had and things like posting awards that we've been lucky enough to, to win or. But you know, that really the strength of our marketing campaign has been more around us as people meeting people, going out and letting our clients be our biggest advocates. So, yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a difficult one because have, have. Has our SEO campaign thus far been successful? No, I don't think it, it has particularly. We're still persevering with it. In fact, we've moved digital marketing agencies recently and, and we have seen a lot more engagement since that move. So I don't know if that answers your question.

Yeah, it does. So you've got a combination. In terms of awards you can find@ftchronicpain.co.uk Paul and the team have won a number. They've won Best Regional Personal injury Law Firm 2024 in the Southwest of England, for which. Congratulations. You've also won the FT Chronic Pain solicitors for the UK Enterprise Awards and the Southern Enterprise Awards 2022 and 2021. So you were winning awards quite quickly after setting up, Paul. So congratulations and thank you. The process of awards and submissions, I don't think enough people apply for enough awards. I had the founder of a company called Boost Awards, Chris Robinson, on my show, actually, about three years ago now, and there are literally thousands of awards taking place every year, both horizontal and vertical, you know, by region or by industry, for example, or by category that people can go for. What was the strategy behind the awards? Did you do that yourself or did you get an agency to help?

No, we, we applied for the awards ourselves. I mean, you know, I think people don't shout enough about their successes, do they? You know, maybe that's modesty, I don't know. But for us, as a new business, we could certainly not sort of sit in the background and not shout about the success we've had. I mean, you kindly introduced me talking about one such case that we'd had with a really great outcome for one client. Well, you know, you know as well as I do, people, people get out there and they, and, and they tell everyone when things go wrong, but when things go right, they're not. So they're not so vocal about it. So, you know, we, we needed to, we need to tell people and the best way we thought to do it, or one way we thought of doing it was by applying for these awards. They go before an independent panel and the panel review your submission. And, and yeah, we were, we, we felt very privileged to, to get the awards on those occasions. So it was exciting business to have that affirmation from someone else.

Well, and I think you're being very modest. I mean, it's not a privilege. You competed and you won for which congratulations. And also that, this idea that when you start a business you haven't got as much social proof yet. And what you've managed to do is to get social proof through awards, which is a little bit unusual because normally people have got a lot of customer testimonials and then go for awards.

Yes.

But it's notable that you've gone awards and you've got clients, but you have, I guess, a long life cycle from taking the case to getting a resolution. Paul, I will just ask you about that case because although this is sort of about getting noticed, it's such a landmark case, it gives you the testimonial. Someone was offered 20,000 and you managed to get them millions. Just very briefly, what did you at FT Chronic Pain do differently to the other solicitors?

I think the problem, and there is a problem within the industry that people are put on a conveyor belt and in large practices, often they have too many cases on an individual handler's caseload that they can't look at them in the detail with the detail that they should. This, this particular case clearly fell through the net in terms of the intensity and severity of this person's injuries. He was a, a difficult character, it had. Has to be said, but this guy was living with 24 hour, you know, relentless, enduring pain. And, you know, he was difficult to deal with on the phone because, you know, when someone hasn't slept, they're not rational when they're, when they're in severe pain. And I've never seen someone in so much pain as this particular man, you know, trying to get reasoned discussion going is really difficult and takes a great deal of patience. And when you've got a hundred or so cases as a fee earner, which is what we're commonly referred to in commercial firms, fee earners, you haven't got time to spend with that individual. Frankly, when we set up, we didn't have volumes of work. We don't have volumes of work. And we're not targeting volumes. So we could spend a lot of time identifying the challenges that that individual have. Well, it became apparent to us at an early stage, just been let down by the system. He'd fallen through the cracks. This was a guy who had a serious life changing injury. Not long after transferring to us, we were able to secure funding. £250,000 for private above the knee amputation of his leg. And he had something called osseointegration, which is where they put a rod into the femur. Sorry for the squeamish viewers, but. But yeah, he had, but that enabled him to have this prosthetic which was state of the art. And yeah, I mean, basically once you factor in replacement prosthetics and until he's sort of no longer able to mobilize as an elderly man and lost income and care and assistance that he needs, you know, you can soon make those numbers stack up. But yeah, he just fell through the cracks.

But it's wonderful, as you say, you could take the time to do that. Now. One of the things you have kind of raised is the perception of lawyers, that they are just fee earners. And having been through myself, a very expensive and lengthy legal battle against a large company that pretty much cleaned us out. We experienced the, just the persistent letter writing and invoicing and demands that the legal system kind of inflicts really on the civilian population. So being a lawyer doesn't necessarily have a great reputation in some regards. And being in personal injury in America, people would be called an ambulance chaser, right? Yeah. So the perception of what you do colors how people see you before you've entered the room. Right. You've got this wonderful story and I'm sure that, you know, he's eternally grateful, but the general perception is stay away from lawyers if you can. How do you tackle the broader perception of lawyers as being, you know, really just interested in money and compliance and volume? How do you tackle that issue? Paul?

You're absolutely right, it's a challenge. And you know, I've been called an ambulance chaser on a number of occasions. And it's only when you sit down and you talk to these people about cases such as the one we just discussed, that people realize the value that you can add. I mean, that particular individual, you know, it wasn't just about the money and it wasn't even just about facilitating funds to enable him to have private surgery. You know, when I met this guy, he'd been suicidal. You know, he was living alone, his marriage had broken down. His friends had alienated themselves from him because he was difficult to deal with and you know, oh, he's still going on about the leg. It was a common sort of thing that he encountered. So when we took him on as a client we became, you know, his professional friends. I mean, this is a guy who I went to his bedsit in a very sort of deprived area and ended up cleaning his kitchen in an early meeting. You know, this is the difference. I worked for a large commercial practice who would only allow us to engage with clients over the phone and you can never go and visit them. The difference is we go and see the clients, we talk to the clients, we become part of their lives and that's how you build confidence in them. And then, you know, frankly your service goes way beyond just the law.

What about on a broader level though? If you like the pr? When I lived in Singapore there was a survey and basically lawyers were the least liked and then it became, then it was politicians and actually, you know, PR people were fairly high on that list as well. It was sort of a non trusted profession, let's say.

Paul.

Yeah, but so I can see how you're doing that with an individual client, but what about if you're tackling just the perception of injury, lawyers or lawyers in general, how are you tackling that slightly broader issue? Or do you feel that's not something you can tackle as ft chronic pain on your own?

I think there's an age old acceptance or belief that lawyers are just there to rip you off. And I don't think personally or as a firm we can necessarily challenge that narrative. We can on an individual level and we can on a local level. We meet people in person all the time in a networking setting, in local community groups. I work as a trustee for a local charity. You know, we tell people what we do and how we do it and they make up their own minds. Ultimately, you know, we feel it's working because our biggest advocates are our clients. Most of our work comes to us by referral from our clients or from people we know from networking who've learned and heard the stories and know the difference between what we offer compared to the general, you know, firms that they might see advertised.

So Paul, you've mentioned networking. Are there any particular forms of networking or strategies that you've got about going into the community?

Yeah, we've joined a number of local networking groups which is I always, my standing comment when I, when I go in is that I don't ever want a client directly from that room. You know, the point is not going for direct business. 90% of why I go to networking is actually to get that social engagement because I work in a fairly isolated way and my business partner, she works in Bristol, I work in wheelchair and whilst we see each other probably once or twice a month, most of the time we're working alone at home. So I go to networking and I, and I get out and meet people. So I plug the gap that I used to get, get through social engagement working in an office. But it's a slow process. You're building confidence with other professionals, like minded professionals, business owners who you let them know what you stand for, why you do what you do and how you do it. And then over time, because of their extended networks, inevitably work starts to come your way and it has. I mean, someone posted on Facebook last week that she'd been involved in an awful accident, suffered fractures of her spine and four or five members of various networking groups that I attend hop straight onto the post call Paul Turner, you know, which is lovely. So it's working, but it's a slow burn.

That's nice, that's nice. I mean, not nice obviously that she had that injury, but that you've got advocates. Paul, you're also reaching out to podcasts. Tell me about your ambition for podcasts. I mean, you and I are on this call, which is great. We got referred through Darren Ernie over at Elevate Online Marketing, which is the company doing your SEO and now doing my SEO. So tell us a little bit about your goals and aspirations for podcasts.

Well, we recognize that it's very difficult in a single ad, you know, telling people what you do and how you do it, that people are going to engage with that. Whereas video is by far the most powerful medium and you know, and you can get to know whether or not you're going to like a person, whether you can work with a person from a video far more than you can a generic advert which is a bit soulless and you know, to an extent, so so is a website and we've tried to sort of inject a little bit of who we are in there, but inevitably you've got to look for it, haven't you? And you've got to find it and do the a deep dive and educated read to understand who ft chronic pain are. Whereas in a video we hope to be able to sort of put that across in a far more sort of palatable and easy way. So how we're going to do that? Yeah, I mean we've got Podcasts on the horizon. I mean, this is me taking the plunge, I guess, into the brave world of podcasting. And I'm really grateful for the opportunity to talk to you, Jim, especially with your sort of extended audience. So, yeah, I guess it's a. Watch this space on that.

But I think you're absolutely right that, you know, audio people can hear you. They're, you know, in the ear, they can see you and get a sense of who you are. And just physiologically, that's how we judge people very, actually very quickly as well, by the way they sound, by the way they look. And podcasting is a fantastic way also, because there's a long tail to it, you know, and we have distribution on a podcast, whereas on your website, you're really dealing with people that got intent. Right. They've got to have found your website through exactly a click or maybe a post somewhere. So one is inbound and one is outbound marketing. Right. They complement one another really, really well.

Yeah, I mean, I want people to get across that, you know, we're just normal people. We don't think we're anything particularly special. All that's special about us is that we care and we want to do a good job for people. I mean, you know, I'm not into pinstripe suits and bookcases with, you know, thousand page law books behind me, you know, which is the stereotype. We just want to help normal people get their lives back on track and hopefully through the power of video, they'll see someone they can relate to. I mean, it'd be arrogant for me to think that I'm everybody's cup of tea. I'm surely not. But at least, hopefully some people will like what they see and may want to engage further.

Paul, I'm sure they will. I'm sure they will. And also, your successes speak volumes. Are you able to practice, by the way, across the country? I'm assuming it's.

We're bound by England and Wales, so that's our license. Yeah. So, yeah. So sadly, we can't extend our reach beyond that.

Okay, so you're not going to be expanding into America soon, but. Or maybe Scotland. Okay, maybe. But Paul, you know, I also like to ask on this show about lessons that you've learned. You know, the entrepreneurs have learned that didn't work out quite as planned from a marketing point of view. I mean, as entrepreneurs, we've all got million and one things that we've done that we can't believe we did quite often in hindsight. What about from Just a marketing perspective, as this show's about getting noticed. Is there something that you've, in just the four years you've had fd chronic pain, tried that you wouldn't want to suggest anyone else tries at home?

Well, it's a difficult one to say that I wouldn't want them to try at home just because the proof is often in the pudding, isn't it? But we found ourselves in relationships, professional relationships with suppliers of services, digital marketing, where the expectation was extremely high. Our belief was that they would be as passionate about us as we are and what we do and try and portray that to an audience that we need to access. And because we're busy doing the day job, we kind of let that stuff drift, paying for it routinely and hoping at some point to see this sort of chain of inquiries coming our way, which just didn't happen. And it was only really when you sort of delved into what was going on that you realized that there wasn't that connection. They weren't as passionate about what I do as. As I would want them to be. And so, you know, that that made for difficult conversations and a change in direction. So we spent quite a lot of money in a. For a new firm, relatively speaking. You know, what we spent was, was. Was huge for us and, and it was a harsh lesson to learn, I guess. So my advice would be if you're, if you're using a third, you should really know that they are passionate and invested. And how do you go about finding that individual? Well, I think I found that individual. You mentioned him earlier, Darren earlier, Elevate, who's a very sort of energetic guy. I mean, if he can't be energetic about what you do, then I think anyone can.

Paul, and thanks for the candor there. And I think I've heard many, many times on this show how entrepreneurs have engaged agencies and found themselves disappointed. In fact, one of the reasons I started this podcast was because friends of mine who are entrepreneurs are paid agencies and really not had their expectations met. Often it's an expectation and a management issue. The agency could do great work, but maybe didn't get the full brief, or as you say, the client has kind of abdicated some of the work, thinking that the agency can do work that actually it can't do, and they pay people at a low level, but they really want strategy. Right. So I've heard on many, many occasions how that agency client relationship falls foul. So I'm sorry to hear that you went down that path as well. But there are great agencies as we know. But it is about finding the right one. Yeah. It is not just any agency.

Absolutely. And we don't have an internal marketing manager, you see. I mean, you know, Ann takes the lead on marketing for us as a business, but she's very busy. She's a lawyer in her own right and has clients and as I said earlier, they're the center of what we do. So it's very difficult for us to then spend the amount of time that we would probably need to, to get a company as briefed as they need to be to do the job. So that's a tricky one.

Yes. So briefing an agency, it's an art in itself and often agencies work best with bigger companies that have a marketing manager of some kind that manages the agency. Right. So lots of learnings there. But I would like to ask you for a number one tip, Paul, something that you found that has worked in the four years. What really is moving the needle for you at ft? Chronic pain.

It has to be client engagement and client referrals. Most of our work comes to us through a number of clients that we've had who are very active on social media and on groups and who. There's one particular client I'm thinking of who we, again, we had an excellent result for him. We brought a claim against a blue chip motor manufacturer and this particular client is on all of the sort of forums for his particular condition. And when anyone comes up, he jumps on it straight away and says, you must call FT chronic pain solicitors. And you know, the personality and the relationship with our clients is so, is so deep. We get invested, we're invested in their lives, we're invested in their, their family's lives for such a long period of time that, you know, inevitably you make friendships and, and that's been, that's been key to success. I mean, client referrals probably make up 75% of our workload, which is such a massive compliment, which we never lose sight of. The compliment of that, that's wonderful, Paul.

And I can see why, having spent just half an hour with you, your honesty and your authenticity comes shining through the mic. Really. And Paul, I will ask you, because you're a learned man too, if there's a book or a podcast that you've also been enjoying and helping you get through the tough times, what would that be?

Yeah, actually there's a friend of mine, a chap I've known for getting on 20 years. In fact. We met in the maternity unit as my wife and his wife were sort of Approaching childbirth. And the chap is Caspar Craven. And his most recent book is the the Big Bold Mindset. And it's a great book, really. Sort of intelligently written and elegant sort of book, a toolkit for entrepreneurs to rethink business strategy. But it also translates quite well into personal life as well, and habits and forming positive habits and relationships with people. So, yeah, that would be my recommendation.

Great. We'll put Casper Craven's book in the show notes. Not one I've heard of before, so that's wonderful. And yeah, what a way to meet in the maternity ward. Paul, if you want to meet you, how can they get hold of you?

I guess the easiest way in the first instance is I'm certainly on LinkedIn, but at Paul Turnerftchronicpain.co.uk. that would be the best way.

And again, we'll put Paul's details in the show notes. Paul Turner, you're just down the road, but I feel like we're in the room together. So it's been wonderful conversation meeting you. Jim, thank you for joining me on the Unnoticed Entrepreneur show.

Paul, cheers. All the best. Take care.

Well, and I know if I don't take care, I know who to come and help sort it out.

Hopefully I'll never have to see you in that class.

Yeah, I know it's in a way, sort of, I hope I'm never a client. I hope you take that right way. So we've been listening to Paul Turner, who's built a practice with his business partner. She's about 50 miles away, and they're building a practice with a great deal of authenticity and integrity. And the takeaway there really is about the need to engage. This is a recurring theme and you'll read about this in The Unnoticed Entrepreneur Volume 3, which is coming out in October of this year, published by Wiley. A recurring theme from so many entrepreneurs that I've interviewed, which is now over 500 on this show, is being authentic and engaging with your audience, going out and being there with them and for them. And that, in a way, is the best news of all, because that's free to do that, to be yourself and no one else can be you. So it also means you've got the competitive advantage in whatever you do. My name is Jim James. Thank you so much for joining me on the Unnoticed Entrepreneur. And whatever you do, I just hope you keep on communicating.