Personal injury

Sonofa

Sorry in advance, I know this isn't really applicable to this board, but it seems like the best fit I can find.

I'm currently waiting on the outcome of a personal injury claim from a road accident I was involved in early last year.

Basically I wasn't badly hurt but did suffer whiplash after being shunted from behind. Several weeks of pain and 7 visits to the physio.

I was driving a work's van at the time so the claim is going through their insurers. So after dragging along for months finally today I receive a letter from the solicitors stating that the other party have made an offer of £4500 in 'full and final settlement of the whole claim'. This goes on to say that once they have received all details back form the company regarding their losses in respect of the repairs to the van they will be able to advise me what is left for the personal injury claim.

Is it just me or is this a strange way of dealing with it? If the van repairs cost £4490 I get £10. Okay conversely if the van repairs cost £10 I get £4490, but it just sounds like a strange way of dealing with it to me as it takes no regard for the extent of the personal injury.

I'm not here to bang on about how much I should get, I'd just be interested to know from others who have similar past experience if this is normal?


Cheers

Hopeless123

As far as I'm aware the words 'full and final settlement' doesn't mean that it can't be changed, you just don't accept the offer and they go back and try again!

Do you know how much the van repairs were? Yes it does appear rather strange, the people working for you should be advising you properly on that, but certainly don't be put under pressure to accept something you're not happy with.

I had a car accident that wasn't my fault (sounds like an advert!). My insurance co advised me to accept the first offer that the other party's insurers made, said it was a good offer and was unlikely to increase. That was just absolute rubbish. I had to really fight for them to push for a more realistic amount but I got there in the end.

Good luck and don't sell yourself short!

lilac_lady

i know someone who had a whiplash injury(10 years ago) after being shunted from behind. He went to hospital for a checkup, wore a collar for a week and received £500 in compensation. He didn't need any physiotherapy though so his injury may have been minor compared to yours.

Crazy_Jamie

It is highly unlikely that the solicitors acting for the Defendant would make an offer when they didn't at least have some idea of what the value was. As your injury has now fully settled it would be straightforward to value it, especially with it being a minor whiplash injury (a personal injury solicitor's bread and butter; if you can't value a basic whiplash, you can't value anything). They clearly don't know the exact value of repairs and such, but on the flip side you don't need to know every small item of loss in order to make an offer. So realistically they will have some idea of the damage that was done to the van, or the cost for a replacement if it was written off, plus the cost of your physio (if they haven't already paid for it), your out of pocket expenses and so on, and will have made an offer based on what they currently know. That in itself would not be unusual at all.

It looks to me like your solicitor is waiting on an accurate valuation before advising on the offer because he thinks that the offer is right on the edge of what is acceptable, to the point where a few hundred pounds either side on the van repairs could affect his advice on whether to take it or not.

lilac_lady wrote:

i know someone who had a whiplash injury(10 years ago) after being shunted from behind. He went to hospital for a checkup, wore a collar for a week and received £500 in compensation. He didn't need any physiotherapy though so his injury may have been minor compared to yours.

From even the limited information in the original post, this injury would appear to be worth more than that. I would obviously need to see a medical report to actually value the injury anywhere near accurately, but three weeks of pain requiring seven trips to the physio would be closer to the £900-£1,100 mark. Maybe a little more depending on the evidence relating to the pain and/or physio reports. But as I said, that should only be taken as an extremely rough estimate, because I haven't seen the medical report, and whilst that is the most likely bracket, there could easily be something specific about this case that I don't know that could throw the valuation out of whack.

soolin

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Sonofa

Thanks for the comments guys, especially Jamie, it sounds like the right kind of rationale.

This latest letter just seems to be another twist. Everything seemed to be moving along fine up until the end of October when my solicitors sent the medical report out to the other parties sols saying they would give them 28 days to respond. Then nothing for months, so I tried to make contact in January. Eventually spoke to the guy dealing with the case who said that they were still wainting on a reply.

A couple weeks ago I get a letter saying that the other party were now not accepting liability and another party had accepted it - this was a four car 'pile up' so I assume the guy at the back is copping for it, I might add despite the fact that he didn't cause the one between him and me to hit me. At this point I really don't care who's to blame anymore as long as someone get this moving.

Thanks again, I'll post the conclusion once it actually happens for anyone still interested.

SolicitorMidlands

Why isn't your injury being dealt with seperately to your injury claim?

Sonofa

SolicitorMidlands wrote: »

Why isn't your injury being dealt with seperately to your injury claim?

Sorry, do you mean why isn't my injury claim being dealt with separately to the vehicle damages claim?

That's adding to my confusion to be honest. Up to now all my dealings have only been in relation to the personal injury claim. As far as I was aware all matters relating to the van damage were being dealt with separately, yet now I'm being told the two things are being offered on together, that's what I don't get.

To my understanding they should be separate. The cost of repairs to the van is a matter between my employers (or in this case the lease hire company who actually own the van) and the other party's insurers. The personal injury is a separate matter between me and them surely?

SolicitorMidlands

It depends whether the vehicle insurers have instructed your solicitors to include it.

Sorry for my confusing post - I typed injury and not vehicle damage!!

Sonofa

It's settled for £1800. Just in case anyone was interested in the outcome.

kozyavka

But isn't cheezy a relative term? Some level of cheezy has to cross over the line. This seems beyond over the top to me. But your view is obviously right because the media and even the blogosphere - which cares about deeply about the price of tea in Topeka - has no interest.