advice on injury claim settlement values

grahamf265

Hi

I was recently involved in a car accident and suffered whiplash and a broken finger with my girlfriend suffering a broken wrist and whiplash....

Has anyone had any similar injuries and can therefore advise on potential settlement amounts....the person who drive into us admitted liability and the legal claim will go through my insurance policy....

Many thanks
Graham

Crazy_Jamie

In order to value the general damages (i.e. the amount the injuries are 'worth') you'll need to supply more information. Specifically, symptoms and prognosis period. Simply stating 'whiplash and a broken finger' is not enough, as the potential value range of those injuries is very wide.

I would suspect that you may not be in a position to provide that information if the accident only happened recently. As part of the process of your claim both you and your girlfriend will be examined by a medical expert who will produce a report that deals with the information required to value the injuries. Before you've had that examination it may be that you simply don't know how long these injuries are going to take to heal, and therefore they can't accurately be valued yet.

CrazysnipeR

Hi,

I can relate to your post. Since we are in similar situation.

My Insurance says it will take 3 months before they can refer us to their appointed medical examiner etc. So it might be thesame for you and your GF. SO until then, (as mentioned by Crazy Jamie) you might not able to get the right valuation of your claim.

Who you insure with by the way? Mine is with Esure through Halifax.

Goodluck with your claim!

grahamf265

I'm just looking for a rough order of magnitude based on people's experience....

Several years ago I had a whiplash claim myself and was off work for 2 weeks and had physio etc and ended up with an out of court settlement of £2000....

So that's what I'm looking for here...

Thanks

My insurance is through Zurich.....

Crazy_Jamie

grahamf265 wrote: »

I'm just looking for a rough order of magnitude based on people's experience....

Several years ago I had a whiplash claim myself and was off work for 2 weeks and had physio etc and ended up with an out of court settlement of £2000....

So that's what I'm looking for here...

Thanks

My insurance is through Zurich.....

It's not a matter of experience because you don't know how long your injuries are going to take to heal, so what other people have been awarded will make no difference to you. The lowest bracket for whiplash injuries, where recovery takes place between a couple of weeks and a year, is between £850 and £2,750. A basic finger fracture is £1,900 to £3,000. A basic wrist fracture is £2,250 to £3,000. All of those valuations are from the JSB Guidelines, which is the starting point. Clearly it's more than that if recovery takes place over a longer period and/or there are any complications.

Hopefully that's the sort of thing that you were looking for. If not you'll have to wait for the medical examination, because on the basis of the information you've provided you're not going to be a more accurate and reliable valuation than that at the moment, and even the above valuations are dependent on individual circumstances.

NJW69

Crazy_Jamie wrote: »

In order to value the general damages (i.e. the amount the injuries are 'worth') you'll need to supply more information. Specifically, symptoms and prognosis period. Simply stating 'whiplash and a broken finger' is not enough, as the potential value range of those injuries is very wide.

I would suspect that you may not be in a position to provide that information if the accident only happened recently. As part of the process of your claim both you and your girlfriend will be examined by a medical expert who will produce a report that deals with the information required to value the injuries. Before you've had that examination it may be that you simply don't know how long these injuries are going to take to heal, and therefore they can't accurately be valued yet.

Does everyone use the JSB guidelines for assessing the value of a claim? I've got an ongoing claim for a crash in Dec 06 and the first offer seems low (the other party have admitted full liabilty). I've ordered the book myself to see if I can work it out. Is it relatively easy to use?

Crazy_Jamie

NJW69 wrote: »

Does everyone use the JSB guidelines for assessing the value of a claim? I've got an ongoing claim for a crash in Dec 06 and the first offer seems low (the other party have admitted full liabilty). I've ordered the book myself to see if I can work it out. Is it relatively easy to use?

The JSB Guidelines are the starting point for valuing injuries, and to that extent they are used by the Court in all personal injury cases. However, they are just a starting point, and in order to more accurately assess the value of injuries it's necessary to look at more specific case law and/or draw on experience of similar claims. Unfortunately you may not be able to get very far in terms of valuing your case from the JSB Guidelines alone, especially if the injury is serious. What are the injuries that you're going to try to value?

NJW69

Background
A 48 tonne articulated lorry crashed into my vehicle on the motorway, side impact as they suddenly pulled into the exit lane at the last minute hitting my car on the driver side rear door, my car was pushed into the barrier and bounced off before being hit by the lorry again and ending up being pushed sideways up the motorway. I was trapped against the front of the lorry cab and the motorway had to be closed whilst recovery was in action. Thankfully I was driving a large very safe car. There was > 10k of damage to my vehicle.

The crash was witnessed by a number of people and the other party admitted liability at the scene. I initially had back, rib and neck pain and was taken to hospital in the ambulance and discharged. The initial injuries were the above plus chipped front teeth, bruised and swollen knee, bruising to stomach and other lady chest bits the set belt connects with, split lip and grazing to hand. The day after the crash I started coughing up blood and went back to hospital and was given antibiotics as a precaution following x-ray. My initial main injury was my ribs and after a recommendation from my GP to see a physio she determined that my ribcage on the left side was displaced, protruding and swollen. This caused 8 chest infections over a six month period. During this time I had referrals through the NHS to Musculo-Skeletal services and a Respiratory Physician. I have had physio for two years and now carry out exercises myself at home. I still have pain in my shoulder and ribs on exertion or when doing something out of the ordinary. For example if I have a long day (which I often do as my HQ is in London) I have to take painkillers to sleep. I have recently had a cold and cough which has meant my ribs are very sore and I have to support them when coughing and take painkillers. It's hard to describe how difficult this has been sometimes but one day my breathing was so bad that my husband nearly called 999 as I had collapsed on the bathroom floor. I should explain at this point that I work in healthcare as a clinician so I tend generally to play down illness. I have had to date two assessments by experts and am awaiting a further one soon. This has seriously affected my life for the past three years and I do worry about the potential for further effects in the future. I have never had any previous accident or similar illness.

Crazy_Jamie

Whilst I know that you won't want to hear this, unfortunately your chances of accurately valuing that injury on the basis of the JSB Guidelines alone are virtually none existent. That is a complicated injury for which you have my full sympathy. I wouldn't even attempt to value that injury without reading the medical reports, and even then case law would more than likely be a necessity to arrive at a final figure. The bottom line is that this isn't something that you're going to be able to do yourself, and you're going to have to leave it to your solicitor. What you might be able to do is to ring up your solicitor and ask for a general idea of what your injury is worth. I doubt they will give a final valuation with another medical report on the way, but they may be able to give a ball park figure. Unfortunately without seeing the medical reports I wouldn't even be comfortable giving that.