Personal Injury Compensation Question.

carl310166

My wife was involved in an accident back in March this year. Another vehicle ran into the rear of her hers, and she sustained some minor whiplash and hand sprain and foot bruising injuries. In Oct she was seen by a specialist who compiled a report and sent to the solicitors dealing with her claim.This week she received a letter basically asking if she would like to settle NOW, or wait to see how her hand injury would heal (the specialist thought it would take 1 year), by March 2007.

I am asking if compensation is reative to the severity/lenght of time of the injury? i.e say she settled now and won £1500 compensation, would the extra wait to see how her injuries were healing be worth only say another £100 or so? We are not being greedy,we would just like to weigh up the pros and cons of an early settlement, it's just that nobody really knows how long her hands maybe affected. I did hear somewhere that a mild whiplash (couple weeks of pain) would get say a £1500 payout, but a much more serious (up to 1 year of pain) may only get £2000, does this sound about right.

Thanks in advance for any replies i may get.

Any advice or thoughts?

DavidHM

Nope; a year of ongoing pain (as opposed to ongoing minor discomfort) would probably be worth £4,000 or so (could be as low as £2,500 or as high as £7,000).

It's a judgement call and you can't go back on it. You might not get anything extra for waiting if it does heal as expected; but if you find that it isn't healing then you can get another medical report done and negotiate a new offer.

Personally, unless you are desperate for the money, I'd say you have nothing to lose by waiting three months unless your solicitor advises you differently and might gain if the expert is wrong. But if everything turns out as expected, you probably won't get any extra money over settling now.

carl310166

DavidHM wrote:

Nope; a year of ongoing pain (as opposed to ongoing minor discomfort) would probably be worth £4,000 or so (could be as low as £2,500 or as high as £7,000).

It's a judgement call and you can't go back on it. You might not get anything extra for waiting if it does heal as expected; but if you find that it isn't healing then you can get another medical report done and negotiate a new offer.

Personally, unless you are desperate for the money, I'd say you have nothing to lose by waiting three months unless your solicitor advises you differently and might gain if the expert is wrong. But if everything turns out as expected, you probably won't get any extra money over settling now.

Thanks for that. I will have a chat to her this evening and decide what the best course of action is.

Beamish

I am just going into the 7th year of waiting for a Personal Injury Claim, and beginning to lose patience, it's as if the other side are waiting for me to die or something!

Back in November 2000 I was watching a Rugby International with husband, sons and girlfriends,in a Cafe/Bar, a fight broke out between some lads which resulted in me being pushed down a flight of concrete stairs by bouncers and lads, I was taken to hospital with bumps and bruises, 2 weeks later I had a brain hemorrhage and stroke, which nearly cost my life.

After seeing umpteen Doctors and Neurologists it was agreed that the hemorrhage resulted from the fall down the steps, since seeing the Neurologists etc I have had to see a Physciatrist, a Counsellor and am now waiting to see a Employment Consultant to see what kind of job I can do, as would never be able to go back to my old job.

I have been told today that there will, yet again, be a pre-listed trial hearing (via phone) next July and a final hearing date for next October! although my Sol is hoping there will be a settlement before then, I am 95% certain that this will go to the steps of the final hearing date!

I am furious as dont feel I can close this chapter of life until it is settled, I really feel like writing to the Lord Chancellor and telling him that Lord Woolfs proposals for civil claims is are not working.

Can anyone advise if this is a normal amount of time (8 years) to wait for a settlement.

I was offered £25,000 by the other side earlier this year but on advise of my Barrister refused it.

Thanks rant over, feel better now!

Beem

Astaroth

Would very much disagree with the other posters valuation of the injury.

Now clearly it is going to be very finger in the air without sight of the actual medical report however I would put a 1 year multiple soft tissue injury at £1750-£2000. Checking JBL 7th edition gives upto £2500 but their figures are always high.

The advantage of waiting to make settlement is if it lasts longer than the anticipated 12months then the settlement amount would go up. The disadvantage is if the injury got better quicker or there was for some reason a marked downward movement in settlement figures you would get less.

You may well have to seek further expert advice if you decide to wait longer which means more time and effort handling it

Astaroth

Beamish wrote:

After seeing umpteen Doctors and Neurologists it was agreed that the hemorrhage resulted from the fall down the steps, since seeing the Neurologists etc I have had to see a Physciatrist, a Counsellor and am now waiting to see a Employment Consultant to see what kind of job I can do, as would never be able to go back to my old job.

..........

Can anyone advise if this is a normal amount of time (8 years) to wait for a settlement.

I was offered £25,000 by the other side earlier this year but on advise of my Barrister refused it.

On the basis that you are still awaiting to see an employment consultant the exact amount of your claim cannot be accurately set at the moment as it is unclear if you would be claiming for loss of earnings for the rest of your life (if totally unfit to work again) or if you will only be getting a partial LoE claim.

Unfortunately it is very difficult to put a value on something when there is still so much unknown prognosis. The defendant will naturally be optimistic and so give lower offers. The solicitor, who will get more the longer they make the case last (within reason), will be pesimistic about your future and so want a high figure. Until the experts are more certain about your future there is no way to say which of them is right.

At the end of the day you have received an offer £25k and whilst the solicitor is there to make recommendations it is up to you if you actually want to accept it or not. In some cases it can be worth accepting what may by some be considered a low offer simply to close that chapter down... especially as if it went to court there is no assurance that the judge would even award as much as £25k (subject to if part 36 offers had been made etc)

Beamish

Astaroth wrote:

On the basis that you are still awaiting to see an employment consultant the exact amount of your claim cannot be accurately set at the moment as it is unclear if you would be claiming for loss of earnings for the rest of your life (if totally unfit to work again) or if you will only be getting a partial LoE claim.

Unfortunately it is very difficult to put a value on something when there is still so much unknown prognosis. The defendant will naturally be optimistic and so give lower offers. The solicitor, who will get more the longer they make the case last (within reason), will be pesimistic about your future and so want a high figure. Until the experts are more certain about your future there is no way to say which of them is right.

At the end of the day you have received an offer £25k and whilst the solicitor is there to make recommendations it is up to you if you actually want to accept it or not. In some cases it can be worth accepting what may by some be considered a low offer simply to close that chapter down... especially as if it went to court there is no assurance that the judge would even award as much as £25k (subject to if part 36 offers had been made etc)

Thankyou for your advise, LOE will be calculated as not worked since the accident, I am hopeful that I can return to work even though it will probably be part-time so partial LOE will be claimed between me getting a job and retirement age, I'm 53 at the moment and I have been told that my age will also be taken into consideration as I have been out of work for so long and will probably need retraining.

I am not desperate for money & although often feel like giving in I am carrying on through principal, I now accept that by the time this is resolved I will be 54+.:eek:

Beem

nadnad

just a quick note on the previous posts - i know astorath has said a years whiplash injury is 1750 - 2000. however obviously depends on the extent of the injury - and the area you are claiming in. eg in northern ireland a simple whiplash only for up to 1 year would be in the region of 3000 - 3500, however i know the the NI compensation levels are a lot higher.

i would also say in response to the original post - with a hand injury you want to be careful, and my advice would be to wait until the full year from the accident, make sure its on the mend and get another report from a specialist.

Astaroth

The actual losses are easy to calculate.... the difficulty always comes in the forward prediction of future losses.... even when the prognosis has been confirmed you then get into the classic discussions over would you have received promotions, would you have retired early etc.

There are formulas that can be used as the basis of discussions but then you have to try and personalise it.... I am glad that I always worked for the defence and not the claimant as some of the discussions can be difficult to have (eg a 50 year old person who's partner is killed will receive a greater multiple of their partners salary than someone who is say 20 - being realistic a 20 year old is massively more likely to find someone else in a much shorter time than a 50yo but saying that to someone who has recently lost their loved one in a sensitive way is difficult.... when working for the defense you can be fairly blunt as the communications go through the solicitor)

Astaroth

nadnad wrote:

just a quick note on the previous posts - i know astorath has said a years whiplash injury is 1750 - 2000. however obviously depends on the extent of the injury - and the area you are claiming in. eg in northern ireland a simple whiplash only for up to 1 year would be in the region of 3000 - 3500, however i know the the NI compensation levels are a lot higher.

There certainly are regional variations and I would therefore clarify that my estimation is based on England/ Wales as I never worked on cases in the Scottish/ NI system.

carl310166

This is Mrs carl310166 or "the injured party".

I am concerned about my hand injuries as, because of the accident, I have had to wear arm splints on both hands for the past 5 months. In addition, I have been very fortunate in that I am quite senior in my organisation and have had a lot of support from my management and team who have been typing memos etc on my behalf. I am concerned that future managers will not be impressed with someone whose IT skills are limited because of lack of dexterity and who is unable to type - in fact my handwriting has also gone downhill and I can no longer take notes in meetings etc or if I do then even I can't read them back. If I were in a different post with less support I probably would have had to have had a lot of time off. Also, Mr carl310166 has had to become very handy at the old housework as cleaning (especially squeezing cloths etc) is painful! And don't get me started on those who gaily give a good, strong handshake at meetings - it hurts me a lot.

Anyway, enough of the moaning ... and typing. My next step is, apparently, a scan and potentially an injection cortisone. Not a happy thought.

Settling the claim is tempting just to get it out of the way but I am more concerned that my hands have been damaged. Lawd knows what they will be like in years to come.

Thank you for the advice and I shall do some pondering.