injury during carpet fitiing - claim?

mclaren_2

lisyloo wrote: »

I KNOW she will stress about it whilst waiting (months) for letters to arrive.

Hate to say it but the stress will not be good for her atall. As i said, at 79, stress is not a good thing - she should be out enjoying her life as it is atm! And as for months, i would say it would take about 2 years (thats prob at the earliest) to get anything finantually out of it.

I think IMO the way to go, is to write to the MD of the company, explain the situation and wait and see what he says. If he is kind, they might offer some finantual compo. If not, it will be a "sorry" letter, and i would then put it to rest.

lisyloo

I think IMO the way to go, is to write to the MD of the company, explain the situation and wait and see what he says. If he is kind, they might offer some finantual compo. If not, it will be a "sorry" letter, and i would then put it to rest.

Yesterday I rang the company mainly to make sure they knew of the incident (as staff had "scuttled away" so wasn't sure it had been registered).

I spoke to the manager who said that yes they were aware of the incident but did not know that the injury was "on-going" and he was sorry but they didn't think they were negligent.

Very shortly afterwards he appeared at the flat and spoke to her. He has said he is going to write to the insurance company, but I don't understand that.

An insurance company is not going to volunteer anything neither are the company likely to admit negligence so he can only write to register or defend a claim. So I'm not sure why he told her he was contacting them, but it has got her hopes up a little.

Clive_Woody

At the end of the day if solicitors got involved they would argue she is old, confused and infirm and was carrying a large load at the time (so couldn't see where she was going) when she walked into the tool box. This may or may not be true/accurate.

You have to ask yourself, do you want the stress of writing letters and talking to solicitors and maybe even a court appearence as well getting medical reports done. At the end of the day you may not win and be faced with a large legal bill you have to pay.

My suggestion would be to give the company another call suggest they send her a big bunch of flowers and some chocolates and then leave it at that. If you keep dwelling on this it will stress you and her for months even years to come and will slowly become the focus of your life. Ignore the people who keep telling you she should claim compensation, at the end of the day this is her decision alone, and it is her who would have to go through all the stress and hassle for potentially a very small pay-out or worse none at all and a big bill to pay.

lisyloo

At the end of the day you may not win and be faced with a large legal bill you have to pay.

They have legal insurance on their home insurance.
I have checked that it covers personal injury and providing the company think it's worth pursuing then they should be covered up to £50K of costs, so there should be no legal bill to pay.

I agree with you about the stress though.

Thanks for the comments. It's helpful to get objective opinions.

Clive_Woody

lisyloo wrote: »

They have legal insurance on their home insurance.
I have checked that it covers personal injury and providing the company think it's worth pursuing then they should be covered up to £50K of costs, so there should be no legal bill to pay.

I agree with you about the stress though.

Thanks for the comments. It's helpful to get objective opinions.

Most of these legal cover add-ons to insurance state they will only persue the case if there is a better than average chance of them winning. In this case I suspect they would be hesitant. Basically the insurance company wants to be confident it will recover the costs for providing legal services, otherwise it will most likely refuse to persue the case.

mattymoo

Lisyloo - you know a fair bit about the law (based on posts in other threads) and I think you are taking a realistic view here.

Yes, of course you can claim for pain and suffering. The lack of a financial loss (lost earnings) is no bar to making the claim.

You should also raise the "eggshell skull" principle. You take your victim as you find them. The fact this is an old lady and the wound will take longer to heal is not a reason to reduce damages. If anything, they would be increased.

Your biggest sticking block is negligence though. English law requires that
a) the person you are sueing owed you a duty of care - tick.
b) by negligent act or omission they breached that duty of care ????
c) Loss was suffered as a result of that breach - tick.

Did the carpet fitter act in a negligent way? I think it depends on the location of the toolbox and what your MIL was doing in the time leading up to the accident. If the toolbox was on the floor in a narrowish passage / hallway or worse still on the stairs, I would suggest you could prove negligence. If it was in the corner of a room, away from pedestrian traffic routes, I think it would be harder to prove.

Speak to the legal expenses people and ask them to submit a formal claim on her behalf. The other side then have a set period to investigate the incident and make a decision on whether they will pay up or defend the claim. Given the relatively small size of the claim, most insurers would probably err on the side of payment.

lisyloo

In this case I suspect they would be hesitant.

Well at least this can sometimes bring closure.
If they say no then at least she can stop giving me earache aboout :-)

On the one hand I think she should avoid the stress on the other hand it can be stressful wondering "what if".
Having the solicitors turn you down actually draws a line under the matter.

Given the relatively small size of the claim, most insurers would probably err on the side of payment.

Yes, I known that insurance companies take the least line of resistance and this sometimes means settling out of court rather than fight it.

Thanks for the advice again.