Unable to work after RTA

Yrogerg_2

Hi all,

I was involved in a car crash in which the TP crossed from lane 3 to lane 1 collided with my van which overturned several times, this happened in May this year, at the time I suffered fractured ribs and injuries to my back and neck, it's now august and i still have pain in my neck and back and I am struggling to walk, which if it deteriorates at the present rate is going to affect my ability to work as a self employed engineering surveyor, (I contract to network rail on a six month irac contract and work for other contractors sporadically) the pain is in my hip, groin and knee, I have previously had surgery on my back L5/S1 (discectomy) approximately two years ago, I think that the accident has exacerbated the previous injury, as the symptoms I am experiencing are the same as prior to the surgery. The previous surgery was successful and I had no symptoms prior to the accident, I have an appointment with a neurosurgeon in September I have returned to work but am unable to carry out my surveys and I an worried they will not renew my contract as I am unable to carry out the work required, please help, I am frustrated and the worry is making me depressed, any comments would be gratefully received.

I have a solicitor but wondered what people's thoughts on here were

Greg

agrinnall

It's not entirely clear what it is that you want help on, but I'm going to assume it's getting a payout for your injuries. So the first question has to be whether the third party's insurer has accepted liability?

If they have then I would expect them (or perhaps your insurer) to be taking steps to quantify your loss of income and compensation for suffering. It's likely that the full amount can't be calculated yet so perhaps you would be best trying to get interim payments.

If they haven't accepted liability then you've got more of a fight on your hands and you need to tell us what your solicitor has said and is currently doing on your behalf.

As far as Network Rail and other clients are concerned I would expect that if you are unable to do the duties required by your contract and they aren't prepared to offer you other duties that you can do then you're right, they won't renew the contract. Do you have insurance that covers this type of situation that would start to pay out once you had been unable to work for a certain time?

Yrogerg_2

agrinnall wrote: »

It's not entirely clear what it is that you want help on, but I'm going to assume it's getting a payout for your injuries. So the first question has to be whether the third party's insurer has accepted liability?

If they have then I would expect them (or perhaps your insurer) to be taking steps to quantify your loss of income and compensation for suffering. It's likely that the full amount can't be calculated yet so perhaps you would be best trying to get interim payments.

If they haven't accepted liability then you've got more of a fight on your hands and you need to tell us what your solicitor has said and is currently doing on your behalf.

As far as Network Rail and other clients are concerned I would expect that if you are unable to do the duties required by your contract and they aren't prepared to offer you other duties that you can do then you're right, they won't renew the contract. Do you have insurance that covers this type of situation that would start to pay out once you had been unable to work for a certain time?

Thanks for your quick response, the TP's insurance are dealing with the claim, and I stupidly ignored advice from my accountant regarding insurance!!! My main concern is being able to provide for my family, if I can't walk, I can't work

Nodding_Donkey

Original thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5031085

You'll get better help by sticking to one thread OP

OnanTheBarbarian

As has been posted on the other thread you started, the problem with your claim is very much the liability aspect for the other motorist who had the blow out.

Cases involving a blow out, especially if it is a private car and not a commercial vehicle etc, are very difficult to get liability nailed down for actually establishing NEGLIGENCE.

Negligence is the key issue here. Yes their vehicle hit you and therefore the other vehicle can be "blamed" for causing damage to your property and injury and resulting losses to you, but the blow out arising does not necessarily establish negligence, unless there is evidence the tyre was in a poor state to start with. This would give you the key evidence to say it was negligent of the other motorist to not keep their vehicle in a safe and roadworthy manner.

Because it could be many weeks or even months before the issue of liability for negligence can be established, you really need to act in a manner as if there was no claim going on. i.e. what would you be doing now if say you had stuffed your van into a tree on a country road and injured yourself in the same way and had nobody you could claim against?

By acting in this way you will mitigate your losses (which you are obliged to do where possible anyway) but also you will perhaps not dig as big a financial hole for yourself in the event you cannot establish negligence and therefore are unable to make a claim against the other party.

What I mean here is for your earnings side of things in particular. You are self employed, you have a contract to serve. If the claim succeeds, you will only be able to claim your net lost profit that you would have earned, had you been able to complete all the jobs you usually would. So you can't claim loss of gross income, you can only claim the equivalent amount you would earn in profit, net of any relevant tax and NI etc.

If you have a concern that you are not going to be able to fulfil your duties and therefore Railtrack offer your contract out to someone else (which will create a far bigger future loss of income for you than the immediate losses you are facing) why not see if you can sub-contract your jobs out to someone?

By doing this, you won't see the same level of income after you have paid subby fees, but at least it avoids you ending up in a breach of contract situation and losing the gig all together.

If the claim has prospects of success, you are still then able to claim the net amount of money you are out of pocket by after paying the sub-contractor, but at least you stand a chance of still having a contract to service in the future?

agrinnall

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

Original thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5031085

You'll get better help by sticking to one thread OP

Thanks ND, I do remember seeing the other thread but hadn't kept up with it, I'd agree that a second one is redundant.

Yrogerg_2

I did think about keeping to one thread but it had descended into liability issues such as cars pushing cars into garden walls etc, the TP insurance company are dealing with the claim now so I started a new thread based on this, apologies if this is not forum etiquette, I'm new to this kind of thing!

OnanTheBarbarian

So just to clarify, have your solicitors confirmed that the third party insurers have admitted liability?

if so, my advice above applies in terms of mitigating loss. Has physio been sorted for you?

How "honest" are your income tax returns as the insurers will want to see them along with your profit & loss accounts in the event a loss of earnings claim is presented.

topdaddy_2

If you can set out in the four foot you can do it anywhere.

Yrogerg_2

OnanTheBarbarian wrote: »

So just to clarify, have your solicitors confirmed that the third party insurers have admitted liability?

if so, my advice above applies in terms of mitigating loss. Has physio been sorted for you?

How "honest" are your income tax returns as the insurers will want to see them along with your profit & loss accounts in the event a loss of earnings claim is presented.

My accounts are up to date and squeaky clean!!

Yrogerg_2

OnanTheBarbarian wrote: »

So just to clarify, have your solicitors confirmed that the third party insurers have admitted liability?

if so, my advice above applies in terms of mitigating loss. Has physio been sorted for you?

How "honest" are your income tax returns as the insurers will want to see them along with your profit & loss accounts in the event a loss of earnings claim is presented.

My accounts are up to date and squeaky clean, and I am paying privately for physio.