£150,000+ for a broken leg?

jane2014

Hi everyone,

Just under two years ago a friend's brother (let's call him Lee) was injured when a car reversed into him as he was about to cross the road. I am not entirely sure of the circumstances but I believe he was standing in the road by the kerb while waiting for a gap in the traffic. As a result of this his leg was broken in two places. He has since made a claim for compensation and the case is ongoing.

At the time of the accident Lee was (very) long-term unemployed and still is. He is now in his mid-forties, has no formal qualifications, no skills and no work experience in the last ten years (at least). Despite this he has told his sister he has been told to expect a settlement of around £160,000 in compensation, including "loss of potential future earnings". His explanation is that his last job involved a lot of standing/walking which he is no longer able to do. He seems to have a made a reasonable recovery although he complains about ongoing pain and talks of having to have future surgery. He is still claiming JSA and doesn't appear to be eligible for PIP.

My concern is that on the strength of this he is borrowing money from my friend on the basis of his pending payout. This is already several thousand pounds and rising by about a thousand pounds per month.

Attempts to raise my concerns with my friend have not gone well and I don't want to endanger our relationship, particularly if my fears are unfounded. On the other hand I don't want to see her fleeced by her layabout brother. So my question: is it possible that he will get the sort of sum he is talking about or are my suspicions justified?

InsideInsurance

Without seeing medical evidence and what the long term prognosis is there is no way of saying what any settlement is likely to be. By the sounds of it its 100% the TPs fault but again if he was running across the road not standing on the kerb there could be contributory negligence meaning he only gets a percentage of the injuries valuation.

Certainly gut reaction is that it is a high number but if there is the possibility of multiple future operations, life long pain etc then numbers can escalate fairly quickly

OnanTheBarbarian

As said above, impossible to be precise about the value of his claim and really he should be seeking guidance from his solicitors not a friend who is just spouting nonsense or urban legend/ gut reaction.

A moderately severe leg injury with fractures and an incomplete recovery are only worth in the region of £20k.

it is the future losses that put money on a claim, but if he was long term unemployed pre-accident and was doing unskilled minimum wage work and is not going to require future care & assistance then the £150K settlement value sounds on the face of it a bit optimistic.

jane2014

Thanks for the replies,

As far as ongoing pain is concerned, he complains of it but is not receiving treatment such as physio or attending a pain management clinic. There is no scheduled surgery but talk of a replacement knee at some vague time in the future. His mobility is not noticeably impaired and while a broken leg is no laughing matter, from the outside he appears to have made a good recovery. He can walk unaided and do tasks like shopping.

Apologies if my post wasn't clear but he is being advised by solicitors and is pursuing his claim through them. I am concerned that he might not be accurately relaying what they are advising to his sister (my friend) or he is not listening to their advice and pursuing a higher settlement than is realistic. I get the impression that the case is heading for court but I may be wrong on this.

agrinnall

I'm not sure what you can realistically hope to achieve. You have already expressed your concerns to your friend, and she has ignored them. That's her decision, and I suspect that even if you went to her and said that the maximum he could receive is (say) £2000 she would continue to ignore you and you'd run a high risk of losing the friendship by continuing to interfere in something that is really none of your business. It's fine to want to look out for your friends but you have to know when to stop.

stator

I can't comment on the amount of money but it's not guaranteed that he will get anything. You need to tell your friend to stop lending him money. If he does get his payout he might not even bother repaying your friend.

dotdash79

Most settlements for injuries are based on the amounts stated in the Guidelines for the Assessment of General Damages in Personal Injury Cases produced by the Judicial College. This is updated annually.

Then any provable reasonable expenses are added to the claim, then any future issues that might happen.

The latest update can be found here and a fractured leg isn't that much
http://www.mckeagandco.com/pdfs/jsbguidelines.pdf

jane2014

Thanks Dotdash 79. From the link it looks like he will receive enough to at least pay his sister back if he is so minded as long as the claim doesn't drag on too long and doesn't borrow too much more.

merlin68

My friends mum got £10,000 for a broken ankle. you can only claim for lack of actual earnings as normally people go back to work once there broken bones heal.