Personal Injury claim

Mathew

Good evening,

Haven't posted for a while bet hoped some of your friendly advice.

A few weeks ago I was stood outside my in-laws putting my son into his car seat. In summary, a passing car hit my open door effectively squashing me into the door frame. I called 999 and the driver has since been identified and admitted liability - my car is in for repair.

I initially attended hospital and have since had appointments with my GP and am currently undergoing physiotherapy. Nothing was broken, however, I have injured my arm, the nerves and shoulder. I have had several weeks off work, however, lucky enough to get sick pay so this has not hurt me financially. Although not fully recovered the physio is hopeful another few weeks of therapy and exercises should see a full recover - fingers crossed.

I have legal cover on my insurance, this has resulted in me being contacted by a Solicitors firm instructed by insurers. They want to take this forward as a claim. I have no experience of this, not sure what is involved. Does anybody have any relevant experience they can offer, would a claim likely succeed? amount of likely compensation? How long it would be likely to take?

Thanks in advance

agrinnall

The solicitor is unlikely to recommend taking a claim forward unless there is a pretty good chance of success, so you may as well do it. Can't help you on the possible amount, but you certainly shouldn't proceed with the claim until you are fully recovered in case any other issues appear before then.

[Deleted User]

Why not just figure out what it has cost you and what you think is reasonable for the pain and suffering (a few thousand at least) and just ask the third party's insurance for it? Or even better, just tell them you want to claim for personal injury and see if they make an offer and then decide if you want to accept it or ask for more?

No need to get lawyers involved at this stage, when you can just ask.

Aretnap

If you have access to free legal help it would be foolish not to take advantage of it.

If there's no dispute about liability and if you were clearly injured then your chances of success are very high - the only real question is how much you're entitled to. Your solicitor will be better placed than someone in an Internet forum to advise you on how much*, but if you make a full recovery after several weeks of pain then AIUI a ballpark figure might be several thousand, in addition to any loss of earnings and any out of pocket expenses (eg are you paying for your own physiotherapy?) if the injury turns out to be more serious and causes you long term problems it will be rather more.

You can begin the process now, but you should not accept a final settlement until either you've made a full recovery or you're confident that you know your long term prognosis as it will then be too late to claim more if the injury turns out to be more serious than you thought.

*That's one of the reasons why you should speak to a solicitor rather than making a wild guess as to how much you're entitled to, or trusting the third party insurer to make you a fair offer.

Mathew

Thanks for the advice
Not sure I would want to progress this without a solicitor as I would simply be guessing at an amount and have legal cover.
I will get in touch tomorrow and ask them to progress - as you've suggested can't inagine they would even try if they were not confident. Thanks again

OnanTheBarbarian

Use your legal cover, it should result in no deductions from your injury settlement.

The appointed solicitors will eventually send you for a medical with an independent Dr, who will write a report summarising your injuries and giving a prognosis as to the expected period of recovery from your symptoms that still remain at the time of the examination.

Only when this report exists can the solicitors give you an accurate figure for the claim. Just make sure you are either 99% confident that the period of recovery stated in the medical report is achievable or wait out until the injuries have fully subsided before committing to settlement.

Odds are the solicitor firm your legal cover provider refer you to will be a horrid factory firm where the staff have a ridiculous caseload and are incentivised to settle your claim as quickly as possible, so don't bow to any pressure of "here's the medical report, this is what it is worth, let's get it settled" unless you are confident of a full recovery within the prognosis period or if your symptoms have settled.

Spiderham

Have to say that the injury you are talking about is not trivial and not one where a pre-med offer is going to be appropriate.

There's a lot of talk about dodgy whiplash claims and similar (which from what I've seen working from an insurer there are certainly some very questionable claims). The sort of injury you are talking about certainly does not sound like it falls into that category.

You've had several weeks off work so you may well want to (and a solicitor will advise you whether it is appropriate to) give things a little longer to settle down before someone puts a figure to the injury.

To answer your direct questions, chances of success would appear high, not sure on amount but a solicitor is in the best place to advise in this.

Mathew

Some excellent and comprehensive advice - thank you very much.
I will contact solicitors tomorrow and confirm that I would like them to progress this for me .. However , I note the comments re not settling before complete recovery and will be mindful of this

Thanks again - exactly what I was after when posting 😄