Rare whiplash & physiology injury case. What should I except?

Rhays79410

So just short of a year ago I was driving along a dual carriage way at 65mph when a 40ft high and 2ft wide tree came crashing down Infront of me. I just managed to slam on the brakes in time but the tree went straight through the bonnet of my car (thank god not the windscreen or we would have been killed no doubt).

My friend that was travelling with my and myself were taken to a local A&E and were treated for shock and whiplash before being sent home.

My car was a total write off and thankfully my insurance company paid out although I had a high excess of £525 as I am a young driver.

I couldn't afford to take any time off work, luckily I am the manager of the restaurant I work in and my boss is very understanding because for 6 weeks after the accident I couldn't do any of my normal duties at work (which is very active, on my feet 11 hours a day) I had to sit down, diligate and do paperwork and pretty much get paid for nothing.

I attended physio for 6 months until I missed an appointment and didn't phone within 2 weeks to make a new appointment they referred me back to my GP and have been back on the waiting list since.

I had hurt all down my left side. My shoulder and back are incredibley painful. I got a cortisone injection in my shoulder which helped a great deal but now it has wore off I am experiencing pain again and cramps down into my elbow.

As for my back, it is getting worse and worse, I can't bend over or I feel like something is going to snap. I have constant dull cramps from my back down into my hip and down my left knee. Which has sharp spasms throughout the day. I have to take tramadol every morning just for it to be bearable to get out of bed. Also I'm taking anti inflammatories and muscle relaxants when I don't have to go anywhere. Once I get up and going it's not too bad and bareable with solphadol or paracetamol during the day but I just need to make sure things I'm
Lifting aren't too heavy.

Also, I did have car anxiety a few years ago in which I attended a mental health nurse for. But I was discharged 3 years ago. However, after the accident my anxiety came back but more extreme. I have flashbacks and nightmares and require sleeping tablets several nights a week just to catch up on sleep. I can't travel on any country roads without having a complete melt down and I am avoiding social situations. I have now been attending CBT for 5 months now and my nurse says we are still a long way off.


Also, I have fertility problems and my gyno has told me I have to lose 3 stone before I can be eligible for IVF. However since the accident I have not been able to do any exercise because of the pain and as I also have pcos I have put on 2 stone in weight and I feel like my chances are diminishing.

I have a lawyer who is known as the best in my town, however I don't think he is taking my injuries mentally and physically that seriously. He did get an admission of liability off of the land owner which is actually an airport. They want an independent medical report so I am attending an appt next week

I would rather be better than have money but I really hope they will pay out enough for me to take a few months of off work to really sort myself out.

Does anyone have any clue how much I could be due? My lawyer said 'a few thousand' but doesn't commit to much. It's taking so long I just want a rough idea!

Thanks in advance!

OnanTheBarbarian

Without a medical report your lawyer can't advise on the value of your claim. Asking on here will get spectacularly incorrect replies.

Just be guided by the advice of your lawyer and if you are not happy with them find another.

Crazy_Jamie

Rhays79410 wrote: »

Does anyone have any clue how much I could be due? My lawyer said 'a few thousand' but doesn't commit to much. It's taking so long I just want a rough idea!

You're lawyer isn't committing to much because he can't without a medical report. The report will state what injuries you have, which are attributable to the accident, and how long they are likely to take to resolve. Without that information it is impossible to value your claim with any accuracy when you have ongoing injuries.

You state that your lawyer doesn't seem to be taking your injuries seriously, but he has already seemingly secured an admission of liability from the landowner, something which in these situations is far from a given, and has now arranged for you to see a medical expert. Those are perfectly proper steps to take, and on the face of it just under a year isn't necessarily an unreasonable length of time for those steps to be taken in. The admission of liability may have been tricky to obtain, and if you are still receiving treatment for your injuries your lawyer may have been rightly wary of getting a medical report too soon because the expert will likely need to see the progression of your treatment to form a definitive opinion on your injuries.

Ultimately these things take time, and the steps taken by your lawyer so far seem reasonable. If you don't think he's acted reasonably, take it up with him and/or find a different lawyer. The one thing that isn't going to help you is asking for a valuation for your injury on internet forums. No one can help you anyway without a medical report, but even with one the advice you'd get somewhere like this would consist largely of people telling what they/their relative/their friend got for their injury, which is extremely unhelpful at the best of times but would be of no use at all to you given your range of injuries, and if you're lucky one or two qualified lawyers who can have a crack at giving you a rough valuation, but without seeing the medical report won't be able to give as accurate a valuation as your own lawyer. So unfortunately, the help that you're going to get on here will be limited I'm afraid.