How to claim compensation?

Ebe_Scrooge

I realise this is going to be an emotive question, and believe me I'm one of those who gets absolutely incensed when I hear about ridiculous and spurious "compo" claims.  However, I want to know how to go about making a genuine claim.

Brief background.  My daughter-in-law was walking home from work at night, crossed the road on a zebra crossing, a taxi hit her whilst she was on the crossing.  Thankfully she was not injured any where near as badly as it could have been, but her femur was badly broken.  She's still in hospital 10 days after the event, and will be off work for many weeks (she works in a hotel).  Taxi driver wasn't drunk or speeding or anything, it's just one of those things.  Police attended, it's all on the town's CCTV cameras.

Can she legitimately claim off the taxi's insurance for loss of earnings - if so, how?  She's not after millions for "emotional distress" or any nonsense like that, just genuine loss of earnings if possible - she and my son both work hard but don't earn much above minimum wage, so the loss of one income is pretty significant.

I know there are a thousand-and-one "ambulance-chasing" firms out there, but I've never been in this situation before so have no idea what the "legitimate" approach is.

[Deleted User]

 She sees a solicitor who will make a claim against the drivers insurance 

Sandtree

Any ambulance chaser is going to add Pain, Suffering and Loss of Amenity for the broken leg as that gets their fee, you won't get millions for a broken femur but it will be a reasonable sum given the complications.

Many solicitors will want to do the full claim and on a no win, no fee basis which obviously protects her if something goes wrong with the claim but means they are entitled to take a percentage of the compensation. The percentages vary but most are close to the maximum allowable. If she has Legal Expenses on her home insurance then they may be able to instruct someone to act on her behalf which will enable her to keep her full compensation. Similar may be true is she has any other form of LE cover from unions, bank accounts etc.

If she truly only wants to claim for loss of earnings its not a hard thing to do yourself. If you know the taxi driver's insurance details you can approach them directly, if you don't you can get them for a small fee from AskMID.  You would ultimately need to send a letter as a claim enclosing her payslips covering the period prior to the accident (normally 3 months) to establish her normal net pay and then her payslips for the period she was off work. The difference between the two (after tax) will be the amount you put in the letter as claiming. If her recent pay has been impacted by Covid you may want to give a longer set of payslips and potentially have to argue why it wasnt still impacting her.

Most insurers will jump at the chance to directly deal with the claimant, and will probably also suggest she claims for PSLA for her leg.

531063

Try contacting taxi drivers ins & see if they will give payment saves them your fee's if you engage a solicitor, it worked for me & you don't have to accept the offer they make if you don't like it.

AdrianC

Ebe_Scrooge said:

Brief background.  My daughter-in-law was walking home from work at night, crossed the road on a zebra crossing, a taxi hit her whilst she was on the crossing.
...
Taxi driver wasn't drunk or speeding or anything, it's just one of those things.  Police attended, it's all on the town's CCTV cameras.

Has the taxi driver actually been held to be liable by the police?
Or is there a possibility the insurer could say she stepped out and gave him no chance of stopping?

If the police determined that he was clearly to blame - in writing - then I'd have expected it to be a slam-dunk for a careless driving charge - even if just a fixed penalty. That would make it far easier to claim, because it resolves the liability, and means the claim is solely for damages.

If there's no indication of liability, then any claim needs to resolve liability. And that could end up with a court deciding that not only was she not due damages, but even her being handed a legal bill.

Sandtree

AdrianC said:

Ebe_Scrooge said:

Brief background.  My daughter-in-law was walking home from work at night, crossed the road on a zebra crossing, a taxi hit her whilst she was on the crossing.
...
Taxi driver wasn't drunk or speeding or anything, it's just one of those things.  Police attended, it's all on the town's CCTV cameras.

Has the taxi driver actually been held to be liable by the police?
Or is there a possibility the insurer could say she stepped out and gave him no chance of stopping?

If the police determined that he was clearly to blame - in writing - then I'd have expected it to be a slam-dunk for a careless driving charge - even if just a fixed penalty. That would make it far easier to claim, because it resolves the liability, and means the claim is solely for damages.

If there's no indication of liability, then any claim needs to resolve liability. And that could end up with a court deciding that not only was she not due damages, but even her being handed a legal bill.

Careless Driving is a criminal offence and doesnt automatically resolve the civil matter of liability. I've successfully won compensation in cases of our insured being found guilty of driving offences.

The fact that the OP states that she was at a zebra crossing means they would need exceptional dashcam footage etc to even try to argue contributory negligence - the fact she was walking home from work, I assume there is no question that she was drunk at the time.

Ebe_Scrooge

Thanks for all your replies, very useful.  Sill waiting to hear from the police, in reply to AdrianC's comments.  But thanks for all the information, I'll pass this on to my son and daughter-in-law and see if they want to try making a claim.  As I said, really I just wanted to know what the procedure was, having never come across this situation before :-)  Much appreciated.

Bluebell1000

I'm going through a similar process now, having been hit by a car last summer. My husband spoke to a few local firms and went with the no win no fee solicitor who he preferred (I was still in hospital at the time and didn't feel like sorting that out). The claim has been delayed by Covid because I need to go for a specialists assessment, and they can't arrange one yet. If she might go down that route it is really important now to keep receipts and mileage for everything e.g. mileage and parking receipts for hospital visits by your son while she is in hospital, increased childcare costs, even over the counter paracetamol when she is home, visits to the physiotherapist later, and so on. You should be able to claim all that back plus an additional sum as compensation for the injury itself if you do go down the route of a formal claim. From my experience though it is not a quick process - we were told it might be 2 years to get anything back when I started the claim, and with the delays it might even be longer. 

MEM62

Ebe_Scrooge said:

Taxi driver wasn't drunk or speeding or anything, it's just one of those things.  

This suggests that you do not hold the taxi driver responsible.  In that case your daughter-in-law will have no claim against either the driver or his insurers.  If my assumption is incorrect and your daughter-in-law does consider him responsible then her best course of action would be to engage legal counsel (as in a proper lawyer not one of the no-win-no-fee bottom feeders of the legal world) and pursue a PI claim.     

leonj

The taxi driver is 100% responsible if she was hit on a zebra crossing, doesn't even matter if she stepped out at the last second, the driver should expect it at a zebra crossing and slow right down, it's essentially part of the footpath

Sandtree

MEM62 said:

Ebe_Scrooge said:

Taxi driver wasn't drunk or speeding or anything, it's just one of those things.  

This suggests that you do not hold the taxi driver responsible.  In that case your daughter-in-law will have no claim against either the driver or his insurers.  If my assumption is incorrect and your daughter-in-law does consider him responsible then her best course of action would be to engage legal counsel (as in a proper lawyer not one of the no-win-no-fee bottom feeders of the legal world) and pursue a PI claim.     

Or to look at it another way, there were no aggravating factors but ultimately a car should give way for a pedestrian on a zebra crossing even if they are neither drunk or speeding.

If the OP is on NMW and only pursuing loss of earnings then its very possible a "proper lawyer" would eat up all of the compensation and more. Plus no win no fee is not the sign of a bottom feeder, just a company that buys ATE cover etc and is the bases of 95%+ of all PI claims outside of LE cover (and basis of a good proportion inside LE cover too)