RTA Settlement Negotiations Worth The Wait!
The Claimant (C) was driving down a road on a damp, dark evening in November. The opposite side of the road was clear so he overtook a slow moving lorry. There was a wall that ran along the edge of the road on the left hand side as the boundary of an estate.
C reached a bend in the road to the left. As he came to the bend he noticed headlights from another vehicle on his side of the road. The Defendant (D) had misjudged the bend, lost control of his vehicle, and hit the wall to the estate.
C attempted to brake to avoid any collision but could not avoid hitting D on the rear near side quarter as D’s vehicle had come to a halt blocking the road ahead.
C sustained soft tissue injuries to his neck and chest. The neck injury was a whiplash type injury and the chest injury was due to the seatbelt restraint. On review of a medical expert who was instructed by us, it was reported that the injuries to C would last up to 23 months from the date of the accident.
He needed rehabilitation in the form of physiotherapy to help ease his symptoms and help him towards recovery.
C also had further losses in the form of medication expenses, his vehicle policy excess, damaged personal items including spectacles, and a 3-4 week loss of earnings claim on top of his treatment costs. All of which were deemed to be recoverable with the relevant documentation supplied by C in the form of invoices and letters confirming the losses.
After all evidence was sent to the insurer for D they came back to us with an offer of £3,000.00 on a global basis to settle the whole claim. This was much lower then what was deemed to be reasonable for the injury alone without the further losses taken into account.
A counter offer was sent to D’s insurers.
After another counter offer from either side and negotiations on the telephone, a global settlement for the whole claim was agreed at £10,600.00 for C who was more then happy with the settlement he received.
Due to the gathering of documents and evidence as well as the negotiations of both parties the claim settled in just a little over one year from the date of the accident.
RTA