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Self-Employed Compensation Claims

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David, a married man with one daughter had his own company installing and servicing air conditioning units. He worked in this field since leaving school about 15 years beforehand. However, in 2005 he decided to set up his own company and some of his existing clients came with him.

Much of his work was in central London and he had purchased a motorcycle in order to get around London to undertake his work.

In early 2006, he was injured whilst on his motorbike. A vehicle did not see him whilst going around a roundabout and pulled out in front of him. Liability was promptly admitted for his injuries.

He suffered multiple injuries, including a fractured femur and a shattered kneecap. He was admitted to hospital immediately for surgery on his knee and was an inpatient for two weeks.

Due to his injuries, he was unable to work for a period of 4 months. He was very concerned that his burgeoning business would collapse and he acted quickly to try to stop that happening. He arranged for his existing clients to be contracted out to sub-contractors who he knew so that he would not lose them as clients. In the meantime, he was able to continue his recovery in the knowledge that his business had not collapsed because of this.

Over the course of the next year or so his recovery improved and the year following the accident, he was back working full-time although he still needed some assistance in crouching down and kneeling in tricky positions. He was unable to continue riding his bike as well.

Claims involving self-employed Claimants, especially when the business is fairly new are difficult as it is often difficult to get good evidence of profit loss. In this case however, calculations was relatively simple as David simply claimed the amount that he had spent on sub-contracting and was able to show that that he had mitigated his losses by doing this and it was in the best interests of his business. The claim settled less than 2 years after the accident, for £100,000.