Rona was driving her son to hospital along a motorway. Another motorist who had fallen asleep at the wheel, caused a high-speed collision resulting in Rona being severely injured.
Her injuries
Rona suffered the following injuries;
- A fractured skull
- A degree of cognitive impairment
- Post traumatic epilepsy
- Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)
- Hand fracture
- Broken ribs
- Punctured lung
- Haematoma to her elbow
- Blood on her liver,
- Nerve damage, and
- A depressive disorder with Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Liability
After some time and extensive enquiries, the insurers of the other motorist accepted liability.
Working out the value of our client’s claim
This was very difficult. We had to instruct a large number of medical and other experts to prepare reports including an orthopaedic surgeon, psychiatrist, psychologist, neuropsychologist, haematologist, rheumatologist and neurologist. We also had to instruct a vocational consultant and care need expert.
How we helped our client
As Rona had suffered multiple injuries and needed significant care, we arranged with the insurers of the other motorist to fund a care package including the involvement of a care manager, psychologist and carers. After lengthy negotiations the best pre-court offer the insurers made was £227,000. This was rejected as being substantially too low. We raised a court action for Rona. Along the way we obtained a number of interim or down payments for Rona to help her financially. We then settled the court action at £450,000.
