'Jeremy' - Cyclist forced to take evasive action to avoid a collision

Case handler: Christopher Lecky (Solicitor)

In this case, our client was riding his bicycle when a car approaching in the opposite direction turned across his path. Although there appeared to be no contact with the car, our client had to take evasive action to avoid a collision which caused him to fall to the ground and sustain serious orthopaedic injuries.

Key elements of our client's case

Our client sustained the following injuries:

• Fractured collar bone;
• Fractured shoulder blade;
• Glenoid fracture (the ball joint that holds the upper arm and shoulder blade in place);
• Five broken ribs.

Unfortunately, around a week after being discharged from hospital following his accident, our client developed complications and required surgery to remove a blood clot from his chest and to have a part of his rib removed which was the cause of the issue. He later underwent surgery to secure the fracture to his collar bone.

Our client's difficult recovery continued when around 6 weeks post accident he was admitted to hospital again with a blood clot in his right arm which was treated with medication.

Where our specialist serious injury experience really added value to our client's situation

Although our client's case is ongoing, this is what we have achieved for him so far:

• Liability for the accident was resolved very quickly despite there appearing to have been no direct contact between the other party's car and our client;
• We secured funding for the services of a rehabilitation case manager of our choosing;
• We have obtained interim payments to reimburse our client for various expenses/damaged items in addition to purchasing therapy equipment;
• We assisted our client to transition away from his own private medical insurance to utilising the private funding offered via the Defendant Insurer;
• We ensured that the Defendant Insurer funded physiotherapy continued with the same therapist previously funded by our client's private medical insurer therefore ensuring continuity of treatment;
• We have arranged private psychology input and funding for treatment sessions;
• We acted both on behalf of our client's cycle insurer and his private medical insurer to recover their respective outlays and hence protected his position in relation to future premiums.

Reaching settlement

Whilst we are awaiting a medical report upon our client's injuries from an eminent shoulder specialist (a Past President of the British Elbow & Shoulder Society), we are confident that settlement of his claim will be achievable within the next six months which is an extremely good outcome bearing in mind the severity of his injuries.

This case demonstrates how important it is to instruct a serious injury specialist like, Serious Law LLP, to represent you should you be unfortunate to be involved in an accident and sustain injuries. We are a tier one Legal 500 rated law firm who have been representing the interests of injured cyclists for over 30 years.