Road accidentsClient stories‘Carl’: A biker's life after a serious leg injuryOur client, Carl, was an electrician in his late thirties when he was involved in a road traffic accident whilst out riding his motorbike.
Carl was stationary, sitting on his motorbike at the back of a queue of traffic at some temporary traffic lights, when another motorcyclist failed to stop and drove into the back of Carl’s motorbike. The impact shunted Carl and his motorbike into the path of an oncoming vehicle.
The car hit Carl, and the emergency services airlifted him to hospital. He lost three litres of blood, underwent two operations and had a lengthy stay in hospital. He suffered several fractures to his left leg, nervous shock and scarring. He relied heavily upon his wife, who got in touch with Serious Law.
We immediately deployed our specialist legal team, with particular expertise in road traffic accidents involving motorbikes. Serious Law’s in-house investigations team reconstructed the accident in detail, and we appointed a case management consultant to assist with Carl’s rehabilitation following his initial needs assessment.
The Serious Law team obtained witness statements to substantiate his claim for ongoing loss of earnings as an electrician. This supported Serious Law in obtaining a number of substantial interim payments from the Defendant’s insurers to assist Carl financially, and to cover the costs of his ongoing rehabilitation. Carl used his first interim payment to buy a special exercise bike to help build up his leg muscles.
Other interim payments covered things such as gardening, window cleaning, gym membership and setting up a taxi account to ease Carl’s dependency on his wife, later followed by the purchase of an automatic car and an electric bike. During this period, the Serious Law team also obtained evidence from a range of experts including accident investigators, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon and a consultant neurologist.
The Defendant pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention and, after a series of long negotiations with the defendant’s insurers, who originally offered Carl £80,000, net of interim payments, Serious Law was able to secure damages of £500,000, on top of the interim payments that Carl had already received. To preserve entitlement to statutory benefits, we advised Carl to create a special needs trust. Carl and his wife were delighted with the settlement, which gave them peace of mind about their future.
Some details have been changed to preserve our client’s anonymity.
If you or someone you know would like to speak to our serious injury specialist about a pedestrian accident, please contact us today.
