Bott and Co Solicitors successfully negotiated a £17,000 compensation settlement for cyclist Mr B, a warehouse operative who was injured after being knocked off his bicycle by a car whilst crossing through an intersection.
Mr B was cycling from his house one evening on his way to collect a takeaway. He was proceeding through a traffic light controlled junction when he was hit by a motorist who had failed to pay attention to the traffic signals.
Mr B was thrown into the air and onto the car bonnet before landing on the road. An ambulance was called to the scene and he was taken to hospital where he had to undergo surgery for a fractured left leg. He remained in hospital for two days before being discharged. However, unfortunately for Mr B, the knock-on effects of his accident would prove to be much longer lasting and far further reaching.
As a direct result of the accident, Mr B had to cancel an upcoming holiday that he had been looking forward to for some while. More crucially, the accident had an impact on Mr B’s ability to work: It was not until some three months after the incident that Mr B was declared fit to return to work and he was not discharged from the outpatient fracture clinic for eight months.
Although he tried to carry on with his life as though the accident had not happened, Mr B continued to suffer discomfort in his left leg. This was a particular problem in cold weather and he found himself having to take time off work due to the pain.
Two years after the accident, Mr B decided to seek advice from Bott and Co. We listened to all the details of his case and our cycle accident legal team set to work to secure the damages we believed he was entitled to.
Mr B had not retained any information regarding the identity of the defendant or the vehicle that hit him and was worried this might prevent him from pursuing a claim. Luckily this was not the case: Bott and Co liaised with the police to identify the defendant so that Mr B’s claim could be submitted to the defendant’s insurers.
It was important for our legal team to work quickly because cycling injury claims, like Mr B’s, are subject to a statutory limitation period of three years. This means that proceedings must be issued within three years or else they will expire. Given Mr B’s accident happened some two years previously, Bott and Co worked hard to gather all the necessary information to lodge the claim before the three years were up.
By this time, Mr B had become reluctant to go ahead with the claim: When the insurers didn’t admit liability straight away, he convinced himself that he might be held at fault. Similarly, he expressed concerns about attending medical appointments that Bott and Co had arranged for him. Whilst these are typical in personal injury claims, he thought that there was little point in attending medical examinations for injuries that he had sustained almost two and half years ago and that he had largely recovered from.
Our legal team worked hard to reassure Mr B of his prospects of a successful claim and that medical examinations were a routine part of the claims process. After we explained that it was realistically his last chance to claim before the three year limitation period expired on his claim, he was happy to continue his case. The medical evidence confirmed that there was a strong chance that Mr B could experience intermittent discomfort in his left leg indefinitely.
In the meantime, Bott and Co had obtained a copy of the accident police report and disclosed this to the defendant’s insurers. Upon seeing this they confirmed they would settle Mr B’s compensation claim for his injuries and associated losses, including the deposit for the holiday he had to cancel.
The defendant’s insurers put forward an initial offer of £7,000 to settle the claim for compensation and Mr B asked for Bott and Co’s advice on whether we thought this was reasonable. Our Road Traffic Accident solicitors have many years’ experience in handling claims involving cyclists and we advised our client to reject this initial offer, which he did.
We entered into negotiations with the defendant’s insurers but we were unable to reach a fair and reasonable settlement with them. As a result, we issued County Court proceedings. Shortly after doing so, the claim settled for the sum of £17,000 following further negotiations between Bott and Co and the defendant’s solicitors.