FJ and WT Road Traffic Accident

RP Crawford & Co. Solicitor, Ciaran Steele, recently acted on behalf of a Personal Injury client.

Our client’s vehicle was struck by an at fault driver who accepted liability at the scene and confirmed that they did not take adequate care and attention when merging onto a road. Initially the main concern was having our client’s vehicle repaired so we arranged for an assessor to assess the vehicle damage, the cost of repairing the damage was more than the costs of the vehicle so we were able to negotiate a settlement for the pre accident value of the vehicle which was paid to our client to allow him to purchase a new vehicle.

We also acted for the client in respect of their personal injury claim. The client sustained whiplash type injuries and some psychological upset. Road traffic collisions are often traumatic and can cause sleep disturbance, anxiety whilst driving and often hyper vigilance whilst driving. The psychological injury associated with road traffic accidents can often be overlooked by solicitors as clients generally complain of the physical injury when attending at their GP or at Hospital. In cases such as this one it is vital that any psychological injury is properly recorded and reported on by a suitably qualified consultant psychologist.

With our medical evidence completed we entered into negotiations and were able to settle this case for £17,000. Whiplash type injuries vary greatly in terms of duration of suffering and severity. Having scheduled our client’s physiotherapy treatment we were able to obtain treatment reports to the consultant (over and above hospital and GP Notes) which ensures that when it was eventually time to refer the client for an examination the consultant surgeon was appropriately informed as to the clinical background.