Boyes Turner’s head injury lawyers have secured compensation settlements for a man who suffered a serious head injury in a road traffic accident (RTA) in France. Under French law, his wife and children were also entitled to be compensated as a result of the impact on the family, even though they were not involved in the accident.
Our client was standing on the hard shoulder awaiting roadside assistance for his van which had been damaged in the icy road conditions, when he was hit by the defendant driver’s lorry. He suffered facial and head injuries, including a fractured skull and subdural haematoma (bleeding between the skull and the surface of the brain).
The defendant admitted liability for the accident. However, the defendant’s insurers repeatedly failed to cooperate with our attempts to arrange joint medical examinations of our client, despite being required to do so by French law which governed the claim. The defendant’s insurers remained uncooperative, but changes in the law allowed us to have our client’s injuries and his resulting needs assessed by English experts.
We issued court proceedings and when the defendant’s insurers then sought extra time to obtain their own medical reports, we successfully opposed the defendant’s attempt to delay matters further. When their medical reports were disclosed, they agreed with our own. We secured interim payments of £100,000 to pay for a support worker, case management and rehabilitation.
The defendant’s insurers remained obstructive and unwilling to take part in settlement negotiations at a scheduled joint settlement meeting but settlements of £1 million for our client, £145,000 for his wife, and additional settlements for the children, were agreed in the lead up to trial.
The defendant’s insurers had repeatedly failed to comply with deadlines for payments, throughout the proceedings. When the final settlement payments were delayed, we applied to the court and obtained an order enforcing payment of the agreed outstanding settlements, with additional interest for all sums that had been paid late. Our clients then received payment, plus interest, in full.
If you or a family member have been seriously injured in an accident and would like to find out more about making a claim, contact us by email at [email protected].
