As you may have gathered, he was a blunt-talking chap. However, to be fair, he was right to dish out the ‘tough love’ speech, and I have cracked on with life. With good prosthetics (God love the NHS!) I’ve climbed mountains, run marathons and have worked as a chef for the past 10 years (I am now 31 years old).
All was pretty good until November last year when I got knocked off my scooter by some idiot driving a bin lorry who suddenly reversed out of a side road directly in front of me. So out of my whole body, which bit did I not want to break. Yes, you guessed it, my one good leg. In fact, he did a number on me as I broke my tibia and fibula into the ankle.
Liability wasn’t an issue. However, I now have a dilemma. The Defendants have offered £35,000. My solicitor has said that’s a lot for a broken leg. However, I’m still not back at work and may need another operation.
What do I do? Should I take the money and run (no pun intended).
Answer
My advice is do not settle your case at this stage. You only get one chance to get this right. Once you settle your case you cannot come back for further compensation at a later date, i.e. for future treatment costs or loss of earning, etc.
Whilst it could be argued £35,000 is ‘a lot for a broken leg’, your claim is potentially far more reaching and may affect the rest of your life.
The fact is you only have one leg. So, to state the obvious, breaking your one whole leg is likely to affect your life to a greater extent than someone who has both. Therefore, the compensation for your ‘pain, suffering and loss of amenity’ will likely be higher than a two-legged contemporary.
In addition, you have about another 40 of years of working life left and you are a man that needs to stand for hours working as a chef. If your one whole leg does not heal up, I see a change of career and the costs of retraining; plus, investigation as to how it affects your income.
In summary, you are only about seven months post-accident, you have one whole leg that has taken a battering and may need another operation. If you were my Client, I would be telling you to hold off settling your claim until your medical position was clear.
Andrew Prendergast
More Bikes August 2021
Sound advice