November 5, 2019

Over £375,000 secured in out of court settlement for motorcyclist who suffered significant injuries after road traffic accident

Our client, who at the time was 17, was travelling on his 125cc motorbike when a car pulled out of a junction in front of him. He swerved to avoid the vehicle, but was unable to do so and found his left foot crushed between the corner of the car’s bumper and his bike.

After being airlifted to hospital in Bath, he was found to have sustained a de-gloving fracture in the centre of his foot. This required internal stabilisation and skin grafts. There were also several other fractures on the outside of his foot, accompanied by subtular dislocation (between the foot and the ankle) and tarso-metatarsal joint damage. Additionally, he had suffered multiple abrasions to both feet and his right knee.

How the accident has changed things for our client

As a result of these injuries, our client continues to suffer from activity-related pain. This limits the weight-bearing exercise he undertakes and makes putting jeans and trousers on awkward and uncomfortable. Our client can no longer be as involved with hobbies due to his injury either, having been a keen cyclist and skateboarder prior to the accident.

Our client also suffers from significant scarring to his foot and his thigh, which was the donor site for the skin graft he required.

Medical experts instructed by both ourselves and the defendant agreed that there was a high likelihood our client would suffer from a deterioration in his symptoms due to progressive symptomatic osteoarthritis. This would be likely to happen around the age of 31, meaning he would need a mid-foot fusion.

It was agreed that our client will need orthotics for the rest of his life, and would also benefit from an automatic car. Experts also concluded that he would have reduced capacity for manual labour, meaning he would need to undertake a supervisory or sedentary role instead.

This prognosis, as well as his ongoing symptoms, means it was agreed that our client would be disadvantaged in the open labour market if he lost his job and that he would qualify as disabled under the Equality Act.

Settling the case

Although primary liability was admitted, contributory negligence was also alleged by the defendant. During the course of the case, our team managed to secure an interim payment for our client to cover his financial losses.

At a joint settlement meeting the case was settled for £375,000. This took into account his pain, suffering and loss of amenity as well as past and future losses.

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