Driver tries to blame injured pedestrian for road accident

“I was dubious and very sceptical about making a personal injury claim to be honest, I was always receiving cold calls about being in an accident even before I was so in one so I wasn’t entirely convinced about the whole thing.

Graham Urquhart, a 55-year-old man from Edinburgh, was struck by a private taxi in the afternoon on Hogmanay as he was crossing the road at the east junction of Hillside Crescent and London Road. He was taken to hospital and released later than evening but he suffered a fractured elbow. 

“There was nothing I could do to prevent it, I had looked before crossing the road but nothing was coming.

"It was my right elbow which was fractured and as I’m right handed, it meant I couldn’t use it for about four months. I had to rely on everyone else to help me. It was horrendous”

Mr Urquhart decided to get in touch with Digby Brown after a colleague at work recommended the firm. We agreed to take on his case and Catriona Headley, Associate Solicitor in our Edinburgh office, acted on his behalf.

“From the very initial meeting, I was really impressed. Catriona came across completely professionally and she took care of everything - I didn’t need to do a thing. The service was 100% perfection.”

When Catriona Headley intimated the injury claim against the driver he threatened a 'counter claim' against Mr Urquhart. He said that his insurers’ solicitors had been instructed that he would not accept any fault. 

We raised court proceedings but the insurers solicitors denied liability throughout. From the police records, we could see the driver had told the police at the scene that Mr Urquhart had stepped off the opposite pavement than in fact he had. He gave a very detailed account to the police which turned out was a total fabrication.

His solicitors in the court documents admitted that our client Mr Urquhart was walking in the direction he said he was, contradicting the statement the driver had given to the police at the time. We had made it clear to the defender solicitors that we would be raising this in court.

A month before the case was due to be heard in court, they made an offer. After negotiations, the injury claim settled for the full value at £8,500.

“I didn’t know how it all worked but Digby Brown knew what they were doing. I trusted the advice from Catriona and when an offer came in for £6,500 I was advised this was too low. I was happy to accept the advice and within an hour, the other side had upped their offer to £8,500.

“I can’t stress enough the help I got. I would have no hesitation to tell anyone who was caught up in something similar to give Digby Brown a call.”