Right advice gets 13 times more compensation

A taxi driver was sitting at temporary traffic lights when he was hit by a distracted driver on their mobile phone.

“I could see her in my rear view mirror talking on her mobile. I think she must have been going about 35mph and I knew she was going to hit me, but there was nothing I could do to stop it.”

After visiting the hospital, medical staff said he had whiplash injuries from the crash. Although these are thought of as minor injuries, they can have far-reaching consequences and are often underestimated.

For our client, it meant he couldn’t drive. Being a self-employed taxi driver, this was a big problem made worse by the fact the accident happened a few weeks before Christmas - one of the busiest seasons for the taxi trade. This meant that he was losing a substantial amount of money every hour that he was not able to work.

Chris Ritchie, senior solicitor in our Dundee office, took on the personal injury case against the other driver. The other driver admitted fault for the accident and her car insurer’s made an offer of £2,000 to settle the case before any medical evidence had even been collected.

Without proper medical evidence, it is impossible to really know if this was a fair offer or not, and we advised our client to turn down the offer until more evidence had been collected as we were confident he was owed more compensation.

“It was ultimately my decision at the end of the day whether or not to accept the offer on the table, but I trusted the advice I was given by Digby Brown. I knew they had my best interests at heart.”

We then went on to get two medical reports and a forensic accountant's report to calculate how much our client had lost because of the accident. 

“The attention to detail was unbelievable, nothing got past him – he went out of his way and way over the hill, plus a further ten miles for me.

“It was the best service from the very first minute right to the end – I wouldn’t have gotten that anywhere else. There was a real personal touch.”

Further negotiations led to further offers being put forward in the sum of £7,500, £8,120 and £12,500. However, the other driver’s insurers were refusing to consider any claim for his loss of earnings, which was significant considering his injuries.

The medical report showed that our client would not recover fully. He will always be restricted in his ability to drive and will never be able to do the same level of work as he did before the accident, impacting his earnings.

They said that the forensic accountant's report which we had prepared was unnecessary, and described our client's claim for lost earnings as 'ludicrous'.

We raised the case in court and ultimately settled his case for £26,261. This is over 13 times the first initial offer they made, which is why it is essential that you don’t accept an offer before properly investigating a case and getting medical evidence.

“The settlement was mind blowing. I was given the best advice at all times and it resulted in me getting 13 times more than the first offer.

“They were the very best people to deal with it all - God help any other solicitor up against them.”