Stage coach refuse to accept fault for accident claim

James Cooper was travelling along the M74 when a Stage Coach bus failed to observe the contra flow in place due to road works and collided with his car, causing injury.

“The accident basically tore ligaments in my right shoulder. Because of the initial pain and restriction on what I could do physically, it meant I couldn’t be as active with my son as I wanted to be and I only have him every second week so that impacted on me a lot.”

Local accident solicitors compromised

Mr Cooper decided to pursue a claim after his injuries impacted on his time with his son. He initially contacted a local firm of solicitors about his road accident claim.

“The solicitor I went to wasn’t very helpful at all. After I first approached them, they came back a couple of weeks later and said they couldn’t take the case as they were also a solicitor for Stage Coach. They referred me to their sister company.”

The sister company had the case for almost a further 2 months but after they reviewed the CCTV footage of the accident, they determined that the bus wasn’t at fault, and Mr Cooper was, and closed the case.

“After that, I decided to go to Digby Brown for legal advice. I felt they were not fully considering my case as they should have been.”

Independent legal advice for accident claim

At Digby Brown, we do not act for companies to defend them against an accident claim. This means we are completely impartial and independent, and will represent our clients in the best way we can.

After Mr Cooper contacted our legal team at Digby Brown, we arranged a meeting with one of our accident claim solicitors, Elaine Smith, in our Glasgow office.

After reviewing the CCTV footage of the accident, we determined that the previous solicitors had not assessed liability properly despite having viewed the CCTV footage and raised proceedings against Stage Coach.

“I thought Elaine acted very professionally in the way she dealt with my claim, she reviewed the footage over and over again and kept me up to date with any changes going on with my case.”

Better outcome for accident claim with the right solicitors

Solicitors representing Stage Coach denied liability for the accident. They eventually conceded that they were at risk but insisted on contributory negligence stating Mr Cooper also contributed to causing the car accident.

The made an initial offer of £2,550 on the basis that Mr Cooper accepted 25% of the blame for the accident.

“My lawyer Elaine advised me that she didn’t feel the initial offer was right and she didn’t believe I should accept any blame for the accident. I followed her advice and rejected the offer.”

Eventually, they accepted full responsibility for causing the road accident and came back with a higher offer of £4,000. However, from our wealth of experience in personal injury compensation, our solicitors knew this compensation offer was still less than what Mr Cooper was entitled to and Mr Cooper decided to reject the second offer.

Solicitors at Stage Coach came back the very next day with a higher offer of £4,750 which Mr Cooper happily accepted.

“I would rate Digby Brown 10/10 for service. I was given great advice about the offers coming in from the insurers to make sure I got what I was entitled to.

“I would just say to anyone who was injured – or if I was in that position again – it would be best to go straight to Digby Brown and not look at any other options. It took longer for my claim to be settled because I went to another solicitor first.”