Ashtons Legal obtains £920,000 injury settlement for electrician

Tom Ranson, a personal injury specialist at Ashtons Legal, represented Mr M, in a claim arising out of a motorcycle incident in 2010. Mr M, who was in his 20s, suffered multiple physical injuries and a subtle brain injury.

The insurers of the person to blame for the injury did not accept that Mr M had suffered any significant lasting neurological injury, nor did they accept that his physical injuries would prevent him from returning to work as an electrician, or in a similarly paid capacity.

Unfortunately, having made an initial settlement offer of £300,000, the insurers refused to make timely or reasonable interim payments and withdrew funding for Mr M’s rehabilitation. Mr M was compelled to issue High Court proceedings in order to force them to continue paying for his treatment.

After proceedings had been issued and further funding secured for Mr M’s rehabilitation, the insurers then increased their offer to £350,000.

Mr M refused to allow himself to be intimidated by the defendant’s ‘strong-arm’ tactics, which included aggressive surveillance and examination by their medical experts. Despite the pressure and the complexity of the case, Mr M was resolved to follow our advice and prepared to pursue matters all the way to trial, if necessary, to ensure the right result was obtained for him.

Fortunately, the Defendant insurer finally saw sense and, through negotiation, we were able to secure a settlement over three times the amount originally offered to Mr M.

Tom Ranson comments: “Unfortunately, Mr M’s case is by no means an isolated example. With the cost of litigation very much at the forefront of all our minds, it is baffling that defendant insurers routinely fail to grasp the realistic value of the claims before them. Instead they choose to make derisory offers, fail to make interim payments when they should and ‘muddy the water’ with spurious allegations and place reliance upon unreasonable reports from their experts, all of which significantly increases the cost of litigation through no fault of the injured party. It is vital that people with a valid claim, and their legal representatives, are robust and give short shrift to such tactics to avoid being fobbed off with less than they should receive.“