£125,000 obtained by Ashtons Legal where a claims company had valued the claim at £1,800

Posted 08/04/2014

A personal injury specialist at Ashtons Legal, has recently settled a case which demonstrates the value of getting a second opinion if you feel your injury claim is being undervalued, or of consulting a specialist firm in the first place.

Our client, Ms T, was a rear seat passenger in a car which was involved in a road traffic collision. She hit her head on the side window and incurred several injuries including a minor whiplash injury and cuts to her face which left her with scarring. What her first advisers’ medical experts failed to identify was that she had also suffered a subtle brain injury.  While this hasn’t resulted in any serious cognitive impairment, it has changed her life. The main effect of the brain injury is that Ms T becomes tired very quickly and she has had to change from a full-time job to a part-time job as a result.  This has clearly had an impact on her earning potential and justified additional compensation.

Ashtons comment: “Ms T’s claim has followed closely on the heels of another one which we concluded recently which followed a similar pattern. In that instance we achieved a settlement of £175,000 for our client after she had been told that her claim was only worth £1,500. What is worrying here is that there appears to be a trend for claims companies only to focus on the immediately obvious physical injuries and to overlook the potentially more damaging neurological injuries which can have lifelong consequences. Both our personal injury and medical injury teams have a strong track record in providing second opinions, and obtaining appropriate settlements, for clients whose claims have been undervalued elsewhere.”