Road traffic accidents often raise myriad factual and legal issues that can never be resolved with absolute certainty. As a High Court case showed, however, personal injury lawyers are adept at negotiating settlements that ensure victims are appropriately compensated without having to fight their cases in court.
The case concerned a teenager who was a passenger in a family car driven by his father when a lorry collided with it at speed. The heavy vehicle ploughed on into a building, which was largely demolished by the impact. The boy sustained life-changing head and other injuries and the lorry driver died.
There was evidence that the lorry was being driven erratically at a speed of at least 50mph in a 30mph speed limit zone. Subsequent tests indicated that its driver had metabolites of cannabis and cocaine in his bloodstream at the time. After a personal injury claim was lodged on the boy’s behalf, however, the lorry driver’s employer denied that it was liable to pay compensation.
The employer asserted that the driver had suffered a medical emergency prior to the collision. It presented expert evidence that a cardiac arrest may have rendered him unconscious. It further alleged that negligence on the part of the boy’s father had contributed to the accident. The boy’s legal team nevertheless considered that he had a strong case and negotiated a compromise whereby the employer’s insurers agreed to pay 90 per cent of the full value of his claim.
Approving that sensible settlement of liability issues, the Court noted that the case was not free from litigation risks. There was a danger, however small, that the boy would receive nothing if his case were decided by a judge. The compromise did away with the need for a complex and stressful trial and provided reassurance to the boy and his devoted parents that he would be appropriately compensated in due course.
The settlement had further enabled the boy to receive £220,000 in interim payments of compensation to meet his immediate needs. He almost died in the collision, but the Court was pleased to hear that, following long and intensive rehabilitation, he was making good progress and was doing relatively well at school.