The claimant’s details have been changed but this is indeed a true case
Jason Claridge, Director and personal injury solicitor at Ward and Rider Solicitors acted as the solicitor for Mr A’s Estate. The background to this accident was utterly tragic. Mr A had met up with some individuals he knew. Some of them were his friends others were individuals he knew very loosely. They had decided to go for a leisurely motorcycle ride. Mr A was a keen motorcyclist and had his own motorcycle but on this occasion he decided to ride as a pillion passenger for another individual who he did not know too well. However he had no reason to doubt the competency of this individual’s ability to ride his motorcycle.
The exact details of the accident were always unclear. Different individuals who saw the accident had different versions of what occurred. However what clearly did happen was that Mr A’s life was cruelly cut short as a consequence of the motorcycle leaving the road it was travelling along and going into a ditch. Both Mr A and the individual he was with were killed as a consequence of this accident.
Mr A was married. He had a son. He was a man who assisted with domestic activities. He was good at DIY and gardening. He also had a keen interest in vehicle maintenance. He helped out his family members particularly those who are younger and older than him with such tasks.
He would take his wife to and from work at the weekends. He would do some cooking for her when she was out at work at weekends. He earned a good salary as a consequence of his own job.
We advanced the claim for bereavement damages. We claimed for funeral expenses. We claimed for his past and future loss of earnings. We claimed for his pension loss. We claimed for his past and future care and assistance which would be provided to his wife, his son, his daughter in law and his family generally.
Because of the accident circumstances we obtained witness statements from all of those who had seen it and the police accident report. We obtained the medical records. There were a series of offers and counter offers. The defendant’s solicitors tried to argue that he had reduced life expectancy whereas we produced evidence which showed that there was nothing to support that objectively. After some negotiation whereby there were arguments over the value of the claim we eventually compromised on a figure of £400,000 in relation to his injuries and the losses to his family which were suffered as a result of this accident.
We acted for the claimant under a conditional fee agreement, commonly known as a no win no fee agreement in relation to the fatal accident claim. We have experience in all types of personal injury claims including fatal accident claims, people who are injured at work, people who are injured as a result of road traffic accidents, people who are injured as a result of tripping and slipping claims. We also act for those who are the victims of clinical/medical negligence actions.
