Client injured in road traffic accident after driving into gully clearing vehicle
Published: 05:49PM BST 22 Mar 2010
Our client was injured injury following a road traffic accident in the early hours as he was driving to work. As he left a roundabout he drove into the rear of the defendant's stationary gully clearing vehicle.
Liability for the accident was denied. We therefore proceeded with the case on a split liability basis.
The defendant alleged that our client was speeding and that the accident was his own fault as he failed to see the gully clearing vehicle, which was brightly coloured and displaying a large blue keep right sign.
We argued that the defendant was negligent, as they had failed to provide adequate advance warning of the presence of their vehicle on the road in accordance with guidance laid down in the Traffic Signs Manual.
We therefore obtained a statement from the police officer who attended the accident scene immediately following the collision. He confirmed that our client was not speeding at the time of the collision, and that the defendant had not provided any advance warning of their presence.
We put forward an offer on liability to deal with the case on a 50/50 basis. The defendant accepted our proposals within days of the court hearing.
Once judgment was obtained, we then commissioned reports from a consultant orthopaedic surgeon and a consultant neurologist, before putting forward an offer of settlement.
The offer was initially rejected, but later accepted by the defendants within days of the assessment of damages hearing. The defendants paid our client additional interest and costs in light of their late acceptance of his offer.
Background
We were appointed by our client to recover damages. Funding was by via a conditional fee agreement – no-win-no-fee
Case handler
Sarah Cunliffe, a solicitor in our Northampton personal injury department.
who can deal with
all personal
injury claims"
Richard Brett,
Team Leader
