Liddy’s Solicitors Secures £100,000 Settlement For Injured Cyclist

Published: 19th May 2015

A Wakefield resident secured a £100,000 settlement when he was injured after being knocked off his bicycle.

The cyclist had been on his way to work when a driver, who was parked on a double yellow line, had suddenly thrown open his car door, knocking him off his bicycle. He had serious injuries and was admitted to hospital for five days with a fractured right shoulder, four fractured ribs and blood in his lungs.

After the accident, he made a slow recovery and developed a condition called ‘complex regional pain syndrome’ in his arm, meaning that he was unable to return to his job as a factory worker. As a result of this, he lost his job and found himself unemployed and unemployable at the age of 63.

He approached Liddy’s Solicitors to act for him in a claim against the car driver’s insurance company. Liddy’s obtained medical reports from an A&E Consultant Surgeon, a shoulder surgeon, a chest physician and a clinical psychologist, who all agreed that the Claimant would not be able to work again.

The driver’s insurers disagreed and Liddy’s started the claim at Court. The driver’s insurers used their own medical experts, who claimed that the Claimant should have been able to return to work within 6 months of the accident.

Liddy’s Solicitors arranged a meeting with the other side’s legal representatives and conducted face-to-face negotiations, resulting in a settlement of £100,000 for the Claimant.

Arsalan Abbasi at Liddy’s Solicitors said: “This case involved complex medical evidence where the Claimant’s doctors were saying one thing and the Defendants’ doctors were saying something completely different.

“The Defendants had argued that the Claimant’s case was worth £25,000 at best, but by carefully obtaining the right medical evidence and by negotiating aggressively with the other side we have been able to secure a settlement that is four times more than the insurance company said it was worth.”

Liddy’s Solicitors deal with high-value and low-value claims and all of our solicitors have at least eight years’ experience in these sort of cases. Sometimes the case can look like a low-value claim. With the wrong solicitors, this case could easily have been settled for £10,000 or £15,000. It is important to take some time to choose the right solicitors.