How much should I accept

[philinmerthyr]

At the end of March I got knocked off my bike. The car driver admitted liability. I fractured my pelvis and badly bruised my back and ribs. 5 months on I still get lower back pain. The fractured pelvis is healed but the physio says it will be a year before the pain stops.

I'm back on the bike but am riding much shorter distances.

The driver's insurance company made an interim payment to cover the repairs to my bike and replace the kit that got cut off me in the ambulance. On Friday I saw a consultant (for less than 5 minutes) to assess the injuries for a personal injury claim.

The next stage will be an offer for the injuries but how do I know what to accept? The amount my solicitor has quoted is lower than done I see online. The online info is inflated I suspect to get people to make claims but I also think my solicitor it pitching low.

Is there somewhere online where I can see actual payments made or case studies that will help me judge for myself? I only want what's due to me but I don't was to be fobbed off either.

 

[Drago]

Significant injuries with potentially life changing effects. I'd expect a significant sum in your shoes.

 

[vickster]

This provides a good indication based on precedents

http://www.bottonline.co.uk/road-tr...compensation-claim-for-bicycle-accident#TABLE

Looks like £3-10k is the range if likely to be better in 2 years and no surgery required

It'll depend on the prognosis specified by the expert. If you still have issues, do not settle. He may ask to see you again in 6 months. The process drags on, I'm 3.5 years in. Not helped by the first expert being utterly crap, seeing me for only 5 minutes, 3 times!

I've not had a penny, the original offer was so insulting I laughed, didn't even cover loss of earnings let alone anything else. For me, it's better it's taken so long as the seriousness of the secondary shoulder injury didn't become known until around 18 months after the accident!

Those I've seen subsequently spent around 30 minutes doing proper assessments and asking a lot of questions

 

[fossyant]

They make low offers at first. You should have had a full independent specialists opinuon. I've seen two so far and am due back at the two year point for a review (which I'm no better than when I went in November).

I could have surgery to rebuild one of my vertebrae but it's risky and I can walk and cycle. I can't run due to spinal load. The third party make an offer last January but hadn't had any long term medical reports. You usually just get compensation for the worse injury, so in my case it was an unstable spinal fracture and not the 4 broken ribs and a long hospital stay.

You do need a long term medical report to assess any long term issues.