DD hit by car

[rak5a]

Our 12 yr old DD was hit by a car as she got off the bus and was crossing the road. The driver had crossed over the reservation to drive on the wrong side of the road to beat traffic to make a turn and hit DD head on. It was awful but she will recover eventually. She has a broken bone and serious concussion and lots of cuts and bruises. It will take months to heal and she is in a bad way.

The police have said they will pursue either dangerous or careless driving (driver at least stopped and stayed at the scene). We feel strange thinking about it, but presume we should make a claim against the driver’s insurance. However we don’t know where to start - all these “no win no fee” websites just feel dirty. We think our DD should be compensated for her suffering and would put any award into a savings account for her to have when she gets older. Has anyone been through this? We want to be sensible but aren’t looking to “milk the system” so don’t want a horrible ambulance chaser. Any advice gratefully received.

Top personal injury firms all of whom will do NWNF….

chambers.com/legal-rankings/personal-injury-mainly-claimant-london-firms-1:144:11814:1

A broken finger or a broken leg?

If your first thought is money, then good luck with that.

But I hope she recovers soon. x

I'm pretty sure that her first thought is 'some cow almost killed my child'. But yeah, let's pretend that she shoved her daughter onto the road to get some compo? Stupid response.

That’s awful @Sunsea21, I’m very sorry to hear that

Oh bugger off. OPs “first thought” is obviously not money. Take your passive aggressive “x” too on your way out

It's very important that all injuries are properly documented at the hospital. Presumably she's still in hospital? I hope she's doing ok. When did this happen? Is your dd out of hospital yet?

You need to be careful of no win, no fee. I knew someone who did that that the winning result materialised into compensation money=fee. So they went through all the stress, the delight of winning to find they got almost no money out of it.

Do you have legal aid on your house insurance?

might be worth talking to them as if they will cover it your DD won’t lose a chunk of her money to the solicitors

I hope your daughter recovers quickly. I work in a similar area if you want to pm me. Make sure you find a solicitor experienced in working with children and personal injury. If she has had a significant injury you can ask the other insurer to appoint a case manager to help coordinate her rehabilitation and this will be funded by the insurer along with any required treatment if nhs being slow. Try and talk with your potential solicitor first and get a feel as to whether or not you can work with them.

Isn’t it a bit obvious that if you win there will be a fee 😳 it’s no win, no fee.

Not win and fee. It only takes a bit of common sense to figure that out.

It’s incredible that there are people on this thread who are trying to somehow blame the OP’s daughter. We have too many drivers in this country who drive irresponsibly and without due care, and we seem to have a press who support them. I was hit by a car whilst stationary on my bike at traffic lights - they went through them and into me. Luckily other than a written off bike, concussion and a few bruises I was ok. I still had some “friends” who suggested that I was somehow in the wrong.
Anyway, ignore all of those posts and do pursue compensation if you would like to. There have been lots of good suggestions on this thread. I went through my household insurance to claim for my bike and minor injuries. It took quite a long time but I didn’t really have to do much once the process had started. Good luck and wishing your daughter a speedy recovery.

Good advice. Wishing your daughter a speedy recovery OP.

I think @MargaretThursday ’s point is that the terms for some of these ambulance chasing solicitors is not as simple as No Win No Fee. It’s “Win and we get a cut of the proceeds plus fee.” You do have to be very careful reading the terms and conditions.

You are mixing up the punishment imposed as part of criminal proceedings with compensation, which is a civil claim. The basic compensation for fatal injury currently is just over £15,000, having increased from around £12,000 in 2019, and there may be damages for loss of dependency on top depending on the circumstances.

It sounds as if no-one actually made a claim in relation to your sister. If it was within the last three years whoever is entitled to make a claim should get urgent legal advice.

I think from the OP the DD was crossing a road with a refuge island like this.

OP check your house insurance, you may have legal advice included.

If the driver is prosecuted, won’t you have access to the criminal injuries scheme?

^ this has a tiny limit. If your daughter has a series concussion I'd want a full neuropsychological assessment. If she has any hint of a TBI then you could pursue a claim and get the money she'll need for private support workers, case manager etc to assist with independent living. She could have lifelong consequences, which means lifelong costs.

I forgot the obvious ones too like occupational therapy costs and physios.

I know you think the no win no fee solicitors are not what you want but the alternative is, you pay a solicitor to pursue a claim and you pay regardless of whether you win or lose.

You could look at the Legal 500 and select the area of the country you live in and see which firms specialise in injury work near you (although you don't need to have solicitors close to you).

Criminal injuries board damages will be significantly less than civil damages.

That sounds awful, and so scary for your daughter. Agree with others - you will need a NWNF lawyer but there are some very good and reputable ones. It will take time (years) to get to the end point but you can have money awarded in the meantime for example if your daughter needed treatment or equipment. Final settlement is a long while away.

Btw OP - I know exactly what you mean as there's a location near us where people do the same. There's no proper crossing and we all know someone will be injured soon (people are campaigning for improvements).

Stop discussing details here.

Speak to a solicitor.

This sounds very confused indeed.

You had no access to legal aid because there hasn't been legal aid for personal injury cases for a very long time, nothing to do with the £110. I find it extremely difficult to believe that a no-win no-fee solicitor would take on a case simply to recover the cost of the bike, because there is no way that it could be worth the solicitor's while: the point is that there has to be a mechanism whereby they will receive payment for their work, and unless your DS's bike was extremely expensive that element of the claim would come within the small claims limit so they wouldn't recover costs from the driver.

The simple fact that your son's injuries had healed by the time the case came to a hearing would not have meant a zero claim. He would have been entitled to damages for pain, suffering and inconvenience, and any solicitor who knew their job would have obtained medical reports on any likely long term consequences, including mental health issues. If your solicitors presented that evidence and it was ignored, did they look into appealing? If they didn't present that evidence, you may have a claim against the solicitors.

This is definitely the list to go with.

OP says there was no crossing

Those saying that they will consider "fault" if the daughter aren't "being mean" it's a part of the negligence claim process -contributory negligence

Ie if victim was drunk or displayed poor road sense crossing a road (based on their age) their award will be reduced by a percentage.

www.farrarsbuilding.co.uk/contributory-negligence/

Do you mean the car went around one of those bollards so was on the wrong side of the road, your daughter was on the "island" so only checked the way cars should have been coming from? Or do you mean she darted out from in front of the bus having got off and the car was overtaking the bus and couldn't stop in time? I got the bus to school and kids running out like that was a common problem. Wait for the bus to drive off or walk so you are far enough away that you have a clear view and the drivers can see you. I think if she darted out and there was no time to react some of the blame rests on her, though I'm sure you'd still win money as the car was overtaking. I think some of the comments are thinking the daughter did the latter of these 2 scenarios.