D's Story

D sustained injuries in a road traffic accident. At the time of the accident he was riding his Yamaha 125 motorcycle up Coppice Road in Arnold Nottingham. The third party travelling in the opposite direction had been waiting to turn right into a pub car park. As our client approached, the third party turned into the car park in front of him. Although our client swerved to avoid a collision he ended up clipping the third party vehicle as a result of which he was thrown into collision with a vehicle that had been behind the third party vehicle. Our client suffered a head injury and has no recollection of the circumstances of the accident. D was aged 18 and had no valid insurance in force on his motorcycle. Witness accounts suggested that he was speeding and under the influence of alcohol. The police initially charged him with driving without due care and attention. The due care proceedings were in the end dropped. A great deal of witness evidence was amassed and much of it seemingly prejudiced against motorcyclists. Liability for the accident was never formally admitted by the Defendants insurers, Norwich Union. We wanted to hold out for 100% and the insurers eventually offered 80/20 in our favour. A decision of a court was never made in relation to this because ultimately an offer of compensation of £125,000 was made which was within the bracket that D might have received on a 100% basis. It was not necessary to obtain an accident reconstruction report in order to unravel the circumstances of the accident beyond the police photographs and plan to prove that the witnesses were mistaken.