Our client, Mr Joseph Cope, was subjected to unfounded claims by the defence that his whiplash claim was fraudulent, but ultimately came out on top when the judge found in his favour, awarding damages of £3,238.89.
Claim for Whiplash
Mr Cope, who is a self employed ground worker from Kent, made the claim after his car was hit by a turning bus as he waited outside his friends house.
Although not immediately affected by the impact, Mr Cope began to feel tightness in his neck the following day, which radiated into his back. Not one for complaining or making a big deal out his injuries, he took two co-codamol tablets and went to work. Unfortunately, the pain did not subside and after four months of attempting to overcome his injuries naturally, through physiotherapy, the claimant attended a medical examination.
Mr Cope is a gym enthusiast and was on his way to training at the time of the accident, although following the crash he and his friend did not attend. In fact the claimant went on to state that he did not attend the gym for another eight months because of his injury, in which time he put on three stone.
As he was self employed, the claimant also admitted that he did not take any time off work, as he could ill afford to and in the immediate aftermath he did not seek any medical treatment.
In the aftermath of the collision after he’d had a few moments to take in the shock of the crash, Mr Cope got out of his vehicle to speak with the driver of the bus. The driver admitted liability for the accident at the scene and insisted that they would report it when they got back to their depot.
The bus company later contacted Mr Cope and offered to pay for the repair of his vehicle. In an attempt to keep the costs of the repair reduced, Mr Cope rather reasonably took his car to a local garage, rather than a dealership, where he was supplied with a hire car while his vehicle was being repaired.
With liability admitted by the driver, Mr Cope instructed Scott Rees & Co to submit a whplash injury claim. It was at this point that, despite the driver of the bus admitting liability at the scene, the defendant’s issued a counter claim, alleging that the accident was a low speed impact and that Mr Cope could not have suffered the injuries that he was claiming for as a result of the crash.
It was quickly pointed out that Mr Cope, who was driving a Renault Megane, had been hit by a single decker bus, which had more weight and volume and therefore was more than capable of causing the car to shake from side to side in such a way that caused Mr Cope to suffer his injuries.
The allegations of fraud from the defence sadly continued, and there was even an attack on Mr Cope’s credibility by the defence, who attempted to suggest that the damage to his car, had occurred before the accident had taken place.
Yet despite these awful allegations, Mr Cope remained reasonable and prior to the case going to court he made a Part 36 offer to settle the case for £1,500. However, the defence remained stubborn and rejected and continued with their campaign against Mr Cope’s person.
The judgement
Thankfully, the judge through the defence’s outrageous and poorly proven allegations, which included the use of an engineering report that falsely suggested that the impact could not have caused his whiplash. He found in Mr Cope’s favour and awarded a settlement that was more than double the Part 36 offer made by the claimant prior to the case going to court.
If you have suffered a whiplash injury in an accident that wasn’t your fault, why not give us a call on 0800 61 43 61 and found out if we can help you with your claim.