Blog
UK Tech SMEs & the November Budget
Christopher Perrin
Andrea Wadden recently settled a claim on behalf of Mr David Richards who was very seriously injured in a road traffic accident at age 71 while he was cycling. Mr Richards was knocked from his bicycle in the accident and became trapped under the Defendant drivers’ car. The driver was found to be over the alcohol limit and liability was admitted by his insurance company following Kingsley Napley serving a Letter of Claim.
Mr Richard’s injuries were devastating and included serious burns to the left side of his face, neck, torso, arm and leg. His left eye had to be removed and he required a series of reconstructive operations and skin grafts. He also suffered injuries to his chest, including fractured ribs, a fracture to the sternum as well as fractures of the pelvis, spine and left shoulder. Several teeth were also damaged.
Mr Richards' story has been featured widely in the press (including BBC news and MSN). He is one of the first NHS patients to have a facial prothesis with 3D printing.
We fought hard for the best possible settlement for Mr Richards who is striving to rebuild his life. Expert evidence was required in the fields of orthopaedics, psychiatry, plastic surgery and burns, care and occupational therapy, accommodation, ophthalmology, cardiothoracic surgery, pain management, restorative dentistry, maxillofacial surgery, maxillofacial prosthetics and yachting.
The claim included the costs of a case manager along with treatment costs including treatment to his lip, dental work, pain management and the costs associated with moving to suitable accommodation. A claim was also made for a new and adapted yacht, along with the related increased running costs, to assist Mr Richards to return to his passion of sailing.
Mr Richards received a number of interim payments throughout the investigations to ensure he could receive some private care, but also to assist with costs of travel to and from hospital, aids and equipment, scar management creams and therapy, and increased costs of flying to visit his family. Due to the large amount of expert evidence involved, the parties were unable to attend a Joint Settlement Meeting in advance of the limitation date, and we therefore issued formal Court Proceedings. We served our expert evidence on the Defendant with proceedings and at that stage they instructed additional experts to assess the value of the claim. Thereafter the claim was settled by way of an exchange of offers. The settlement sum achieved was a good result in all of the circumstances for Mr Richards, who is keen to try to put this behind him and move forward with his life.
Many thanks to one and all at KN for all your hard work getting through this difficult and challenging process. I trust you will extend my thanks to Terry for all his advice and support over the years, and a special thanks to Andrea whose recent hard work has got us over the line to a conclusion.
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