Making an insurance claim for injury against the council

[Guest]

Just looking for a bit of advice for my mum, who recently fell and injured herself due to a pot hole in the surface she was walking on. Sticthes in her knee, broken toe and nerve damage in her knee that has so far left her with numbness.

 

Just wondering what the best way for her is to approach this? She filled in a complaint online and the council have forwarded her claim to the insurance company and she's just waiting to hear back.

 

Will they come back making some kind of offer, and should she refuse the first offer kind of thing?

 

What amout of compensation should she expect to get?

 

(in Scotland)

[BankFodder]

Difficult to assess the amount of compensation – and especially at an early stage which I imagine this is.

You should certainly be taking photographs of everything, the pothole, the injury, bruises over a period of days or weeks. Keep a proper photographic record day by day. Keep a complete diary of the injury, pain, any drug/painkillers et cetera needed.

You will need to obtain doctors reports and also you will need to document very closely how it has affected her so far, socially, at work – generally speaking in her life.

You need to find out from doctors what the prognosis is over the next few months/year/2 years – et cetera.

If the council want to have her examined by their doctor then of course you should comply.

It would really help if you gave us some kind of time schedule here because you haven't given as much information at all

[Guest]

It happened about 6 weeks ago. She's not been keeping diaries or anything like that, but she's got photo. Just wondering what to expect and how she should approach it is all. She's dealing with it. I just came on here to get any advice that might be able to help her case.

[BankFodder]

Well she should approach as I said. Keeping diaries of everything. Photographs of everything. If she hasn't been keeping a diary now then she should start over a period of time writing up what has happened as far as she can remember. As she works on the diary, she will remember more and the diary will fill itself out.

This is very important. Too many people make personal injury claims with very scant information. You need to show exactly how she has been inconvenienced and the pain that she has suffered and what it means for the future. As well as showing how it has inconvenienced her so far.

That is the advice which will help her case.

You can be absolutely certain that the insurer will need pushing and bullying and that when they eventually do make an offer, it will be very low offer and you will need to make a higher offer.

How long ago did you make the claim to the council? Don't expect anybody to be bothered about hurrying up on this. It will depend on you to be assertive and to push it along.