Sean* sustained a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) when his head was crushed by machinery in an accident at work. We helped him to claim over £2.5 million in compensation to allow him to move to a new home and continue with some of his pre-injury hobbies.
The challenges faced by Sean
Due to his injuries, Sean couldn’t remember the incident or what had happened to him. The defendant insurance company working for Sean’s employer also denied they were responsible for the incident throughout.
- Sean could no longer manage his own affairs, including looking after his finances.
- As the insurers wouldn’t admit they were to blame, they wouldn’t release any money to pay for the specialist input Sean needed to improve his recovery.
- Sean experienced lots of ongoing symptoms, including problems with his vision and hearing, memory loss, confusion, fatigue, depression and problems with balance and coordination.
How we helped with these challenges
As the defendant insurers wouldn’t pay out any money at first, we used our emergency fund to pay for a private neuropsychology appointment and an Initial Needs Assessment (an assessment by a healthcare professional to look into what support and help someone needs).
- The defendants continued to deny they were to blame, but offered to settle the case at an amount much lower than we thought was right for Sean’s future needs. Sean therefore rejected the offer, and the case went to trial.
- We supported Sean to give evidence at the trial and we successfully showed that Sean’s employers were to blame for the incident.
The results and outcome
As well as showing that Sean’s employer was to blame for the incident when the case went to trial, we also got the Court to agree an interim payment (payments that are released while a case is ongoing to pay for immediate help and support), which we used to pay for a case manager and full treating team to help Sean with his recovery.
- We also used this interim payment to pay for a space for Sean to continue with his hobby as a mechanic and give him purpose in his day.
- After further negotiations, we settled the claim for over £2.5 million. This has allowed Sean to buy a new home that’s better for his needs to improve his independence, including a garage to help him to continue with some of his pre-injury hobbies.
