would you accept this compensation offer?

[Matt1959]

just putting this out there for some opinion

My wife had a loaded pallet lowered on to her toes on 12 May 2017 in a well known supermarket which resulted in cuts, bruising and suspected fracture of little toe. Accident book filled in, a visit to the Doc and an X ray.

Supermarket promised a call back with results of their enquiry into how the accident could have happened but no call. No bunch of flowers or chocs, no apology in writing ,nothing.

Somewhat annoyed by their lack of sympathy and contact, she (we) decided to write to supermarket to complain and asked for their consideration of offering something for the convenience caused.

The supermarket passed that enquiry to their claim handlers and my wife has been quickly offered £2K in full and final settlement. She would have been more than happy at the time with a bunch of flowers and an apology note.

We are NOT typical compo people hence why we didnt use a win no fee place and think the £2k is a generous offer. However, my wifes little toe/ part of foot still hurts badly after walking such that she needs to take painkillers for it.

A subsequent phone call to the Doc resulted in Doc telling her it was soft tissue injury and would clear up after a few months.

Whilst we are obviously happy with the £2K offered, if there were complications in a years time etc then that might seem small compensation for something that wasnt her fault and we would wish we had approached things differently.

So the question....... would you accept the £2K and hope/ expect that it clears up or would you want to be sure that there are no longer lasting effects and approach this in a different way?

Thanks for reading, sorry for the essay!

 

[smallclaimsassistance]

This offer has been made in order to avoid your wife seeking legal advice. It's impossible to say whether the offer is reasonable without sight of a medical report which would provide a proper diagnosis and prognosis, would cover the effects on her life, work, social and home activities, treatment requirements, and ongoing symptoms.

If your wife was to fully recover tomorrow (ie: 6 weeks) the injury would be worth around £1000, PROVIDED there is no fracture. If there is a fracture, it's not going to fully recover in 6 weeks, and will be worth more. If it's not a fracture, and doesn't recover tomorrow (which it hasn't) any PI lawyer who wanted to avoid being struck off, would tell you NOT to even consider settling, until the full effects of the injury have become apparent. This is true of any injury, but in particular feet, as unless we are bed-bound, they take the strain of our lives, every day of our lives.

If she still has symptoms in 6 months, it (just the injury, excluding treatment, lost earnings, gratuitous care, general expenses) will be worth in the region of £2000.

If she still has symptoms in a year's time, just the injury, 3-4k.

If she still has symptoms in 3 years time 6-8k.

If the injury is permanent, and as many soft tissue injuries (if not more) as fractures, cause permanent symptoms, she is then into double figures. Just for the injury.

If she works on her feet, ie: waitress, hairdresser, or dances, or other similar activities, that figure is only going to increase. And then there is the lost earnings, gratuitous care, treatment etc.

You should advise your wife to consult a PI solicitor.

Dean

PS: To give you some comfort that you can rely on the above information, before I began my current business in 2015, I was a partner and part owner of a firm of personal injury solicitors. I left the PI business precisely because of unfair treatment by insurers of injured claimants, such as this.

 

[TheConsulter]

Your wife should look at all the available options out there. The supermarket has offered £2k in a full and final settlement, but it means that if the injury persists there will be no more compensation. There could long lasting effects even if the doctor has told that it would clear up after a few months. Before accepting the settlement your wife should consult a solicitor and see what they advise. Just to make sure that she makes the best decision in this matter.

 

[Ione]

It is difficult to advise whether to accept or not accept the offer since it is unpredictable what your wife's conditions will be due to such accident. I would more care about health than the offered 2k. So I would suggest you looking for a doctor's advice first, and based on it decide whether you are happy with 2 k compensation or not.

 

[Matt1959]

thanks everyone for the advice so far.

We do recognise that health is more important than any amount of money hence why I put the feelers out here for some feedback. I wouldnt tell my wife to act based on any advice here but whats been said gives food for thought and makes deciding how to proceed easier so thanks again for all the comments.

One of the issues seems to be is that the Doctor can only diagnose based on what they see and what my wife says so to date its a "soft tissue injury which will usually get better within months".

From whats been said here it seems she needs to now seek some proper legal advice from someone who is familiar with these situations and knows what the procedure to follow is. It was always going to be an issue in dealing with the supermarkets claim handlers as they would be acting for the supermarket but it was a start as it gave us some idea of how the supermarket was approaching it.

So what sort of place would she be best to contact? I'm assuming no win no fee is less risk for her?