Accident Compensation - Another Question

[gb60mail]

First of all, thank you to everyone who responded to my question I asked last week about my cycling accident, I never anticipated such a big response of extremely honest views. I hope you don’t mind but I would just like to ask another slightly different question around the cycling accident.

Briefly, my situation is that I was involved in a cycling accident which was my fault. A young lady I collided into is suing me for £4000 in damages, that’s £3000 for her loss of earnings over a 12 week period she had to take off work and £1000 for the badly sprained ankle injury she sustained, she works in retail and standing has been her issue. (See the question posted on 4th December for the full details).

I did at first think that the compensation claim I am facing, seemed somewhat harsh on me, I will have to pay this money myself, as I didn’t have any 3rd party cycling insurance, but like the accident itself, that is my own fault. I do now have some insurance but this is of no help to me on this occasion. Although I thought the amount seemed somewhat harsh, many of you who answered my question last week felt that £3000 in loss of earnings and £1000 for the injury are both actually quite low amounts.

Since I posted last week, I have researched a little on personal injury claims and I found that claims for similar injuries are indeed often substantially more than £1000. I know that there are some compensation grabbers out there who are just interested in lining their pockets with as much cash as they can, but I was also told that for personal injuries, it is best to be suing for as much as you can because you will probably be awarded less than the amount being claimed.

One or two of you told me very honestly that as they earn considerably more than this girl does, and would also have incurred a lot of extra expenses in general living, care and transport expenses, they would be suing me for substantially more money than I’m being sued for now. The extra expenses and more for personal injury are things I hadn’t even considered, so I am beginning to accept that I may actually be somewhat fortunate that I am not facing a considerably larger financial out lay than I am, and this is what I’d like to ask more about.

Sorry for the long winded explanation but my question is quite simple. I would now like to ask is if you were in the same situation where you had suffered 12 weeks in lost earnings, had incurred extra living expenses and had suffered a similar injury to this girl, would you be suing me for a substantially larger amount than this girl is?

[woofgang]

and yet you are still considering your options instead of making arrangements to pay her in full?

[gb60mail]

Well, I just can't say any more on that at the moment woofgang. I will when I can.

[wildwood]

I fully support the suggestion made by hc4361. You are getting away cheaply and it is obviously not a scam by the girl.

Get/beg/borrow the $4k and pay the girl, so you can both get on with your life.