We recently negotiated an excellent settlement for a young Blue Mountains girl who had been injured in a motor vehicle accident. Our client was only 13 years old when she was involved in a collision when a reckless driver drove into the vehicle our client was a passenger in. As a result of the collision, our client sustained injuries to her neck and back. The injuries disrupted our client’s life – she was unable to return to school for at least six months and this impacted on her ability to continue with her schooling The ongoing nature of her injuries negatively impacted on her teenage years as she was unable to play sport at school anymore, something that she had always enjoyed. She even struggled with simple tasks such as sitting, standing and walking, as such movements caused pain to radiate through her body.
Our client and her mother sought the expert legal advice of Gerard Malouf & Partners Injury Compensation Lawyers to see if she could be compensated for her injuries. Mr Vrege (Reg) Kolokossian made time to sit down with the client and her mother to explain the process of pursuing a claim. He also explained the additional steps needed to be taken for an underage claimant. Mr Kolokossian explained that an application had to be made to exempt the claim from the Claims Assessment and Resolution Service in order to proceed straight to court. He also explained how court proceedings would operate. The clients were extremely pleased with us for taking the time to provide them with a detailed explanation of the process to ensure they understood how the matter would proceed.
At the initial stages the insurer offered a measly $1,500.00 in settlement of the claim. We refused to accept such a small amount of compensation and advised the client that we would be able to secure a higher amount of compensation. We proceeded to prepare the relevant court documents and commenced proceedings. We obtained numerous reports from medico-legal doctors and treating doctors confirming that the client had suffered injuries and should be sufficiently compensated for her ongoing restrictions.
The matter was further complicated as our client was involved in a second motor vehicle accident. However, we were able to show that the second accident resulted in injuries to different body parts and managed to secure the claimant a settlement sum in excess of $80,000.00.
As a result of Mr Kolokossian perseverance in this matter, our client received a final amount of motor vehicle accident compensation exceeding $80,000.00 that was well above the initial meagre amount offered by the insurer. Our client was extremely grateful to Mr Kolokossian for persevering in the matter to push the insurer’s offer up so substantially.
