Our client was walking through a variety store in Western Sydney when she tripped over a box that had been left on the floor. She fell heavily to the floor and sustained a number of injuries to her back, neck, and the right side of her body. She was taken to hospital where it was discovered that she had fractured her right upper arm. She was discharged with her right arm in a sling.
Upon returning home our client was unable to attend to a lot of her self-care. She became reliant on her husband to help her with showering, washing and drying her hair, and dressing. Her husband also had to take over the cooking, clothes washing, ironing, and weekly shopping. Our client’s son also came home every weekend to do all the vacuuming and cleaning. Our client’s movements were extremely restricted and she even struggled to get in and out of her bed. She also developed a major depressive disorder as a result of the accident and suffered from nightmares of the accident. She also experienced anxiety attacks and would often break down in public.
Our client sought out Gerard Malouf & Partners. She advised us that she was fearful that she would continue to be reliant on others to help her with her physical and psychological injuries. She was concerned that she did not have the money to afford any psychological treatment and could not continue to rely on her family members to assist her with the domestic tasks that her physical injuries prevented her from undertaking. We advised her that she could make a claim to compensate her for the costs of psychological treatment and domestic care. As she was a pensioner, she was concerned that legal treatment would be too costly but we informed her of our ‘No-Win-No-Fee’ policy. She was reassured by our advice and instructed us to commence proceedings.
We obtained expert medical reports and briefed a barrister in the matter. Using the expert evidence, we argued that our client required significant domestic assistance immediately following the accident and would continue to require this for the remainder of her life. We also utilised the evidence to argue that our client’s psychological injuries were having an adverse effect on her and required immediate psychological treatment. We entered into settlement negotiations and successfully secured our client $50,000 in compensation. Our client was grateful for all of the hard work of Gerard Malouf & Partners and was relieved that she could finally move on with her life.
