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Law Bulletin - September 2006

Moderate injuries

The claimant was a cyclist who was knocked off his bike. He suffered multiple soft tissue injuries to the forehead settling within a few weeks; to a shoulder settling within two months; to the right knee settling within six months and to the left knee settling within nine months. He had some anxiety when cycling although this was diminishing, and occasional pain in the left knee on exertion. He lost no time from work.

The insurers, Direct Line, had made a payment into court of the equivalent of £1,750 for general damages. The Judge awarded £3,000 general damages. Although liability was very strong, and the defendant had been successfully prosecuted in respect of his driving, we recovered a 100 per cent success fee and costs of £8,626.90.

This story has also been published on our Cycle Accidents page.

Tearne -v- Constant. Birmingham County Court 21st August 2006.

MIB – damaged property

Implementation of a fifth EU Motor Insurance Directive means that, from summer 2007, property damage will be payable in all untraced driver’s cases. Also it is still not widely known that the MIB can compensate for accident caused by diesel spills and shed loads.

Please also note that the MIB is considering the development of one agreement which will cover all uninsured and untraced cases.