Our client sustained significant injuries in a single vehicle motor accident. He was a back seat passenger in a car being driven along a highway which lost control and veered off the highway, colliding with several trees. The accident was caused entirely by the driver of the vehicle who was speeding and driving under the influence of alcohol. Our client sustained a head injury and fractured pelvis as a result of the accident.
Several years prior to the accident, our client ceased full time work as a boilermaker in order to provide care services to his mother and was in receipt of a carer’s pension benefit at the time of the accident. Our client was permitted to work up to 20 hours per week as a boilermaker whilst receiving the carer’s pension benefit.
It was his intention to return to fulltime contract work when alternative care arrangements had been made with his siblings or alternatively when his mother entered into an aged care facility.
Our client’s recollection of the events leading up to the accident were poor. Following the accident, the driver of the car went missing and within a year following the accident, the front seat passenger was killed in another motor vehicle accident. In light of these issues, the CTP insurer was unable to obtain witness statements regarding the circumstances of the accident, and along with the hospital record evidence of the driver’s intoxication, denied liability for our client’s claim.
A claim was filed in the Supreme Court on behalf of our client for damages.
Our client’s injuries were significant enough to exceed the 11% Whole Person Impairment threshold, which allowed him to claim money for pain and suffering, in addition to his claims for economic loss, medical expenses and domestic care.
The parties conducted a mediation to resolve the case, and despite the difficulties with having no witnesses to the accident, the issues of speeding and intoxication of the driver, and our client not working in the years prior to his accident, the claim was resolved for in excess of $1,000,000 prior to hearing.
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