I've alluded to this plenty in the past, but here's the story:
On November 8th last year, my wife was travelling back up the M20 towards London in her dad's car (he was driving). In the front passenger seat was her mother. She was in the back seat behind her dad (I.E. on the offside). They were coming back from visiting her maternal grandmother who at the time was in Maidstone hospital with terminal cancer.
I'm not sure where exactly it happened, as I haven't seen the police report, but somewhere fairly near the Junction with the M25, a van came up a sliproad to join the motorway and clipped the nearside front of her dad's car as it pulled in to join the motorway. That sent her dad's car into a spin- whereapon it was T-Boned very hard, fully side on (on the offside), by a transit van that had been overtaking them in the middle lane. I think they ended up buried in the armco on the nearside of the motorway.
My wife and her mother just about walked away from the accident. My father-in-law was knocked unconscious, and was only released from the wreckage after the fire brigade took the roof off his car. He spent four or five days in Queen Mary's hospital in Sidcup before he was released. He's still not recovered now- and yet the DWP have just decided that that he's fit to return to work and have stopped his incapacity benefit. He's appealed of course, and I may start another thread pending the outcome of that.
Anyway, I went to pick up their personal effects from the wreck a couple of weeks after the accident- and it was a proper mess. The seat where my wife had been siting was stoved in by at least four inches- and I reckon it must have sprung back a bit from the initial impact. My wife works in a (posh) cafe, and she had to take two weeks off work after the accident- followed by several more days when she'd have to go home early as she was in pain just standing up. After a flareup in December she had to take another week off.
From the time of the accident until Christmas she was in more or less constant pain from her injuries, which affected her sleep. What affected her sleep more were the nightmares and flashbacks- countless times while she was in bed and I was up on the computer (as now) I had to run in and calm her down and comfort her. I've had to do it just right now as I type in fact; I guess her nightmares now may not be to do with the crash although I don't recall her having them beforehand.
Her back pain persisted until July this year; in June she got some NHS physiotherapy sessions which pretty much cured it.
Today we got the offer- via the solicitor appointed by her father's insurance company- from the third party's insurance company in respect of her personal injury. It was £1400. Her solicitor thinks that that's too low- and that she should offer to settle for £1800. They've also somehow, despite us (as I recall) keeping them apprised of her ongoing costs, got the idea that she only had a week off work and so is only claiming for one week's lost wages. That, I guess, is a clerical error, and fairly easily resolved with some letters to her head office to corroborate the fact that she actually lost three or more weeks wages in total.
So this is the question. Neither of us are the type of people who see an accident as an opportunity to rip off an insurance company for our own personal gain. Five years ago a woman ran into the back of my car and gave me a stiff neck for a few days, but I only claimed for the damage to my car. However we know of more than one person who, via some ambulance chasing lawyers, have received ~£3k just for whiplash injuries sustained in a rear-ender where nobody was seriously hurt. My wife, as I said, suffered months of pain and psycholgical damage. Even £1800 sounds to her like an insult. We haven't even got into the fact that the accident cost her valuable time with her terminally ill nan, who died just under two months later.
So....anyone been here before? Do you think she should settle for the £1800, or persue them for more- via the courts if necessary? She's genuinely suffered for months- and, as someone who loves her very much, so have I. I hasten to add that I don't think I deserve any compensation, but I'm damned if I'm going to advise her to settle for less than she deserves.
I'd greatly appreciate your thoughts.


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) about 7 years back, and the only real injuries were a stiff neck and the usual whiplash stuff - nothing major really.

