Motorcycle legal advice: Is my solicitor just being cautious? Or trying to make more fees?

Q: Last summer I got an apprenticeship with a local carpentry firm and got myself an Aprilia RS4 125. All was good – until I had a head-on crash with a drunk driver. He’d got hammered, fell asleep and drifted on to my side of the road. A superman impression followed with me landing in a ditch breaking my hip/pelvis and arm.

My surgeon said I was lucky when he took all the metalwork out of my hip/pelvis last month. I’m super keen to get this all done and dusted, but my solicitor has said I need to be careful as it’s still less than a year post accident and we don’t know what the future holds. Is my solicitor just being cautious? Or trying to make more fees?

A: If you’re less than a year after sustaining serious poly-trauma that literally required you being screwed back together, I’d have advised you the same thing, because once you settle your claim you cannot come back for more compensation later (i.e. for future treatment costs such as an early hip replacement, etc).

It goes without saying that you got smashed, it’s your claim and you give the instructions. However, it’s worth settling your claim properly, rather than quickly. If I were a betting man, your solicitor isn’t trying to crank his fees, but is acting in your best interests. Give yourself some time; take legal advice and then make an informed decision.

White Dalton Solicitors is Britain’s most specialist motorcycle law practice. Managing partner Andrew ‘Chef’ Prendergast and his bike riding barristers compile Motor Cycle Monthly’s legal column very month, offering our readers essential motorcycle legal advice. www.whitedalton.co.uk