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Hello all,
I've been told by a friend I may find someone who knows where I may get help for a legal issue I have, and I thank you in advance for taking the time to read the thread.
It relates to a personal injury to me, which occurred on 14th August 2020. The brief circumstances are that I was riding a motorcycle on a dual carriageway and when passing another motorcycle that was occupying the inside lane, the rider failed to control it on a left bend in the road, and ran wide into my path. As the road was bending, it wasn't possible to apply my brakes, and all I could do to avoid him colliding with me was to keep moving towards the central reservation and because he kept running wider, I eventually hit the kerb to my right, and crashed, even though I managed to avoid hitting the other rider.
I was severely injured to my right side and the A&E team felt I might not survive the weekend. I was placed in a coma to stabilise, which eventually lasted for three weeks, and it was a further two weeks before regaining consciousness. During all that time, I received many surgeries to fix injuries from a bolts to secure a broken neck, all ribs broken (3 flailed and needing metal plates), collar bone broken, brachial plexus damaged to both arms (right one so bad that the arm was almost lifeless for 8 months), and extensive metalwork to save my right leg from the knee down. I've had four subsequent surgeries for ongoing fixes and am still being considered for lung surgery as my right lung has only been partially operational due to scarring around the diaphragm. I will also need knee replacement surgery at a point in the future. I had near total amnesia as a result of either the accident or the drug induced coma. All I could recall from the whole day to start with was the last quarter to half a second before my bike struck the kerb of the central reservation.
The police were very uninterested and closed the case on the basis that I couldn't remember anything.
Then some 30-31 months after the date of the accident, I remembered the cause of the accident as more memories suddenly started to return, which was triggered by me actually driving over the scene. The memories came out of the blue, and were initially confusing to me, because my memory suggested the accident wasn't where the police had actually told me it was. I later confirmed with my family that the location the police had given me was wrong by about 80m, and my memory was exactly in the correct place.
I then applied for the details of the accident in order to instruct solicitors, which is where the police's obstruction began. They initially refused to offer any help at all, which forced me to engage the services of a law firm, who wrote to them on my behalf. Then after several months, they released extremely minimal paperwork to my solicitor, stating 'that was all that was on file. However, it actually completely contradicted the account of events that they had advised me in 2020 that their one witness had relayed. Needless to say, it was prejudicial to any case I would have made, and even an MIB claim was rejected because of it.
I found out through a contact within the police that there was actually a lot more information on file, and was advised then by my solicitor to make a subject access request, which I duly did. This yielded very little more information, most of which was redacted anyway, and specifically, they refused to provide the details of the other motorist who I now knew had caused my accident, or the full accident report. I was abruptly told that they would only release more information if I made a successful complaint against them via the IOPC or ICO. By this time, we had already passed the 36 month 'out of time' window to make a personal injury claim, and the solicitor I was using said we were now into police complaint territory, which their firm did not do, and due to some severe mental issues I was having as a result of PTSD, I was unable to launch the complaint for a further two years (so until last October).
That complaint sat with the force in question for five months, and was eventually taken on by an officer external to the complaints department, who had been drafted in to assist with the force's massive backlog of complaints. Within a couple of months, he established that I ought to have been given the other motorist's details even before I was discharged from hospital, and also that the release of the (useless) information I was given, had been needlessly protracted for no reasonable reason, as well as being the incorrect information in any case. In him opening up the file, I feel he became convinced that my memory recollection fit with all of the actual evidence obtained at the time and he was very sympathetic towards me. He has said that he is likely to uphold all the main parts of the complaint, but I am yet to see any final report, although he has furnished me with the details of the other motorcyclist.
My problem now is that I can't find legal representation who will either take on the case against the other motorist (because of the time lapse) or pursue the police force for damages based on their unreasonable refusal to cooperate with me.
I have life-changing injuries and have been unable to work since the accident, with little prospect of managing any form of employment again (I am almost 60) as I have physical injuries that restrict my ability to stand for long periods, or sit at a desk for longer than 45 minutes, and mental issues that seem to have brought about a form of ADHD (still waiting for a diagnosis) and I have no ability to learn new complex things, or focus on one thing for long periods. I've therefore not earned anything since the accident, and am having to sell my house to downsize considerably. My 18 year old daughter goes to University this year, and I am financially responsible for her, so I am in a really desperate situation.
If anyone knows of a firm or individual who could run with this case, please let me know urgently!
Thank you for reading.
Graham
I've been told by a friend I may find someone who knows where I may get help for a legal issue I have, and I thank you in advance for taking the time to read the thread.
It relates to a personal injury to me, which occurred on 14th August 2020. The brief circumstances are that I was riding a motorcycle on a dual carriageway and when passing another motorcycle that was occupying the inside lane, the rider failed to control it on a left bend in the road, and ran wide into my path. As the road was bending, it wasn't possible to apply my brakes, and all I could do to avoid him colliding with me was to keep moving towards the central reservation and because he kept running wider, I eventually hit the kerb to my right, and crashed, even though I managed to avoid hitting the other rider.
I was severely injured to my right side and the A&E team felt I might not survive the weekend. I was placed in a coma to stabilise, which eventually lasted for three weeks, and it was a further two weeks before regaining consciousness. During all that time, I received many surgeries to fix injuries from a bolts to secure a broken neck, all ribs broken (3 flailed and needing metal plates), collar bone broken, brachial plexus damaged to both arms (right one so bad that the arm was almost lifeless for 8 months), and extensive metalwork to save my right leg from the knee down. I've had four subsequent surgeries for ongoing fixes and am still being considered for lung surgery as my right lung has only been partially operational due to scarring around the diaphragm. I will also need knee replacement surgery at a point in the future. I had near total amnesia as a result of either the accident or the drug induced coma. All I could recall from the whole day to start with was the last quarter to half a second before my bike struck the kerb of the central reservation.
The police were very uninterested and closed the case on the basis that I couldn't remember anything.
Then some 30-31 months after the date of the accident, I remembered the cause of the accident as more memories suddenly started to return, which was triggered by me actually driving over the scene. The memories came out of the blue, and were initially confusing to me, because my memory suggested the accident wasn't where the police had actually told me it was. I later confirmed with my family that the location the police had given me was wrong by about 80m, and my memory was exactly in the correct place.
I then applied for the details of the accident in order to instruct solicitors, which is where the police's obstruction began. They initially refused to offer any help at all, which forced me to engage the services of a law firm, who wrote to them on my behalf. Then after several months, they released extremely minimal paperwork to my solicitor, stating 'that was all that was on file. However, it actually completely contradicted the account of events that they had advised me in 2020 that their one witness had relayed. Needless to say, it was prejudicial to any case I would have made, and even an MIB claim was rejected because of it.
I found out through a contact within the police that there was actually a lot more information on file, and was advised then by my solicitor to make a subject access request, which I duly did. This yielded very little more information, most of which was redacted anyway, and specifically, they refused to provide the details of the other motorist who I now knew had caused my accident, or the full accident report. I was abruptly told that they would only release more information if I made a successful complaint against them via the IOPC or ICO. By this time, we had already passed the 36 month 'out of time' window to make a personal injury claim, and the solicitor I was using said we were now into police complaint territory, which their firm did not do, and due to some severe mental issues I was having as a result of PTSD, I was unable to launch the complaint for a further two years (so until last October).
That complaint sat with the force in question for five months, and was eventually taken on by an officer external to the complaints department, who had been drafted in to assist with the force's massive backlog of complaints. Within a couple of months, he established that I ought to have been given the other motorist's details even before I was discharged from hospital, and also that the release of the (useless) information I was given, had been needlessly protracted for no reasonable reason, as well as being the incorrect information in any case. In him opening up the file, I feel he became convinced that my memory recollection fit with all of the actual evidence obtained at the time and he was very sympathetic towards me. He has said that he is likely to uphold all the main parts of the complaint, but I am yet to see any final report, although he has furnished me with the details of the other motorcyclist.
My problem now is that I can't find legal representation who will either take on the case against the other motorist (because of the time lapse) or pursue the police force for damages based on their unreasonable refusal to cooperate with me.
I have life-changing injuries and have been unable to work since the accident, with little prospect of managing any form of employment again (I am almost 60) as I have physical injuries that restrict my ability to stand for long periods, or sit at a desk for longer than 45 minutes, and mental issues that seem to have brought about a form of ADHD (still waiting for a diagnosis) and I have no ability to learn new complex things, or focus on one thing for long periods. I've therefore not earned anything since the accident, and am having to sell my house to downsize considerably. My 18 year old daughter goes to University this year, and I am financially responsible for her, so I am in a really desperate situation.
If anyone knows of a firm or individual who could run with this case, please let me know urgently!
Thank you for reading.
Graham