Damages for a ruined army career

At the time of the accident, our client had recently been accepted into the Army. A rear-end collision caused a whiplash injury and aggravated his depression.

As a result of his injuries, our client was unable to remain in the Army. Losing the career he had chosen had a significant psychological impact on him.

As the claim progressed, psychiatric evidence showed that our client was experiencing bipolar disorder. The experts agreed that the accident had not caused the condition.

Although our client had successfully joined the Army, both psychiatric experts believed his developing bipolar disorder would have prevented him from remaining in the Army for the long term, even if the accident had not happened.

No one could say exactly when our client would have had to leave the Army if the accident had not happened. However, the psychiatric evidence suggested it was likely to have been within a few years.

Importantly, our own psychiatric expert took a particularly cautious view of how long our client would otherwise have remained in the Army. This evidence created a significant challenge when assessing the claim and the risks of taking the case to court.

After obtaining its own medical evidence, the defendant initially offered £30,000 to settle the claim.

Following a number of court applications and arguments, the defendant increased its offer to £100,000. By this stage, the psychiatric evidence meant rejecting the offer and continuing towards a court hearing could have exposed our client to significant costs risks.

Our specialists recognised that there was still uncertainty about how a court would assess the evidence. We believed there was scope to secure a higher settlement through negotiation, but that allowing the case to proceed to court would carry too much risk for our client.

We continued negotiations, making and responding to a series of offers rather than exposing our client unnecessarily to the uncertainties of a court hearing.

Following negotiations, our specialists secured a settlement of £155,000.

This was £55,000 more than the defendant’s previous £100,000 offer. It was also significantly more than our specialists believed our client was likely to receive if the case proceeded to court. The settlement brought the claim to a conclusion without exposing our client to the additional risks associated with taking the case to a hearing.