sailorman
Well-known member
Well done Duncan its a struggle you didnt need /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif
http://www.anps.co.uk/Duncan/
http://www.zurich.com/main/mediarelations/contactusmedia/contactmedia.htm
31st May
£950,000 was paid into my account today. This represents the damages we are due, costs for my future medical care and my projected loss of earnings from now until retirement if I am unable to work. Not exactly a life changing sum of money to pay for a life changing accident. My barrister had told me during the summer that my payout would mean that I would have a very high standard of living for the rest of my life. Well actually I had a very high standard of living before the accident. In actual fact this sum invested at 5% interest will return £47,500 gross, a fraction of what I earned before. You might say “Well you will have to work, then, like the rest of us”. And indeed I will have to but I would have thought that after what I've been through I might at least have the choice. Of course I will continue to work. I love work, voice overs or teaching at Westview and so I will always continue to work.
£950,000 may sound like a large sum to some but it isn't. In the USA we would have got $10 million for starters. Still we aren't and we didn't, so once again we must make the best of it. We made the best of it on the medical front and the same applies to the financial front. It would be nice to get a break some time.
So, back to work it is, as soon as possible. If there are any producers out there I would naturally like to hear from you and I have been advised that I am in good voice.
I haven't been able to say anything before because we have been fighting the Zurich Insurance Company who have tried every trick in the book, through their solicitors - Weightmans, based in Liverpool - to get out of paying us anything. They blocked every move for private medical care which at the end of the day we had to pay for anyway. In otherwords they were blocking the advance of monies that they would reclaim from us in the settlement. They sent doctors to the hospital in Wexham to assess me and try and get me out of there into another hospital under their control which would have meant that Sally had to travel to Manchester to see me. And then when I was able to come home, the Zurich sent a doctor down to us unannounced to try and catch us out. They baulked at every interim payment and when we provided all the correct back up invoices, rounded their payment down so that we were permanently being kept short. They had to be taken to court for every interim payment.
Weightman's solicitors came up with the Contributory Negligence claim, suggesting that it was partly my fault which was apparently suggested by their expert witness, a Master Mariner and an explosives expert, a claim which was absolutely refuted by our expert witnesses - the top people at the RNLI and the RYA - which is no wonder that they climbed down. We had asked them to disclose what evidence they had for this claim of Contributory Negligence and they fought us all the way on this. Eventually we were given the OK by the judge and he told them that they had to hand over 90% of their evidence. Our side were thrilled with this. For my part, the law is the only business where 90% is seen as success. Nonetheless the other side shillied and shallied and asked for more time and then more time for handing over this evidence and then they folded and withdrew the claim which meant that we would never see the evidence. Pity, I wonder what they had - nothing probably.
Then they made an offer. It later transpired that it wasn't the normal sort of offer which stays on the table throughout and which you can use as a basis for negotiation. No, this offer was a once and for all, take it or leave it offer. We discussed it and although the offer was lower than we would have liked we had to balance the offer against years of argument, being spied on, our every move being blocked, medical indecisiveness and the strain that it would put on the family and we decided to draw a line under the incident and accept. From there of course there was further obfuscation by the Zurich and delaying tactics and general confusion about what they had paid and what would be paid to us. Can you believe that the Zurich could not work out what they had paid to the private Patragon Suite which housed me for five months ? We told them that we knew, as we had been sent copies of the bills too. We offered to call the Paragon Suite and find out what had been paid. The Zurich didn't like the idea of this, almost as if the Paragon Suite were on our side. And so of course it took the Zurich yet more time to establish a figure that we could have told them over the phone. You must appreciate that all this time we could have been earning interest on this money. Eventually we got judgement and had they failed to pay the money yesterday they would have had to pay Punitive Interest rates (at last the word `punitive' enters the picture) - I had heard that this might be 9%. Alas, this time they paid on time.
Well I hope that the insurance industry is proud of the way the Zurich behaved. I found it heartless and cynical. I have since moved my one insurance policy with the Zurich and there are several other people close to me who have told me, quite unprompted that they have had Zurich insurances and have moved away from this insurance company after hearing my experiences. So if anyone else feels like minded, please let me know.
And as for Weightmans solicitors, their handling of this account has been nothing short of farcical on the one hand, and money grabbing on the other. They could have saved their client a fortune by settling early. As it was, by running the ludicrous Contributory Negligence claim they involved their client in enormous legal expenses from both Weightmans and our solicitors. It looked very much like a case of the legal profession lining their own pockets at the expense of their client. If heads don't roll at Weightmans, then an injustice will have been done.
In fact talking of injustice, damages in this country are woefully low. The maximum is £235,000 for which you will need to be quadriplegic. My damages came to about £90,000. I read that they had recently bent great minds to the subject of damages and come to the conclusion that that the life of a working man was now worth £350,000. A good thing I didn't die then !
Naturally I queried the nonesense of damages with my legal team but was met with a “Oh, that can't be changed”, or “it doesn't work like that”. Well, experts they may be but those answers don't answer anything for me and so while I may well be bashing my head against a brick wall I think it's worth looking at the damages issue, “why punitive in the USA and not here ?” I'll let you know how I get on.
Anyway I don't mean to go on but I thought you should know. We haven't been able to squeak a word for fear that the other side - who would certainly have been reading this - would have baulked.
I will just say that our side - Paul McNeil of Field Fisher Waterhouse - did a terrific job in spite of great difficulties. Apparently he had never had such a bad relationship with the other side. Well done David for getting Paul and getting him on the case so quickly. Thanks to both.
There will be articles in the press in the coming months.
http://www.anps.co.uk/Duncan/
http://www.anps.co.uk/Duncan/
http://www.zurich.com/main/mediarelations/contactusmedia/contactmedia.htm
31st May
£950,000 was paid into my account today. This represents the damages we are due, costs for my future medical care and my projected loss of earnings from now until retirement if I am unable to work. Not exactly a life changing sum of money to pay for a life changing accident. My barrister had told me during the summer that my payout would mean that I would have a very high standard of living for the rest of my life. Well actually I had a very high standard of living before the accident. In actual fact this sum invested at 5% interest will return £47,500 gross, a fraction of what I earned before. You might say “Well you will have to work, then, like the rest of us”. And indeed I will have to but I would have thought that after what I've been through I might at least have the choice. Of course I will continue to work. I love work, voice overs or teaching at Westview and so I will always continue to work.
£950,000 may sound like a large sum to some but it isn't. In the USA we would have got $10 million for starters. Still we aren't and we didn't, so once again we must make the best of it. We made the best of it on the medical front and the same applies to the financial front. It would be nice to get a break some time.
So, back to work it is, as soon as possible. If there are any producers out there I would naturally like to hear from you and I have been advised that I am in good voice.
I haven't been able to say anything before because we have been fighting the Zurich Insurance Company who have tried every trick in the book, through their solicitors - Weightmans, based in Liverpool - to get out of paying us anything. They blocked every move for private medical care which at the end of the day we had to pay for anyway. In otherwords they were blocking the advance of monies that they would reclaim from us in the settlement. They sent doctors to the hospital in Wexham to assess me and try and get me out of there into another hospital under their control which would have meant that Sally had to travel to Manchester to see me. And then when I was able to come home, the Zurich sent a doctor down to us unannounced to try and catch us out. They baulked at every interim payment and when we provided all the correct back up invoices, rounded their payment down so that we were permanently being kept short. They had to be taken to court for every interim payment.
Weightman's solicitors came up with the Contributory Negligence claim, suggesting that it was partly my fault which was apparently suggested by their expert witness, a Master Mariner and an explosives expert, a claim which was absolutely refuted by our expert witnesses - the top people at the RNLI and the RYA - which is no wonder that they climbed down. We had asked them to disclose what evidence they had for this claim of Contributory Negligence and they fought us all the way on this. Eventually we were given the OK by the judge and he told them that they had to hand over 90% of their evidence. Our side were thrilled with this. For my part, the law is the only business where 90% is seen as success. Nonetheless the other side shillied and shallied and asked for more time and then more time for handing over this evidence and then they folded and withdrew the claim which meant that we would never see the evidence. Pity, I wonder what they had - nothing probably.
Then they made an offer. It later transpired that it wasn't the normal sort of offer which stays on the table throughout and which you can use as a basis for negotiation. No, this offer was a once and for all, take it or leave it offer. We discussed it and although the offer was lower than we would have liked we had to balance the offer against years of argument, being spied on, our every move being blocked, medical indecisiveness and the strain that it would put on the family and we decided to draw a line under the incident and accept. From there of course there was further obfuscation by the Zurich and delaying tactics and general confusion about what they had paid and what would be paid to us. Can you believe that the Zurich could not work out what they had paid to the private Patragon Suite which housed me for five months ? We told them that we knew, as we had been sent copies of the bills too. We offered to call the Paragon Suite and find out what had been paid. The Zurich didn't like the idea of this, almost as if the Paragon Suite were on our side. And so of course it took the Zurich yet more time to establish a figure that we could have told them over the phone. You must appreciate that all this time we could have been earning interest on this money. Eventually we got judgement and had they failed to pay the money yesterday they would have had to pay Punitive Interest rates (at last the word `punitive' enters the picture) - I had heard that this might be 9%. Alas, this time they paid on time.
Well I hope that the insurance industry is proud of the way the Zurich behaved. I found it heartless and cynical. I have since moved my one insurance policy with the Zurich and there are several other people close to me who have told me, quite unprompted that they have had Zurich insurances and have moved away from this insurance company after hearing my experiences. So if anyone else feels like minded, please let me know.
And as for Weightmans solicitors, their handling of this account has been nothing short of farcical on the one hand, and money grabbing on the other. They could have saved their client a fortune by settling early. As it was, by running the ludicrous Contributory Negligence claim they involved their client in enormous legal expenses from both Weightmans and our solicitors. It looked very much like a case of the legal profession lining their own pockets at the expense of their client. If heads don't roll at Weightmans, then an injustice will have been done.
In fact talking of injustice, damages in this country are woefully low. The maximum is £235,000 for which you will need to be quadriplegic. My damages came to about £90,000. I read that they had recently bent great minds to the subject of damages and come to the conclusion that that the life of a working man was now worth £350,000. A good thing I didn't die then !
Naturally I queried the nonesense of damages with my legal team but was met with a “Oh, that can't be changed”, or “it doesn't work like that”. Well, experts they may be but those answers don't answer anything for me and so while I may well be bashing my head against a brick wall I think it's worth looking at the damages issue, “why punitive in the USA and not here ?” I'll let you know how I get on.
Anyway I don't mean to go on but I thought you should know. We haven't been able to squeak a word for fear that the other side - who would certainly have been reading this - would have baulked.
I will just say that our side - Paul McNeil of Field Fisher Waterhouse - did a terrific job in spite of great difficulties. Apparently he had never had such a bad relationship with the other side. Well done David for getting Paul and getting him on the case so quickly. Thanks to both.
There will be articles in the press in the coming months.
http://www.anps.co.uk/Duncan/
