Fighting our clients corner

Back in January 2018, Tyler was riding his motorcycle on Caputhall Road in Livingston. He had just finished work and was on his way to see a friend. The road is located within a quiet industrial estate and has a speed limit of 30mph. Tyler was wearing a jacket with high visibility stripes and his motorcycle headlight was clearly on.

Motorcycle Collision Circumstances

Tyler was riding on the straight section of road heading west. There was no other traffic on the road and he could see in the distance ahead of him a parked vehicle. The vehicle was positioned with its nearside wheels against the left-hand kerb. Neither brake lights nor indicators were showing. Tyler approached the vehicle and checked to ensure the road was clear before proceeding to pass the stationary vehicle. Just as he was passing level with the rear wheels of the parked vehicle, it suddenly turned right across and into his path. His left leg became trapped between his motorcycle and the vehicle and he sustained injury to his left leg as a result.

Pursuing a claim for damages

Tyler contacted Motorcycle Law Scotland to pursue a claim for damages. We intimated a claim to the third-party insurers and were astonished when they returned denying liability. They stated that their policyholder had been indicating his intention to turn right and was waiting for two vehicles to pass when Tyler had approached and overtaken him when it was not safe to do so. This was a completely different version of events. There were no witnesses to the incident and the police did not attend at the scene.

The third party insurers offered to split liability 50:50, i.e. holding Tyler equally to blame for the incident. However, we did not believe that Tyler had contributed to the incident in any way as the driver had deviated from his path, turning right without looking.

Raising a Court Action

With liability in dispute, we raised a Court Action.

The Solicitors acting for the driver’s insurance company continued to state that Tyler was at least partly to blame and so the case was heard at Livingston Sheriff Court in November 2019. Sheriff Eddington found Tyler to be both credible and reliable. Contrary to this, Sheriff Eddington found the driver of the vehicle to be neither credible nor reliable. He found that the driver’s manoeuvre had been a simple error which he seemed unwilling to accept. He concluded that the road had been clear of traffic when Tyler had started his manoeuvre around the parked vehicle. Clearly, the driver had failed to look prior to turning right and so he was found to be 100% at fault for the incident.

This case demonstrates that at Motorcycle Law Scotland we do not give up and will never compromise our client’s position. Regardless of the value of a claim, we will stand and fight our client’s corner. This was the first Court Case for our Solicitor, Zara Jones, and she secured an excellent result. Tyler was delighted with the court decision and his award for damages saying:

“I would also like to add that the service and professionalism of MLS, especially Zara, has been second to none.”