A personal injury firm has secured £27.4m compensation for a client after turning down offers at a fraction of the final settlement.

Enable Law said it had initially rejected settlement offers of £1.5m and then £10m from the defendant’s insurers after the client suffered life-changing brain injuries when she was hit by a car.

Management of the case had already changed even before those offers, after care professionals had recommended that the client’s family change their legal representatives to someone with a specialism in handling brain injury claims. Enable Law was instructed to take over the matter after the intervention of the client’s case manager who was supporting the family of the client.

Bristol-based Enable Law partner Huw Ponting, who heads the firm’s personal injury team, said it was understandable that families turned to the first lawyers they could find after a life-changing accident, but that choice was not irreversible.

Enable Law partner Huw Ponting

Ponting: 'People affected by personal injury should [...] remember they can change lawyers if they are unhappy'

‘This case has proved that not all solicitors are the same and that our client would not have achieved the same outcome had they remained with the law firm that first led their case,’ said Ponting. ‘It demonstrates that people affected by personal injury should be very diligent when seeking legal advice and remember they can change lawyers if they are unhappy, so they secure the specialist legal representation their specific circumstances deserve.’

The settlement is believed to be one of the biggest ever made where the case has involved no catastrophic physical harm but instead the claimant has suffered life-changing cognitive injuries.

Substantial interim payments have already been made but the final settlement will ensure financial security for the client’s lifetime. Ahead of negotiations with defendant insurers, 10 different specialists were brought in to assess the client’s care needs.

Senior solicitor Sue Stoll added: ‘For Enable Law securing a settlement of this magnitude for a client with no catastrophic physical injuries but life-changing cognitive ones is unprecedented but most importantly it will ensure a framework is put in place for our client to live as well as she possibly can for the rest of her life.’