Man receives criminal injuries compensation after suffering brain injury in violent assault

Peter was on his way home from work one evening in 2012 when he was assaulted by two men, sustaining a severe brain injury. During the violent attack he was punched to the ground, struck his head on the pavement and was rendered unconscious, before he was kicked with such force that one of his attacker’s shoes came off. The assault took place in front of his partner’s 14 year old nephew, who had been shadowing him at work.

Bystanders came to the aid of Peter and he was taken to hospital, where he was placed in a drug induced coma and treated for serious head injuries, including fractures to his skull. He spent six weeks in hospital in total, undergoing surgery to remove several blood clots on his brain.          

Following the incident, his attackers were arrested and jailed for a total of 8 years.

As a result of the assault, Peter has executive function problems consistent with frontal lobe damage and personality change. He also suffers from depression and developed epilepsy around 3 years after the assault.

Nicola Mepstead, Partner within our Personal Injury team, acted for Peter and secured a CICA payment of £388,191.00 for his injuries. In addition, we successfully dealt with two appeals for welfare benefits, one in which Peter was judged to be capable of work and one relating to PIP.

Nicola comments:

"Peter suffered a life changing brain injury in this assault. The long term effects of his brain injury had  a devastating impact on how he was able to live his life and relate to others. Unfortunately, it was a real battle to get the CICA to recognise the implications of his injury and they would only allow an award of £16,500 initially, increased to £22,000 we requested an internal review. That clearly was not right and so Peter's case had to go to a tribunal for the level of damages to be determined. We were able to demonstrate to the tribunal that Peter was unable to work and would require a commercial carer over and above what his Local Authority would provide if his relationship broke down, which was likely due to the change in his personality.

"The financial strain Peter and his partner suffered due to his being unable to work was considerable and it was very gratifying to help relieve that pressure, both through the CICA claim and by PRD conducting two successful benefits appeals on his behalf."