Dale W is a computer programmer, who was 23 years old at the time of the accident, who in a horrific motorbike accident lost all the fingers on his right hand, apart from his thumb. His entire job obviously involved typing, and this was a catastrophic injury which he had overcome marvellously, by training himself how to pinch objects between his thumb and the post of his hand and by typing at an incredible speed for someone with only 6 fingers. In fact, and this obviously reduced the value of his claim, he was able in some tests to work 45% faster than industrial standards of people in that position. He had been approached initially by attorneys from a Vereeniging law firm, and it was when they were considering settling his entire claim for only R43 000,00, that his wife called us in and said, “Surely, this cannot be right?”
We immediately terminated the mandate of the other attorneys, took over the case and filed a substantial amendment against the Road Accident Fund. Ultimately, the case was settled for R750 000,00 which was nearly 18 times more than the other attorneys were trying to encourage him to settle for.
The case would have been worth considerably more if it were not for the fact that he was held 50% to blame for the accident, and thus had the settlement reduced by 50%, and that he was a remarkable man who unlike many people, went out of his way to try, to his disadvantage in the settlement process, to show that he was as good as anybody with 10 fingers. His settlement also included future treatment including prosthetics for his hand and which would be covered by the Road Accident Fund.
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