Farleys have concluded the first of our outstanding cases arising from the events at the Ariana Grande concert on 22 May 2017 at the Manchester Arena.
We are dealing with a number of these cases, and as a firm proud of our Manchester connections we are carrying out the work without any charge to the clients involved in this terrible ordeal.
Our client contacted us having been at the concert with friends and her daughter, just like so many other victims. She was making her way through the foyer area when the explosion occurred. As the smoke cleared she saw the full extent of what happened. She suffered a superficial head injury and was covered in blood and body tissue from others.
She managed to make her way back to the stage area, where she was taken to the first aid room, describing the situation as horrendous with very badly injured people being attended to. She was there for about 30 minutes receiving first aid to a cut to her head and the top of her right leg. Our client was understandably traumatised by what she had seen, leaving her with significant psychiatric injuries.
She contacted Farleys in order to make a Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) claim for the injuries that she had sustained.
One of the continuing difficulties in pursuing a claim with the CICA is that a claim for psychiatric injury will only be accepted if it is supported by evidence from a Consultant Psychiatrist.
Alongside many of the other Manchester bomb victims, our client did not see a psychiatrist but had many psychiatric symptoms. She was overly protective of her daughter and had a fear of entering Manchester or busy places such as the Trafford Centre. She also had vivid recollections and flashbacks, severe anxiety, panic attacks and fears for her own safety.
Quite rightly she received counselling for these symptoms; however despite this the CICA refused to make any award for her psychiatric injury without any supporting psychiatric evidence in support.
Farleys therefore commissioned evidence from a Consultant Psychiatrist who confirmed that she was suffering from PTSD and provided a prognosis which suggested full resolution of symptoms within five years.
Our team were therefore successful in persuading the CICA on review to make an award of £13,500.
The case was dealt with by Jonathan Bridge, who is also acting on behalf of other victims.
Jonathan said: “Whilst it was unfortunate that this Claimant had to be put through a psychiatric examination in order to persuade the CICA of the extent of her ongoing symptoms, overall it was a good result for our client who will now receive full compensation.
“The compensation awards from the CICA are never a fair reflection of the terrible suffering the victims of crime endure. It may be that the IICSA propose changes to the system but until then we are stuck with the tariff scheme. Nevertheless we were delighted to help our client secure an appropriate award”.
