Eric was cycling to work along Byres Road, Glasgow on 20 November 2017.

There were parked cars to his left and as Eric approached level with the rear bumper of a parked vehicle, suddenly the driver’s door opened into his path.

Eric was thrown from his bicycle through the driver’s door window and landed on the road.

Eric sustained multiple injuries including lacerations to his cheek and nose, soft tissue injuries to the left side of his body and a chip to his front tooth. He was left with a permanent scar on his left cheek as a result of being thrown through the driver’s door window.

We intimated a claim directly to the insurance company of the vehicle whose door was opened into his path. Liability was denied. They stated their policy holder had his door open and was reaching into the back seat of his vehicle to retrieve an umbrella. They stated that the car door had been open and visible to passing vehicles. This was simply not true.

With liability denied, we proceeded to raise a court action.

We arranged to speak with the reporting police officer who attended the scene. He confirmed that the driver had in fact been charged with opening his door in an offensive manner at the scene.

Shortly after, the defenders put forward an offer to settle Eric’s case. This was duly accepted and matters were concluded for Eric.