Thompsons was involved in helping this lady after she was exposed to carbon monoxide gas. The problem started when a new boiler was installed in her home near Falkirk last year. The initial installation went well but  after getting some work done to her exterior walls of her house things started to go wrong. The firm employed to repair the walls had also damaged the gas flu that allows the boiler to properly function and this meant that all gasses were not being properly removed from the house.

This allowed highly dangerous carbon monoxide gas to leak into the lady’s house making her feel unwell. The original gas engineers were called and they spotted straight away that damage had been caused to the chimney by they and they reported this to health and safety.

The insurance company representing those who had caused the damage offered £750 to settle things quickly and quietly but being a member of the trade union USDAW this lady knew she had access to free legal advice from Thompsons. After she contacted us we recommended that she reject the claim and her lawyer Tracy McCartney started to obtain medical evidence on the dangers of carbon monoxide exposure.

The medical report that Tracy got confirmed that our client had suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning which resulted in her suffering from 'flu like symptoms for around about one week.  Once medical evidence was received Thompsons negotiated the increased sum of £1,400.  This was almost 50% higher than the original offer made to the lady when she did not have legal representation. She said “It annoyed me that these people could basically poison me in my own home and then try to fob me off with a low offer. I knew that as an USDAW member free legal advice and representation came with the membership. Once I got Thompsons involved it was amazing how quickly these people changed their tune and offered more compensation”

Her lawyer Tracy McCartney commented “this case just highlights the importance of obtaining proper legal advice as without it insurance companies think that they can buy off claims at significantly less than their value.  This USDAW member was extremely pleased with the result as she felt that this settlement amount better reflected her injuries and that she had not let a big insurance company push her around given their initial attitude towards her which she found to be very poor.”