Katie & Tom’s Story
Katie was just out for a jog when the worst happened…
It was a normal day. Tom had already left for work and Katie had a busy day planned – meetings, event planning and some upcoming project deadlines.
Ahead of her busy day, Katie went out for a jog.
Except Katie doesn’t really remember that day. The next thing she actually remembers is waking up in hospital two and a half weeks later.
While Katie was out for her run, the unimaginable happened.
After she had already crossed the road and was safely on the other side, a car mounted the curb and hit her. Unconscious and seriously injured, Katie was taken to the RBWH while the Queensland Police tried to identify her…
Meanwhile, Tom returned home from work about 6:30pm ahead of a meeting with the builder. He noticed that Katie’s phone and handbag were at home but her running gear was gone.
“I thought, running stuff’s not here, something fishy is going on…
So I went for a drive around where I know she would normally run. That was before Matt, my brother, actually texted me saying on Facebook, Queensland police reported an accident matching a lot of Kate’s description”
After getting in contact with the investigating officer, Tom managed to identify Katie over the phone and find out where she was. Because of the seriousness of the injuries to her face and body, Tom had to identify her with his name – which is tattooed on Katie.
This was the beginning of a long and challenging road for Katie and Tom…
While in hospital recovering, Katie and Tom realised they needed some legal guidance – this is when our Director Faran went to meet with them in hospital, and they started their journey with us.
“Faran from Gouldson Legal came highly recommended from one of my dad’s old work colleagues.
I always kind of feel a bit intimidated by white collar dudes. But Faran just made me feel welcome straight away. Really comfortable.”
Serious injuries and claims aren’t easy, and while the legal side is something we can take care of for our clients, we know there is so much more that they are facing.
Outside of the physical and mental recovery, financial concerns were ever mounting for Katie and Tom. With Katie unable to work, Tom was bearing the financial burden alone – heading off to work each day when really all he wanted was to be by Katie’s side.
Given the severity of the claim, and the position Katie and Tom were in, Faran knew they needed financial support now, to really start to move past the accident.
With this in mind he pushed hard to achieve early access to some initial settlement money.
While this wasn’t the end of the case, it allowed Tom to stay home with Katie and focus on the recovery they both needed.
Given the seriousness of Katie’s injuries, they took two years to fully settle; once they had her injury claim could really begin. Katie took this next stage as a challenge, giving her something to get her teeth into and work on.
After years of recovery and work, settlement day arrived.
Thankfully, on settlement day we were able to achieve Katie and Tom’s best possible result.
This result helped Katie and Tom get back on track – allowing them to focus on the future they could build together, rather than that one horrible day.
“I am so happy with the results from working with Faran from Gouldson Legal. When the accident occurred we thought we were going to lose everything, our home, our careers, and everything like that.
We thought it would be a huge step backwards.
The outcome in our case meant we ended up having a huge step forward. We were able to have a really happy life and great marriage and are really enjoying life where we are right now. So, wonderful result.”
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“The day of the accident, I got up to go for a run before going to work. During my jog, I was hit by a car into a brick retaining wall.”