David Erwin
Senior Associate - Personal Injury
"Highly experienced personal injury lawyer keen to make a difference for my clients.”
I qualified as a solicitor in 1990 and joined Higgs in January 2019 after nearly 25 years as a Personal injury solicitor and partner at a national firm based in the Midlands and North West.
I have wide ranging experience in representing clients who have sustained life changing injuries on cases including complex orthopaedic, psychiatric, brain and spinal injuries as well as amputation and fatal accident cases, including those with values of over £1m.in value.
I am keen to make a difference to the clients I represent and feel privileged to help them along the road to recovery in both medical and financial terms. I present myself as an approachable and sympathetic professional working hard to secure the best possible outcomes for those clients.
- Client B: Aged 30, was a passenger in a car that hit a telegraph pole at 90- 100 mph, sustaining catastrophic brain injury with subdural haematoma. Liability was not straightforward in that there were two potential defendants, so rehabilitation funding was not initially agreed upon. Medical reports were obtained from leading specialists, and a brain injury case manager was appointed to lead rehabilitation. The outcome was that the client could resume work in a supervised manner with a view to going into business with his father renovating local houses. Value: £1.55 million.
- Client I: A young boy aged seven at the time of his accident, when, whilst playing in the street near his home, he ran out from between parked cars into the path of a car travelling at 15 to 20 mph. He suffered a life-changing severe brain injury. Liability was problematic, and the leading counsel advised that the claim was likely to fail at trial. However, we were successful in persuading the insurers to agree to rehabilitation, including the involvement of a Consultant in NeuroRehabilitation. On the day of settlement, he was even able to claim that he had beaten counsel at a PlayStation game! Value: £500,000 agreed settlement, reflecting the position with liability, with High Court approval.
- Client S: Employed in the installation of fire sprinklers when suffering severe fractures to right femur and left tibia and fibula as a passenger in a works van accident. The left leg fractures failed to heal properly despite prolonged treatment, and the client proceeded on the advice of his consultants to an elective lower limb amputation. Liability was not disputed, though proceedings had to be raised in order to protect the client with regard to limitation. A case manager was appointed and organised extensive physiotherapy and psychological and vocational support. The claim was settled at a joint Settlement meeting. Value: £2.4 million
- Client G: A very difficult case on liability in which the client, a shop worker in his 20s, was walking home in the early hours of the morning in South Wales, having consumed alcohol and illicit drugs. Ignoring signs to say that pedestrians were not allowed, he continued walking along a grass verge to an unlit main road when he was hit by a car, causing the loss of his lower right leg. There was a long delay in establishing the vehicle's insurance details, and an application for pre-action disclosure against the Police Traffic office had to be drafted to force the issue. In the meantime, the MIB obtained orthopaedic, psychiatric and prosthetic reports, which the eventual insurer adopted, and an initial needs assessment was done. The insurers invited us to a meeting where they spent considerable time demonstrating their view that no liability would attach to their client, but after maintaining our position that whatever our client’s undoubted contribution to the circumstances was, he was simply there to be seen, an offer was made which was then accepted by the client after receiving detailed advice. Value: £500,000
More about me
Favourite food
Italian
Favourite film
Le Mans 66
Interests
Motor racing, rugby, boating, skiing
Memberships
APIL, SIA, Birmingham Medico-Legal Society
Latest insights from David Erwin
Meet the team
Andy Shaw
Partner - Head of Personal Injury and Medical Negligence
Alison Rowlands
Legal Assistant - Personal Injury
Simon Stanfield
Partner - Personal Injury
Sarah Arnold
Associate - Personal Injury
Becky Littlechild
Client Support Manager - Personal Injury & Clinical Negligence
Claire Burnell
Principal Associate Solicitor - Personal Injury
Zoe Beviss
Major Trauma Case Handler - Personal Injury
Simrit Chahal
Associate - Personal Injury
Kathryn Powell
Trainee Solicitor - Personal Injury
Steven Santy
Partner - Personal Injury
Sally Green
Associate - Personal Injury
Akoufe Hijazi
Legal Assistant - Personal Injury
Laura Hopkins
Associate Legal Executive - Personal Injury
Mark Parsons
Professional Support Lawyer - Medical Negligence and Personal Injury