The plaintiff suffered injuries in an accident when he was riding a bicycle at Palm Beach and was struck by a car. The plaintiff rode his bicycle at speed straight over a pedestrian crossing without first stopping and hopping off his bicycle. The driver of the car did not have time to apply brakes and collided with the plaintiff, who was not wearing a helmet, on the pedestrian crossing. The plaintiff was found to be 25% contributory negligent (that is, he contributed to the accident by 25% by his own actions).
The plaintiff flew over the bonnet of the car and landed on some grass and was initially unconscious. He was admitted to hospital by ambulance who attended the scene.
There was a dispute between the parties as to the injuries caused by the accident. It was agreed that the plaintiff had suffered injury to both his knees in the form of abrasions and a minor head injury. However, the plaintiff claimed that he also suffered injury to his neck; lumbar spine, psychiatric injury, a more severe head injury and more severe injuries to both knees, all of which were disputed by the insurance company.
Unfortunately for the plaintiff, the judge did not consider him to be a credible and reliable witness. The judge’s view was that the plaintiff exaggerated to most of the medical experts (and to the court) the extent of his injuries and ongoing symptoms.
Among the reasons that the judge found that the plaintiff was not credible included that he had failed to report any symptoms to either the paramedics, the hospital where he was admitted or to his GP (who he had seen regularly for other ailments) for more than two years. His social media posts were also extremely inconsistent with his claim. The plaintiff had reported to one expert that he “stays at home most of the time because of my back” and “I stay in bed most of the time” and “I wouldn’t be able to sit through dinner in a restaurant without having pain”.
Despite these statements to the medical experts, however, his social media posts showed him enjoying activities including going out to dinner, going on holidays to Sydney and Bali, go-karting, riding an e-scooter, rock and rope climbing, quad biking, dodgem cars, hiking, lifting up his girlfriend and his girlfriend sitting on his shoulders. The judge concluded that these posts were inconsistent with his symptoms and the plaintiff being in pain to the level that he described to both the experts and to the court.
The judge decided not to accept the plaintiff’s evidence where there was no other supporting evidence and decided that he had suffered only a minor head injury with no ongoing effect. This meant that the plaintiff’s damages award was drastically reduced (from $400,000 to $73,000).
