If you are injured as the result of a road traffic accident, you will usually be entitled to claim compensation from the insurance company that provided cover for the other vehicle.
Even though it is a legal requirement for all vehicles used on the roads in the United Kingdom to be insured, it is estimated that there are over a million uninsured drivers in the UK. What happens if you are injured as the result of an accident caused by an uninsured driver?
In 1946 an organisation called the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) was set up to compensate the victims of negligent uninsured and untraced motorists. All insurance companies that provide car insurance in the UK must also be members of the MIB and contribute towards the cost of running the MIB. The MIB costs each law abiding insured motorist between £15 to £30 a year through their insurance premiums, and the benefit of the scheme to an innocent victim of an uninsured motorist can be enormous.
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If you have been injured as a result of an accident at work, you may be entitled to claim compensation. The latest government figures for 2010 show that 147 people were killed whilst at work, and over 121,000 other accidents happened at work that were serious enough to need reporting to the governments Health and Safety Executive.
If you are injured whilst you are at work or because of your work, your employer may be responsible for paying you compensation if they have failed to meet their legal responsibility to keep their employees safe.
In the vast majority of cases, the claim will be dealt with by the employer’s insurance company. It is a legal requirement for all employers to have insurance in place to cover the risk of employees being injured at work.
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As more and more people drive cars and our roads become increasingly crowded it is a sad fact that the chances of you being involved in a road traffic accident are higher than ever before.
If you are involved in a road accident, it is important to try not to panic. If the accident is serious, you should call the emergency services and offer any help and assistance to the injured people that you can safely provide.
If anyone was injured in the accident it is always a good idea to call the police to the scene. They will advise you whether it is safe to leave and also make a report of the accident that could be useful later on.
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A large number of personal injury claims are caused by slips and trips by pedestrians because of defects or hazards on the footpaths, and road traffic accidents involving collisions between various road users.
However, over the last few years as people try to keep fit, save money, or help the environment, there have been an increasing number of cyclists on the roads. Although the government has introduced various measures, such as cycling lanes, to make using a bicycle safer and more convenient, it is unfortunate that the roads remain a dangerous place for cyclists.
The two most common types of accidents that result in personal injury to cyclists are the result of being hit by a vehicle whilst on the road, or because of a defect in the road or pavement surface.
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Road traffic accidents, or RTAs, cover various different types of accidents that involve vehicles on the public highways.
Collisions between cars will usually be dealt with by the drivers’ insurance companies if the crash only caused damage to property. If the accident was more serious and resulted in one or more of the people involved being injured, it will usually be necessary for a personal injury lawyer to get involved.
The most common RTA’s involve collisions between car drivers on the roads. If there are passengers in the car, van, bus or coach who also suffer injuries in a crash, they can claim compensation from the company that insured the vehicle or vehicles that caused the crash as well. This is even if they are travelling in the car of the driver who was at fault and they are closely related to the driver. This it to make sure that anyone injured in a road accident that was not their fault is fully compensated for their injuries.
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The phrase ‘slips and trips’ is often used to describe one of the most common types of personal injury claims. These accidents can happen at work – for example, if an obstruction has been left in a corridor, liquid has been spilled on the floor, or the surface of the floor is in poor condition. Alternatively, they can also happen in public places such as in the street because of a pothole or uneven paving slab or on private premises where the public have access such as a cinema or supermarket.
It is also possible to make a claim if you have a slip or trip on private land that is not open to the general public. However, for this type of claim, you must generally have been invited as a visitor onto the land or otherwise have a good reason for being there. An easy example – as a customer in a supermarket.
In both cases, the person or organisation responsible for the land or building has a legal duty to make sure that the area is reasonably safe. Whether the owner has failed to keep the area safe will depend on the circumstances, such as the type of land or building. For example, local authorities have a duty to maintain their pavements to keep them in good condition.
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Children are involved in accidents every day; whether at school, in the playground, or at home. Quite often this is simply a pure accident that is no one’s fault. However, children can be the victims of other people’s careless behaviour, just the same as adults.
Young people suffer injuries in pretty much the same sort of circumstances that adults do, whether it is as a passenger in a car, tripping or slipping in a public place or because of a faulty product.
Children are more vulnerable than adults and this means that people in situations involving children have to take extra care to ensure that they do not cause harm to children because of their carelessness. It also means that children can claim compensation in situations where adults could not; for example if a child has an accident because they were not being supervised properly.
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On average, someone in the UK will suffer two broken bones in their lifetime. A fracture is the medical term for a broken bone; but they both mean the same thing.
A broken bone can range from a barely noticeable hairline fracture through to a bone that has been completely snapped into separate pieces. Healthy bones are generally very strong and will actually bend under pressure. But sudden or very forceful impact can cause the bone to fracture. Young children’s bones break more easily because they are still growing, but they will also heal more quickly. Unfortunately, as we get into old age, our bones become more brittle and will break more easily.
Doctors refer to broken bones in a number of different ways depending on the type of break or fracture. The most common include:
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Your employer has a duty to make sure you are safe from the risk of personal injury whilst you are work. This obviously includes making sure that you are not injured whilst you are going about your everyday job, but it also includes protecting you from risks to your long term health.
One common danger, especially in heavy manufacturing and industrial workplaces, is hearing loss. Many people don’t realise that they can claim for damage to their hearing – or they simply put it down to getting older. However, damage caused to an employee’s hearing is very much a personal injury just as any other injury caused by an employer’s failure to protect the health and safety of their employees.
This type of claim may be called a hearing loss claim, occupational industrial deafness claim, or noise induced hearing loss claim; but they are all for the same thing. If an employee works in an environment where the noise level is above safe levels for long periods of time, they must be provided with equipment to protect their hearing. If the employer did not provide this, or the equipment was not suitable or good enough, then the employer will be liable if their employees’ hearing is damaged as a result.
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If you are injured or experience ill health because of a faulty or defective product, you may be entitled to claim for compensation.
The Consumer Protection Act 1987 (CPA) provides important safeguards to protect consumers from defective products. It makes it easier for a person to claim compensation if they are injured because of a fault in a product.
Nearly everything we buy could be a product that is covered by the CPA. The CPA recognises that, if not manufactured or sold properly, any product could potentially be harmful to a person’s health. Product liability covers a wide range of products including everyday items such as food, cosmetics or clothes, through to one off items such as electrical goods and children’s toys.
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