Picking up on the earlier article about parental indemnity settlements, I want to draw attention to the increasing trend by the other side’s insurer to make so called “pre-medical offers,” These offers come into play at an early stage of the claim if the other side admit fault for your accident they will often put forward an offer of anything between £1,000.00 and £2,000.00 (and sometimes several offers in quick succession) to bring your claim to an end. When I first began working in personal injury law nearly three years ago I noticed that these offers were rarely made by insurers but in the last year particularly almost every insurer will make an offer of this kind if they admit liability for your claim.

The rise of this tactic by insurers is probably a result of the fact that more people are becoming aware that they can claim for compensation from accidents and so many insurers are looking to cut their losses by throwing money at your claim which may not necessarily be a fair and accurate reflection of what it is worth.
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How the personal injury pre-action protocol and pre-action disclosure provide an effective resolution to your claim

Key to helping you bring your compensation claim is the personal injury pre-action protocol which is one of The Injury Lawyers main tools in bringing your claim to an effective conclusion.  The protocol was first recommended by Lord Woolf in his access to justice report of July 1996. Essentially its aim is to ensure that both parties to the claim disclose to each other the evidence relevant to your accident so as The Injury Lawyers can consider fully whether there are prospects to take your claim on.

To put the protocol into context in the progress of your claim, The Injury Lawyers will write to the responsible party informing them that they are representing you in your claim and will request in the letter that the responsible party pass the letter to their insurance company who then have 21 days to acknowledge your claim.
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The most common question asked by client’s who have suffered a personal injury is; ‘what is my claim worth?’ Everyone wants to know what their claim is worth, what they should expect to receive with regards to compensation but what many of them will not ask is; ‘how is my claim calculated?’

Clients, on occasion, will argue that their claim is worth more than is being advised because ‘Jo Blogs’ down the road received more or ‘someone’ told them it would be worth ‘X’ amount. Many clients believe that liable Defendant’s should pay out sums of money for general inconvenience caused or as an apology for causing the incident. Unfortunately, the system does not work in this manor…so how does it work? Are there rules and guidelines in place to aid when making valuations?

The answer is yes and the guidelines in place are the ‘JSB Guidelines’.
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Doctors, surgeons, nurses, and all health workers charged with the care of those who are ill or injured have a duty to ensure that the procedures and medicines they practice and provide are safe and adequate.

Medical Negligence: the term itself is straight forward; for example medical staff failing to sufficiently examine and diagnose a patient or administering the wrong treatment.

So it’s never nice to hear about a serious medical negligence case that has resulted in the death of a young boy; particularly when it could have been prevented.
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Not only do Motor Insurance Bureau deal with claims were ‘at fault’ drivers are uninsured, they also compensate victims involved in accidents where the other driver is untraced, say for example, because they have fled from the accident.

The untraced driver’s agreements 1996 applies to any case were death or bodily injury to any person has been caused by someone using a motor vehicle on a road in Great Britain.
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The law you need to know: Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 – ‘PUWER’

The above Regulations outline that your Employer should ensure that all work equipment is maintained:
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What happens if an owner of a vehicle gives his permission for someone who he knows is not insured to drive his car? Not only would he be civilly liable (which means any other injured party will be able to sue him for any injuries or damages caused), he would also be criminally liable.

To what consent the owner would be liable was considered in the case of Monk V Warbey. In this case the Claimant was injured by a car being driven by an uninsured driver with the owner’s knowledge. In order to claim against the owner of the vehicle, the Claimant must show:
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Tort means civil wrong, so where in criminal law a wrong is a crime, in civil law it is called a tort.

Negligence is one of the most important areas in tort. In order to establish negligence the following must be assessed:

• Was the defendant (the person you hold responsible for the ‘tort’) careless in his behaviour?
• And did this careless behaviour cause you a loss or injury?

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Most accident claims are fault based – this means that in order for your claim to succeed, you must prove that the defendant is at fault (the Defendant being the person you hold responsible). In order to sue a party for the ‘tort’ of negligence you must prove (among other things) that the Defendant breached the duty of care he owed to you.

So to qualify for the fault ‘test’ you must show that the Defendant’s standard of care fell below that of a reasonable careful person and he is therefore blameworthy.
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I’m sure you have all been in a position were someone is talking some kind of jargon to you in a language you don’t understand and you just stand there smiling, slightly embarrassed, a bit uncomfortable and just nod along like the Churchill dog (from the Insurance adverts) to avoid looking silly but really thinking to your self ‘Please translate you idiot’!
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