Occupiers Liability Supermarket Slips and Trips

Personal injury claims against supermarkets are common, with customers commonly slipping or tripping in the supermarket aisles. Any owner of a supermarket owes a duty of care to visitors of their store under the Occupiers Liability Act 1957. When that duty is breached, a personal injury is sustained due to the supermarkets negligence.

Under the 1957 Act, ‘An occupier of premises owes the same duty, “the common duty of care”, to all his visitors, except in so far as he is free to and does extend, restrict, modify or exclude his duty to any visitor or visitors by agreement or otherwise‘.

Visitors are to include customers, store staff, suppliers and delivery drivers.  An occupier is to be seen as the individual in general control over the premises or in this instance supermarket in question.
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Work Equipment Injury Claims Advice

Employers have a duty to protect their employees in the workplace. The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, or PUWER as they are informally known, outline what exactly an employer needs to do to meet this duty.

For example, Regulation 5 sets out ‘Every employer shall ensure that work equipment is maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair‘ and Regulation 4.3 sets out ‘Every employer shall ensure that work equipment is used only for operations for which, and under conditions for which, it is suitable‘.

To summarise, an employer must ensure that all work equipment is in good working order and is completely suitable for the relevant task in hand. Examples of work equipment are hammers, knives, ladders, and may other tools – in fact, most equipment or machinery used within the working day. The 1998 regulations ensure that employees are covered when stopping and starting equipment, maintaining, cleaning and repairing all work equipment.
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Risk of Manual Handling Injuries at Work

Manual Handling is one of the most common causes of injury in the workplace. Manual Handling generally includes; lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling or carrying, and most employees carry out some sort of manual handling within their working day.

Common types of injury caused by manual handling are:

• Back pain
• Sprains and strains to lower back and shoulders
• Damages to muscles and tendons

The Manual Handling Operations Regulations were introduced in 1992 in order to keep employees safe in the workplace and to reduce the number of employees injured at work.

The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 set out that employer should ‘so far as is reasonably practicable, avoid the need for his employees to undertake any manual handling operations at work which involve a risk of injury‘ and ‘shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of all such operations which cannot be avoided‘ plus ‘shall take appropriate steps to reduce the risk of injury during those operations to the lowest level reasonably practicable‘.
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Advice on using Personal Protective Equipment at Work

Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE as its commonly known, is essential in many occupations and is there to act as protection against health and safety hazards in the workplace. PPE is defined in the The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 as ‘all equipment which is intended to be worn or held by a person at work and which protects him against one or more risks to his health or safety‘.

PPE comes in many forms such as:

• Helmets and hard hats
• Goggles
• Safety footwear
• Safety harnesses
• Life jackets

It is an employer’s duty to provide PPE and to make sure it is suitable to the job which is being carried out.
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Laser Skin Resurfacing or Rejuvenation Injury Lawyers

With many “high street” beauty boutiques now offering this treatment many people have unfortunately been the victims of negligence and have consequently suffered injury that they did not envisage.

There are three main procedures that are performed when it comes to skin resurfacing/rejuvenation, these are:

• Chemical Peels
• Dermabrasion
• Laser resurfacing

All of these carry with them inherent risks which can make making a claim quite difficult as there has to be some type of negligence to proceed with a claim for compensation.  The three main things that are required are that the person should owe you a duty of care (which is implied between a medical practitioner and a patient), they must breach this duty of care, and they must have caused injury as a result of the breach. So what types of injury are caused?
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Plastic Surgery Injury Claims Lawyers

According to Wikipedia: Plastic Surgery is a medical specialty concerned with the “correction” or restoration of form and function.

It is something that is always in the news; including very recently with Jackie Stallone speaking out about her regrets on having plastic surgery after suffering from her 3^rd heart attack. But Jackie is if course not the only one that has fallen foul to the scalpel; other famous figures such as Michael Jackson, Pamela Anderson and David Guest are all examples of what plastic surgery can do. In recent years however, it seems that plastic surgery is no longer just something that the rich and famous pay for with many people now undergoing the knife to achieve the look they have always desired;  For example, in 2010 a total of 38,274 cosmetic procedures were carried out in the UK, compared with 10,700 in 2003 (source).

However, unfortunately not all of these procedures go the way the patient thought it would when they paid for the procedure, with negligence unfortunately happening in some.
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Traction Alopecia Compensation Claims from Hair Extensions

Traction alopecia is a condition caused by continuous “pulling” on the hair follicles. This pulling puts stress on the hair and therefore ultimately it commonly results in premature hair loss and balding patches that many people may complain of.

One of the main causes of this condition is badly fitted hair extensions – more frequently with the hair extensions that are “bonded” to the hair rather than glued (however it can occur in both circumstances) as the natural hair is put under a lot of stress supporting the greater weight of the extra hair. Many Claimants’ often complain that the injury occurs most frequently around the hairline and temples as naturally the hair is always thinner.

There are two ways which the hair extensions can be negligently fitted:
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Medical Negligence – Failure to read results!

Every day we put our trust in the NHS and the professionals that we consider to be able to address and help aid us with any medical needs. However, unfortunately, sometimes mistakes are made which can result in awful circumstances where an individual is left with a life changing injury.

One of the hardest aspects of medical negligence claims is that with any medical procedure there will always be inherent risks which would be extremely difficult to make a claim for; so one of the first things to establish is whether what has happened was something that was explained to you as an inherent risk and something that unfortunately could not have been avoided or whether it is something that would not have happened had the negligence occurred.

There are many different circumstances that can arise under the general heading under “Medical Negligence” and in this blog I will focus on an occasion when a professional has failed to read results properly.  At one time or another most of us will have undergone or will undergo a test at the hospital – be this an x-ray, MRI scan, ultrasound – and we all understand that the sole purpose of these is to produce results that indicate what is wrong with us to enable further and appropriate treatment.
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What happens when a claim falls out of the Road Traffic Accident Protocol portal?

Road traffic accidents proceed through something called the Road Traffic Accident Protocol, which involves your claim being electronically submitted to the other side’s insurance through an online portal. Once the claim has been submitted through this portal, they have 15 working days (so around 3 weeks) to respond formally with their admission or denial of liability.

But what happens if they don’t respond in this time frame? And what happens if they deny responsibility?

In both of these circumstances the claim “falls out” of the portal system. In the case where they just simply do not respond the claim will then proceed through the personal injury protocol. Under this protocol the Defendants have just around 4 months to investigate the claim and respond with their decision.  In many claims, such as rear end shunts or other cases where it is extremely clear that a party is at fault, it is unusual for the claim to fall out as many insurers try to get these resolved as quickly as possible (another reason that they sometimes try and contact you directly!). Insurers may want the claim to fall from the portal for their own reasons; however this is of course frowned upon and seen as insurers not complying with the “spirit of the protocol” set down by the Ministry of Justice.
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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Personal injury does not just mean physical injuries – psychological injuries can be just as life changing and sometimes can be worse because they cannot just be “seen and assessed”.

However, it is this that can also make including a claim for psychological injury incredibly difficult even if it is something that you consider is affecting your life just as much as your physical injuries. Some of the main hurdles to overcome are listed below however, it is always best to speak with a personal injury specialist direct if you are wishing to include this type of injury in your claim.

Recognised Condition

The condition that you are suffering has to be a recognised illness that a medical professional would diagnose. This includes things such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression and anxiety. If the injury is not diagnosed it is incredibly difficult to include it in a case, which is understandable. For example; you wouldn’t try and make a claim for a broken leg if there is no proof in your medical records that you have had to have treatment for this injury!
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