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Compensation for Sporting Injuries
In the United Kingdom, if you have been injured as a result of somebody else’s negligence, you are able to obtain compensation from the negligent party to put you back in the position you would have been in had the accident not have happened.
At The Injury Lawyers, we typically deal with injuries that arise from road traffic accidents and accidents at work, or those out and about in your local town centre – but so long as you have been injured through someone else’s negligence, claiming for compensation is not confined to these types of accident.
A further type of injury claim is one for injuries that people have sustained whilst playing sport. However, there are many things to consider when assessing the prospects of success of a sporting injury claim. Firstly, what you have to realise is that, when you play sport, you are accepting the inherent risks of injury involved with that particular sport. For instance, if you are a boxer, you are accepting that you will get punched in the face and might end up with a black eye or a broken nose. In rugby, you are accepting that you are going to face some tough, heavy challenges for the ball, which carries an inherent risk of injury in doing so.
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Did you know that if you were a passenger injured in a road traffic accident that you have one of the best prospects of making a successful personal injury claim?
It does not matter whether you were the passenger in the car whose driver is at fault for the accident, or the passenger in a vehicle which has been involved in a collision with a negligent third party – so long as the blame for the accident cannot be attributed to you (which is, as a passenger, highly unlikely), you almost have a definite guaranteed claim for compensation.
This is because you have sustained injuries through no fault of your own, and the law allows you, as the innocent party, to obtain compensation for these injuries. Road users owe other road users a duty of care to ensure their safety and wellbeing; the same applies to drivers who owe their passengers the same duty of care.
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Road Traffic Accidents Involving Uninsured Drivers
Road traffic accident claiming is straightforward – especially where the other driver has insurance as the usual route is to claim compensation from the insurance company. However, it has been suggested that there are over one million uninsured drivers in the United Kingdom.
So, how do you make a claim for compensation against an uninsured driver? After all, pursuing the driver themselves may not be fruitful as they will in all likelihood not be worth suing. Does this mean that you cannot be compensated for the injuries you sustained at the hands of a negligent uninsured driver? No.
Over five decades ago, in 1946, an organisation called the Motor Insurers’ Bureau was set up to compensate the innocent victims of negligent uninsured drivers. A compensation fund was started with roughly £15 to £30 of everyone’s yearly insurance policy being contributed. This has meant that millions of innocent victims of negligent uninsured drivers have been able to obtain compensation for their injuries and vehicle damages. It would be unjust if they could not be compensated simply because the negligent third party has broken the law – the Motor Insurers’ Bureau is able to deal with the claim and provide compensation like an insurer would.
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At The Injury Lawyers, our name says it all – we are expert injury lawyers. We can proudly say this because we have successfully dealt with thousands of injury claims over many years and have gained a reputation for getting our clients the maximum compensation they deserve in the shortest possible time.
Because we are quality injury lawyers, and I stress that we are ourselves actual injury lawyers (not some middle man who will pass your claim around to make a fast buck), we can deal with complex injury claims as well as the more straightforward. So, although a lot of our work involves dealing with what we class as straightforward road traffic accident claims, we also deal with accidents at work, accidents in public areas, and other injury claims such as those arising from medical negligence.
Recently I read about a seven-year-old boy who had just been awarded over £2million in compensation for brain injuries he sustained at birth due to medical negligence. BBC news has reports that Ciaran Dill of Luton suffered permanent brain injuries when his birth was delayed in 2004. As was heard at Court, Ciaran’s birth was delayed for almost an hour, and as such, he was starved of oxygen. The hospital in question had not been fully focussed on his heart monitor, and Ciaran was left with a devastating and everlasting brain injury which means he will not be able to walk or talk and will require round-the-clock care.
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At The Injury Lawyers, the most common type of claim we deal with is that arising from injuries from a road traffic accident. With a new procedure which came into place after April 2010 that streamlined the claims process, obtaining compensation got a whole lot more efficient and faster.
Before, a road accident claim could take a fair few months or even a couple of years under the previous system; now you could receive payment confirmation within a couple of weeks and have your claim settled in less than a couple of months. Anyone put off claiming for compensation for their injuries out of a car crash should not do so if this is on the basis that the matter is likely to drag on – it is in fact unlikely it will drag on!
In the most part, people also seem to think that it is only the driver of the motor vehicle that can be compensated. For instance, if someone goes into the back of the driver’s motor vehicle, the driver in the vast majority of circumstances can obtain compensation. That said, if it was the driver who caused the accident, then the driver cannot be compensated for their injuries as these injuries are not due to someone else’s negligence. But what if you are an innocent passenger?
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What Happens After a Bus Accident – Have I Got a Claim?
When we talk of road traffic accidents our first thought is that this typically involves two or more cars.
However, road traffic accidents incorporate all sorts of vehicles and pedestrians. One of the rarer sorts of road traffic accident claims is that which involve buses. If you or your lawyer can demonstrate that the injuries you sustained whilst on a bus were due to the negligence of a third party driver, you have a very real chance of obtaining compensation for those injuries – at the end of the day you are the innocent victim of someone else’s negligence.
Here are a few circumstances where you might have a claim:
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Claims against uninsured or untraced drivers
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’s estimated that there are over a million uninsured drivers in the U.K.
What happens if you are injured as the result of an accident caused by an uninsured driver?
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Although claiming for compensation is actually quite straightforward, especially when you have a quality injury lawyer on your side who is willing to fight tooth and nail for the maximum compensation you deserve, there are several stages that you may be interested to know a little more about the whole process. Here is a quick guide:
Stage 1: Letter of Claim
This is typically the first piece of correspondence you have with the other side. It outlines your accident, your injuries and explains why we, your injury lawyers, believe that the Defendant has been negligent and should provide you with compensation for your injuries. Once sent to the Defendant, the Defendant has 21 days to acknowledge the Letter of Claim and begin their investigations.
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The number of pedestrians who are involved in road traffic accidents is quite shocking. Despite various safety campaigns and procedures being in place, at The Injury Lawyers we come across a fair few pedestrian injury claims ourselves as well as those we read in the news. It would seem that, despite pedestrians having their own pavements and specific crossings, there are still drivers out there who will negligently cause an accident with a pedestrian.
One particular type of pedestrian accident claim is those where the innocent pedestrian has been using a zebra crossing and a negligent third party driver has failed to heed their presence and take the necessary precautions and has instead collided with the pedestrian.
Zebra crossings are different to those with traffic lights and in fact it would seem that it is the lack of traffic lights which has made them somewhat more dangerous. Everyone should know that on crossings with traffic lights you push the button, wait for the green man to appear, signalling that the lights have turned red and all traffic should have stopped, and cross. However, it would seem that the lack of traffic lights on zebra crossings means that drivers are not taking into account the possibility that a pedestrian may be waiting to cross.
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Bicycle Accident -What can I Claim For?
It sometimes seems that everywhere we go we cannot get away from messages telling us to reduce our carbon footprint. In the fast evolving world we live in where we can get from A to B relatively easily in comparison to a century ago, it would seem that this has come at a substantial cost to our environment. This has led some people to ditch their cars and take up cycling instead. Unfortunately, we at The Injury Lawyers are increasingly hearing of accidents involving cyclists.
If you have been injured as a cyclist through no fault of your own, a quality injury lawyer like those here at The Injury Lawyers are on hand to help you get the maximum compensation you deserve.
Despite many new cycle paths being created and several campaigns to warn road users about the safety and importance of being aware of cyclists, the roads are a perilous place for Britain’s cyclists. The main type of accident we hear about involving cyclists are those where a negligent third party vehicle has not seen a cyclist and caused a collision. That said, other accidents do not necessarily involve negligent drivers, but instead, are caused by the defects in the road surface; for instance a pothole.
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