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Unfortunately, once they reach school age it’s difficult to be with them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and therefore accidents can/will happen where its your child who is the injured one.

So, can you make a claim for compensation if your child has been injured during school hours?

These types of claims can be very difficult, as teachers and schools can only be expected to do so much and they cannot be expected to watch children every minute of every day. However, there are certain incidents that may warrant bringing a claim. Some of the most common situations are:
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Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is there to help to protect against health and safety hazards in the workplace. Under the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992, PPE is to be defined as all equipment in 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 and safety“.

Safety and work boots are therefore seen as protective work equipment, and therefore must be worn in the work place where necessary. Such Protective work equipment should only be provided with a cost to the employer and an employee is not expected to provide their own equipment.

Both employers and employees have a duty with regards to safety shoes. Under the 1992 regulations, it states that it is an employer’s duty to ensure that all PPE provided is kept “maintained in an efficient state” and is in “good repair“. Safety shoes must be chosen sensibly be the employer so that they are suitable for the job in hand. Employees have a duty to wear the appropriate safety shoes if they are provided.
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Public transport has grown in popularity over the recent years as the government has invested a lot of money in improving services to try and divert people away from using cars as much as possible. However, just because you are not in your own vehicle does not mean you won’t be involved in an accident and unfortunately you can find yourself sitting comfortably on a bus and still walking away with an injury.

So who is liable for a bus accident?

If the accident is due to another vehicle being careless then 9 times out of 10 you will pursue a claim against this person as they are at fault for the accident. Therefore, if you are involved in an accident with another vehicle at fault it is important to either obtain the other vehicles details at the scene of the accident (usually just the registration plate is required) or obtain the bus companies details and contact them afterwards to obtain them (or of course the police if the collision has required their attention).
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Road traffic accident claims can be quite quick as a new protocol was brought in in 2010 to ensure this was the case. However, although in the majority of cases your claim can be turned around quickly there are certain things that can delay a claim – some of which are unfortunately out of our control.

Some main ones are:

• The other side’s insurers have not responded to the claim notification form.
• Your injury, medical evidence and rehabilitation needs.

With regards to the former, if the insurers do not respond in the 15 business days as allocated to them in the portal, the claim falls into the personal injury protocol where they have approximately 4 months to confirm their decision. Insurers cannot respond for a number of issues but unfortunately it is more than common than you might think and of course this does mean that your claim may last longer.
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Wet floors can be incredibly dangerous especially if they are a material such as marble or laminate as the shiny surface can make it far more dangerous when the floor is wet. There are two main categories where you may be looking to claim for an accident caused by a wet floor; in a public place or at work. I shall address the two separately as, although they have similar principles at heart, they can be very different when claiming.

Accidents in a public place

Claims run under something called the Occupiers’ Liability Act; under this legislation the occupier of premises owes a duty to those using the premises to ensure they are safe.

For example; the owner of a shopping centre is responsible to ensure the place is not dangerous for people to use!
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Claiming for personal injury can be quite a daunting experience for many people, especially if they are suffering from a serious injury that has now changed their lives for the foreseeable future. However, it really isn’t as scary as people may think. I won’t say that it is a simple thing to do as at the end of the day pursuing for compensation is commencing legal proceedings and consequently you do have to keep this in mind. Furthermore, a claim cannot be successful without the Client;s co-operation and therefore although we will do the majority of the work for you, sometimes you will be required to gather evidence, attend appointments and simply help out.

As of July 2013 there are 2 main protocols in place for personal injury claims depending on the type of accident that you have been involved in and the value of that claim. The first is if you have been involved in a road traffic accident, and in this instance your claim will likely proceed through the road traffic accident protocol that was brought in back in 2010. This protocol was put in place to speed up the process of claiming for a road collision. The stages in this protocol are as follows:
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Admittedly we have all had those moments where we think it’s clear to pull out of a side road and then had the shock of a vehicle coming past, leaving us glad that we didn’t decide to just press your foot down! Unfortunately, however, some people do end up pulling out and this can obviously lead to quite a nasty collision.

The Highway Code isn’t “law” but guidelines to govern how people should be driving on the road and as everyone has to take a theory test before being given a full driving license, everybody should know it. Under the Highway Code there is a section dedicated to junctions and this is what I shall focus on in this blog.
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Whiplash has been in the news a lot recently with many tabloids and media organisations making unfounded comments about the effect that this injury has on people. Unfortunately, it is this type of advertisement that can make people very wary and uncomfortable when thinking of claiming for whiplash, but this should not be the case- whiplash can be incredibly debilitating and can affect people severely; especially if they are already suffering from a pre-existing condition.

Of course any settlement that you will receive following a claim for whiplash will come down to your medical evidence and your personal circumstances as everyone will be affected differently. For example; someone who is employed in a position that involves heavy labour may not be able to return to work as quickly as someone who has an office job- meaning that they will suffer greater financial loss because of the injury and therefore will wish to claim further special damages for loss of earnings. No solicitor should be able to confirm to you at the beginning of a case what you definitely will get, and although we get many people asking we will always advise the same; settlements are different in every single case (sometimes even if it is just by 1p) and therefore it will come down to YOUR medical evidence and YOUR circumstances.
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Settle quickly, out of sight, out of mind, pre-medical offers; these are the types of phrases that insurers think of straight away when they hear of a personal injury claim from a claimant who does not have legal representation. Now we would not wish to seem like we are just bad mouthing insurers because of competition reasons as this simply is not the case! We just know from our extensive experience in the area of personal injury claiming that they do unfortunately try and take advantage of claimants who do not understand the proper legal system that is in place.

Unfortunately, insurers also tend to bad mouth us to people with phrases such as “high legal fees” “long court action” and “unnecessary middlemen” – trust us this is not the case.

And the term “middlemen” for lawyers is a joke!
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Trapping a part of your body in a door is a lot more painful than you would think; sometimes it can even lead to amputations. Unfortunately, it seems that many children tend to suffer from these types of accidents whilst at school and as the doors in schools tend to be fire doors they are incredibly heavy and can cause a serious injury.

The first thing to point out, with these types of claims, is that they’re not easy to win unfortunately. It is only in specific circumstances where we may be able to assist clients in these type of claims on a No Win No Fee basis. When making a claim for personal injury there has to be certain prerequisites these are:
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