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BBC News has reported that a police sergeant has been awarded nearly £400,000 in compensation having suffered serious injuries in a motorcycle accident. It is said that Mr Steve Ball, who was on duty at the time, was involved in a head-on collision with another motorbike back in 2006. He spent nearly two weeks in hospital having had to have surgery after losing the use of the right side of his body. Despite his operations, Mr Ball still suffers from the effects of the accident, that is, he is still in a lot of pain and has restricted movement. In fact, Mr Ball has had to retire early due to the severity of his injuries.
It just goes to show that your day can be totally different from how you imagined it would be. The negligence of another motorcyclist has jeopardised Mr Ball’s career and life. It will simply never be the same again. If you have similarly had a life-changing experience as a result of the negligence of another person then you are more than likely due compensation to help place you back in the position you would have been had you not have been injured. That said, even if your injuries are not as bad as Mr Ball’s you may still be entitled to make a claim for compensation; though the amount of compensation you receive will likely be significantly less. Simply put, if you have been involved in an accident through no fault of your own and as a result you have been injured, no matter how serious, you have a potential claim. The key thing is that you have been injured; you cannot make a claim if you have no injury. This means that if you have been injured and you may be somewhat to blame, you may still have a claim for compensation. It is therefore best to get in touch with a professional injury lawyer with years and years of experience in dealing with these sorts of claims who can advise you as to whether you potentially can win compensation.
At The Injury Lawyers we do our utmost to make sure you receive the proper advice that you deserve, and should you have a claim, we will do all we can for you to make sure that you get the maximum compensation you deserve. In fact, we go further than most other law firms and make sure that you always receive 100% of this compensation. We always make it clear that we will never take any of your compensation away from you, and put this in writing in the agreement; it is all yours.
Road traffic accidents can happen anywhere on our roads at any time. We put our trust in others on the road to drive safely; thus keeping other road users safe. However, as I was reminded on my way to work this morning – this is not always the case. On the M1 today (Thursday 9th March 2011) at around junction 29, a lorry had crashed through the central reservation colliding with a number of cars in the process. As a consequence five people were taken to hospital; two of which with serious injuries.
The above incident serves to make us all the more aware of the dangers of driving on the motorway.
Many people can love motorway driving due to the ease and the increased speed you can get to places. However, on the flip-side, many people can dread motorway driving as it is a type of driving which requires increased concentration, due to the high speeds involved, and even a heightened experience of driving in order to become more confident within the motorway environment.
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The term ‘Product Liability’ within a personal injury context means a product which has caused you harm through no fault of your own. As consumers we put our trust in the products we buy, the retailers who stock the product, and the manufacturers that make the product. I can hazard a guess that most of us would not anticipate that a product we purchase could cause us harm, and on the most part they don’t; however, for a number of people this is not the case.
Faulty Products
Products which end up on the shelves of retailers usually go through a number of safety checks to ensure they are safe for the public use. However, as we have seen from many of our clients, these checks may not be thorough enough, or an item may have missed the usual checks. If you have suffered an injury due to a faulty product then you may have a claim for compensation. It may be the case that the faulty product is a chair which when sat on collapsed, or a hot water bottle which burst causing burns to you. The product may also be a food item which was contaminated with something and caused you illness and/or injury.
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Third Party Capture – Should I Get a Lawyer After a Car Accident?
The answer is YES!
At The Injury Lawyers we are passionate about getting our clients the best possible amounts of compensation. This is why issues such as Third Party Capture are a topic of great concern to us. We therefore feel the need to inform our blog readers of our concern.
Many clients come to us with a claim and report some disturbing news that they have been approached by the defendants insurers for a potential personal injury claim. They report that they have either received an offer for settlement by the insurers or received an offer of a medical examination so they can value any potential claim you may have and make you an offer thereafter. This is a process that is commonly known as Third Party Capture. It is a process whereby the insurers of the potential defendants of a personal injury claim try to gain a settlement before the claimant obtains their own advice from an independent personal injury solicitor and instructs them to proceed with that claim.
If the insurers succeed in their task and the victim accepts the offer made to them, this offer may be accepted on a full and final basis, thus stopping any further claim proceeding. The claimant, therefore in accepting the claim without gaining the advice from an independent solicitor, are in serious danger of under settling their claim, and could be accepting an offer which is grossly less than what their claim is actually worth.
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Road Traffic Accidents – Rear End Shunts
Now I can hazard a guess that many of us can see that the roads are getting busier and busier. This can be seen through the amount of traffic jams we sit in either going to and from work, going to the shops, or doing the school runs. We can also see that new roads and by-passes are being built to handle this increase in traffic.
With this obvious increase in traffic comes the inevitable increase in road traffic accidents. At The Injury Lawyers we have many clients that come to us after a road traffic accident, asking us whether they have a claim. These road traffic accidents can range from a head on collision to a car pulling out of a junction on a claimant, or an incident of drink driving. Most clients on approaching us and telling us the accident circumstances ask whether they have a claim. With many types of road traffic accident this can be a more complex task of judging who was at fault in the eyes of the law. At The Injury Lawyers if we think your claim has a 51% chance of success or more we will usually take on the claim. There are some road traffic accidents however where it is less complex to judge whether there is a potential claim – namely rear- end shunts.
Rear – end shunts is a term commonly used by lawyers and refers to a situation when a vehicle drives into the back of another vehicle. In this situation, on assessing the claim, we would say that the person who has been driven into definitely has a claim for compensation (unless there are extenuating circumstances), and we would definitely take your claim on. This is due to the fact that the other driver is clearly at fault in the vast majority of circumstances.
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Making a Compensation Claim – It’s Easy
If you have suffered a personal injury having been involved in an accident that was not your fault, it may well be the case that you are entitled to compensation. After all, you did not deserve your injuries and it may be that because of your accident and the injuries that resulted, you have incurred extra expenditure that you should not be liable for. So yes, in most cases where your injuries were sustained through no fault of your own you will be entitled to compensation and you can go about obtaining this compensation by contacting a lawyer who can guide you through the process. Despite more and more people being aware that they are able to make a claim for compensation, some refrain from doing so because they are under the impression that the whole process of getting that compensation will be laborious and simply something that they cannot be bothered with. The aim of this blog is to show you that making a claim for compensation is far simpler nowadays and can be over in a matter of months.
The Pre-Action Protocol for Personal Injury claims has made the process of obtaining compensation a great deal more straightforward. Because of this, you are able to get hold of the compensation you may deserve faster. What this Protocol has done is set out a series of steps that are to be taken by your solicitor and the other side when dealing with you claim. For instance the first thing your lawyer will do for you is take all your accident details. This will allow him/her to produce what is known as your Letter of Claim. This sets out what your accident involved, the injuries you have suffered, and the details of any other losses (for example, a loss of earnings) that you may have also suffered. This is then sent to the other side who have 21 days to acknowledge this letter and either deal with your claim themselves, or, as in most cases, instruct their insurers or solicitors to deal with your claim. Once the other side has acknowledged your Letter of Claim they are allowed a maximum period of three months in which to investigate your claim. This is not to say that the whole process of sending your Letter of Claim out and the period for investigations will take nearly four months, but instead to say that this is the maximum time it should take. Your claim may be settled in a month or two months if everything goes well.
At The Injury Lawyers we are well aware that you want your claim to be dealt with as fast as possible and you want to be updated on any progress that is made. That is why we promise to contact you every two weeks to ensure that you are always up-to-date. We will also make sure we contact the other side on a regular basis to ensure that they are progressing their investigations of your claim. The Injury Lawyers understand your anxieties and concerns and therefore aim to deal with your claim in the quickest time possible, and at the same time make sure you get the maximum compensation you deserve.
Many clients that approach The Injury Lawyers with a potential claim are aware that they may be entitled to compensation for their injury. This heightened awareness may be due to the increasing amount of personal injury related advertisements on television and the radio. Many of these clients, however, are not aware that they may also be entitled to other losses they have sustained as a result of the accident.
When we advise clients we also advise and enquire as to their losses. These losses are then compiled in a document known as a Schedule of Loss which can then be disclosed to the other side and claimed for. There can be many items included in this Schedule and I have listed some of these below:
- Care and assistance: – if you have needed care and assistance as a result of the accident then this may be claimed back at an hourly rate. This means that, where you have required a carer or family or friend to assist you with personal care, such as dressing and washing, household chores such as vacuuming and cleaning, preparing meals or shopping (this list is not exhaustive), this may be claimed back. It must be of note however that due to the nature of the claim you may not get all of which you claim and whatever you receive is payable to your carer/carers.
- Loss of earnings:- if you have suffered a loss of earnings as a result of the accident then you may be entitled to claim this back – it may be that you have had no pay at all or simply a reduced rate of pay such as Statutory Sick Pay. If you are employed then a solicitor would usually ask you for 13 weeks of wage slips prior to the accident. Your loss of earnings is then calculated over an average of the 13 week period. If you are self –employed this average is usually calculated over 3 years of profit loss accounts.
- Treatment costs: – for many clients who come to us at The Injury lawyers we are able to arrange private treatment such as physiotherapy at no cost. This allows our client to have treatment quickly compared to the potential wait for the NHS treatment. This treatment can then be claimed back in the Schedule of Loss.
- Other types of loss which may be included in the schedule could be travel expenses to medical appointments etc or even prescription costs – as long as they are a result of the accident.
The above list is not exhaustive so to find out more about losses The Injury Lawyers may be able to provide advice.
If you have been unfortunate enough to have been involved in a road traffic accident and have sustained an injury as a result, you may be entitled to compensation. Importantly, this is still the case even where the other driver is uninsured or where the other driver is ‘untraced’ – that is where he or she has driven off without providing you with their details. So, if you are one of around 23,000 people a year who are injured as a result of a road traffic accident with an uninsured or untraced driver, please do get in touch with a professional injury lawyer who will do their utmost to obtain the maximum compensation you may deserve.
At The Injury Lawyers we understand that those who have been involved in a road accident may find themselves extremely frustrated by the thought that the other driver may have ‘got away with it’. After all, they either have no insurance and would seemingly be unable to compensate you for your injuries, or they have fled the scene and left you with no one to obtain compensation from. However, this is where an expert lawyer is able to properly advise you and progress your claim for compensation through the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (‘MIB’). Founded in 1946, the MIB is funded by you through your insurance premiums. Around £15-30 of your insurance policy goes to the MIB who are then able to compensate victims of uninsured and untraced drives. In 2008 over 60,000 claims for compensation were settled through the MIB.
If you have been involved in a road traffic collision involving an uninsured or untraced driver and you have suffered injury and loss through no fault of your own, it is key that you get in touch with an experienced injury lawyer. They will be able to give you the advice you require and take you through the process of submitting a claim through the MIB which will involve your lawyers submitting a claim form on your behalf. Importantly though, you should seek any necessary medical attention for your injuries, make sure that your accident is reported to the police, and see if you can get hold of any witness details. This is important to ensure your well-being and to assist in efficiently progressing of your claim with the MIB.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
You may guess the general topic of this blog is accidents at work – but more specifically accidents stemming from a lack of/inadequate personal protective equipment (or PPE for short).
PPE is safety equipment which is given to workers to either wear or use to protect them from risks to their health and safety. These are risks which cannot be limited in any other manner and PPE is the last resort. PPE can include protection for eyes – i.e.goggles; protection for the ears – i.e. ear defenders; gloves; respirators or masks; or even protection from adverse weather conditions. This brings me onto a news story which I have recently read whereby a former army chef who could no longer work within this field due to contracting a non freezing cold injury. The chef worked at temperatures as low as minus 14 degrees Celsius and was not given the correct PPE for these conditions. The chef successfully sued the MOD for £150,000.
It is also noteworthy that an employer should not ask for you to pay for the PPE, or ask you to make any contributions towards it. Regulations in the UK state that it is the duty of the employer to provide the appropriate PPE to their employees. Furthermore, employers should check that the PPE is properly maintained and stored, and properly issue instructions through training as to the correct use of the PPE. Employers should then keep a check that the PPE is used correctly.
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I think that most I us are realising that the roads are getting busier and busier. I only started driving a few years ago and I can see a marked difference in the number of cars on the road. With this increase in the volume of traffic comes the potential increase in the amount of road traffic accidents that are taking place. If you have been in a road traffic accident that was not your fault, you may have a claim for compensation.
Road traffic accidents tend to happen most predominantly at traffic meeting spots such as junctions and roundabouts – it is these places where a lot of people may be fighting for space, thus causing a collision, or they are simply not paying the necessary care and attention to the road and fail to notice that traffic is slowing in front of them. Whilst driving in an areas such as large, multi-laned roundabouts, it also becomes apparent those drivers who do not know where they are going and trying to change lanes at the last moment or are too busy looking at their map/sat navto take heed to the traffic around them are a clear danger.
If you have been involved in a road traffic accident it is important to report the accident to police if necessary, who may want to compile a report. It is important to seek medical attention for your injuries; this not only assists with the injuries but allows the medic to place a note in your medical records. Check for witnesses to the accident and if they are present obtain their contact details as they may be able to provide valuable support to any later claim you may have. Ensure seek the advice of a specialist injury lawyer; many law firms will give a free assessment to your claim whether they are able to take it on or not. It is advisable to seek advice directly from a law firm as there are many referral agents out there wanting your business to simply sell your claim on to a paying law firm rather than the firm who will give you the best service.
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