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PPE (or Personal Protective Equipment) is of fundamental importance in the workplace to keep workers safe and to enable workers to do their job properly. PPE can include boots, overalls, high visibility vests, gloves, hearing protection, hard hats etc. Without PPE the chances of injury are undoubtedly increased. The purpose of PPE is to ensure workers are kept as safe as possible. The PPE relevant to you would depend on your role and the environment that you work in.

If you think of a building site, the typical PPE is usually hard hats, high visibility vests and boots. On a building site there may be loose bricks overhead so you can see why hard hats are required. High visibility vests are also useful as there may be vehicles coming in and out of the building site. Boots are also necessary and would help prevent injury if anything was dropped onto the workers foot.

If you think of an alternative environment, such as a train depot or power station, PPE should include hearing protection as noise levels may reach levels that could potentially be harmful. On a train depot you would also expect high visibility vests so people can be seen. If a person uses vibratory tools as part of their job, such as jack hammers, gloves may be necessary to help prevent hand arm vibration syndrome (also known as vibration white finger).
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At The Injury Lawyers we deal with all types of personal injury claims. We deal with children’s personal injury claims too. In law a child is often referred to as a minor. In this blog I will attempt to explain the difference between a child’s personal injury claim and a standard personal injury claim brought by an adult. The first thing to note is that a minor is someone under the age of 18 years.

A child’s claim must commonly be brought through a litigation friend. The litigation friend must be an adult and is often a parent or guardian. The litigation friend must act in the best interests of the child at all times. The litigation friend must not have an interest in the claim. For example if a child is injured in a road traffic accident and a parent was the driver of the vehicle, that parent may not be able to act as litigation friend for the child, as they clearly have an interest in the claim. In certain situations a professional litigation friend can be appointed by the solicitor or the Courts.

The limitation period also differs in respect of children’s claims. The limitation period applies to all personal injury claims. After an accident or injury you have a window in which you can pursue a claim for injury and loss. This window is the limitation period. If the limitation period expires and you have not issued Court Proceedings on your claim, then you may lose your right to claim compensation.
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To say someone is at a disadvantage on the open labour market means that, as a result of an accident or injury, they are disadvantaged in finding work, holding down work, gaining a promotion – general career type things etc. You can try and recover compensation if an accident or injury had caused you some kind of disadvantage on the open labour market.

Awards in respect of disadvantage on the open labour market can often be quite big. However this will always depend on the facts of the particular case and the level of handicap.

Say for example you had been working as a painter and decorator all of your life and you sustained a severe injury such as the loss of your right hand. You would have great difficulty carrying on with your job as a painter and decorator because you may need both hands to hold a brush in one and a paint tin in the other. In finding alternative employment you are also at a disadvantage – the potential jobs that you could do are restricted because of your injury.
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Generally speaking if Driver B caused their vehicle to crash into the back of Driver A’s vehicle, then Driver B would be at fault.

This is, of course, a typical rear end shunt scenario whereby liability is usually attached to the driver who drove their vehicle into collision with the vehicle in front.

As a driver myself, this must be the correct decision as you have no control over the vehicle that’s driving behind you. However, in some strange and unusual circumstances, Driver A in the above scenario could be held at fault.
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Bouncy castle accident claims may be more common than you think. Unfortunately many accidents on bouncy castles can and do cause severe injuries – and these injuries are often to children or minors. Of course, bouncy castles can be a good source of entertainment for children but they are not as safe as we may suspect them to be.

One major issue seems to be with the variety of age groups that use bouncy castles. The danger here is that young children (such as at the ages of 2 to 10) are using the same bouncy castle at the same time as young teenagers (aged 13 to 16) for example. This is a recipe for disaster.

As we are all aware, children grow up at different speeds and some children aged 13 to 16 can be as heavy and as big as adults. This in turn causes a big danger to the younger more vulnerable children as they could be crushed or injured quite easily. Despite this danger being very clear and obvious, some children are still put into this dangerous situation.
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This is a question that we get asked time and time again. It is not always an easy question to answer. We always try to move a case forward as quickly as possible but at times we are relying on other parties (such as insurance companies and the Courts) to do this. We have policies in place to ensure that we move the case forward as quickly as possible at our end.

When a claim is formally taken on, that is when we have entered into an agreement (such as a Conditional No Win No Fee Agreement) with a client; we can start to prepare a formal Letter of Claim. The agreement is simply confirmation that we as a Firm of Solicitors agree to act on your behalf to pursue your claim.
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In a claim for personal injury you can recover damages for the injury itself (this is known as General Damages) and you can recover damages for any losses that you have incurred as a result of the accident (this is known as Special Damages).

In all personal injury claims you are under a duty to mitigate or minimise your losses. I will attempt to explain just what this means for you as a Claimant.

Say for example that you sustained injury due to a pothole in the pavement, you stepped in the pothole and unfortunately twisted your ankle and fell to the floor. You can recover General Damages for your injury (twisted ankle, bruising, cuts etc) and you can recover Special Damages for any losses that you may have incurred (damaged/torn clothing, unable to use your gym membership for a few months, lost earnings etc). With Special Damages it will often require some form of proof that you have suffered the loss –  so where possible you should retain receipts and records.
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Claims against the hospital – commonly medical negligence claims – are bound to be more sensitive that most personal injury claims.

We are fortunate in our country that we have access to the National Health Service (NHS) but we are still entitled to make a claim if we have sustained injury or have been adversely affected as a result of medical negligence. A first thought is that it can seem harsh to sue the NHS, given that it provides medical treatment free of charge and in theory it is only there to help people who need treatment.

On the other hand people pay taxes and in effect it is these taxes which run the NHS – so ultimately it is a debate in itself whether it is a free service. Another point is that the NHS, as with a private company, has insurance in place for the sole purpose of paying out compensation to injured victims. The fact is that there is no shame in making a compensation claim; if you have sustained a genuine injury as a result of medical negligence then it is your right to claim. The insurance the NHS has is actually more of a self insured department called the NHS Litigation Authority.
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Let’s get straight to business on this one – a Pre-Medical Offer is not something that should be taken lightly. As the name may or may not suggest to you, in the world of personal injury claiming, this is an offer made to a Claimant (you if you are making a personal injury claim) to accept a sum of money in settlement of a potential claim.

It is usually made by the other parties’ insurers and it is an offer made before you have been for a medical assessment of your injuries. By medical assessment, we mean a legally, organised one – not a visit to your own GP! The aim is to get you to settle your claim before you have had your medical report.

Right now you should be asking yourself the question, “if I’m claiming for an injury but I haven’t had a specialist look at it then how do I know how bad it is?” The answer is that you don’t.
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Supermarket cages (also known as roll containers, roll cages, roll pallets etc) can be a danger to you, whether you work in a supermarket or simply shop in one. Unfortunately many accidents involving supermarket cages have happened in the past and continue to happen to date.

The Research Report 009 titled “Safety of roll containers” describes a roll container as follows:

“Roll containers are half pallet-sized platforms, with four running castors and with a wire cage used to contain goods during transport. They may be used to transport goods in a lorry between a warehouse and a retail store for instance or within a supermarket to transport goods from the store room to the sales floor.”
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