Archives

Whiplash, contrary to popular media fuelled belief, is a real injury. I know, as I’ve had it myself. I’m in the process of settling my claim as we speak, and I will write an article at a later date about how much I settled my whiplash claim for.

So if you have suffered or are suffering from whiplash, how do you make a successful whiplash compensation claim?

Firstly, there has to be someone else at fault. If another driver drove in to the back of you, or pulled out of a side road in to your vehicle, you should have a successful claim. As long as you were not 100% at fault for the accident, we should be able to help you make a successful whiplash claim.

There is a very straight-forward procedure for dealing with most road accidents, which provides quick timeframes for responses and generally allows claims to be resolved at a fairly quick pace. When we submit a claim electronically to an insurance company, they typically have 15 business days to formally accept liability for the accident. They have probably already accepted liability anyway, so a swift response can be common.
Read More

Tripping over can result in some serious injuries – especially on hard flooring. I know most of us like to have a little laugh when we see someone trip over, and any slapstick British comedy involving people tripping up is funny to watch. But when it happens to you and you’re injured as a result, it isn’t so funny.

For this blog, I’m going to talk to you about tripping over due to broken tiles.

Broken tiles can be obvious tripping hazards. Commonly the tile, or a section of the broken tile, may be raised due to it being broken and loose. You may be unaware that the tile is broken until you step on it when it rises, which again can cause someone to trip over.

So if this happens to you, can you make a claim for personal injury compensation?
Read More

In these difficult financial times, most public sector services are spread thin. There’s an insane amount of potholes littering our roads as local authorises cannot keep up with the sheer volume of defects popping up in the road; school classrooms are become increasingly overcrowded; and people are being let down by NHS care professionals.

Now I want it to be known that I’m not ‘having a go’ at the majority of NHS staff who work unsociable hours and under significant amounts of pressure to provide the level of care that is expected of them. They’re fighting an uphill battle to keep on top of trying to put everyone’s needs first. I’ve been hospitalised, and during the six days in total I was there, it was clear to see how difficult it was for the nursing staff to keep up with the demand from patients.

But sadly, with falls in the level of expected care, comes an increase in the amount of people pursuing claims for compensation against the NHS. We live in an age now where people are much more confident about voicing their opinions when they feel the level of care received has been below standard. Complaints and claims against the NHS are therefore on the increase‘.
Read More

Cosmetic surgery in general is a common thing for people to undertake. Breast implants in particular are very common nowadays, with prices in the region of £5,000 from the private sector. All invasive surgery carries with it potential risks, and breast implant claims come with the same risks most surgery comes with. But aside from the inherent risks, you are putting yourself in danger of suffering due to negligence.

With the PIP breast implant scandal still ongoing, we learned a great deal about just how unregulated the cosmetic surgery industry is here in the UK. A total of around 40,000 women in the UK alone are thought to have received the implants privately, which were filled with none medical grade standard silicon and are likely to rupture. Apparently, for almost a decade nobody knew that the PIP Company were putting people’s lives in danger.

So when you go for cosmetic surgery, there are serious risks and unknowns that you should always consider. How do you know that the implants you are being given are safe? How do you know that your surgeon is going to do a good job? Given the poor regulation in the industry, at present, you don’t. So what happens when things go wrong?
Read More

We take on a lot of claims involving accidents in and around swimming pools. The combination of water and a hard surface can usually lead to people suffering some potentially serious injuries. Fractures are extremely common in these sorts of circumstances.

So if you do have an accident involving a swimming pool, can you claim, and who is responsible?

Generally speaking these claims fall within the realm of the Occupiers Liability Act. This stipulates that the occupier of a premises has an underlying duty to take all reasonable steps to prevent injury from occurring on the premises they are in control of. So if it is a swimming pool in a leisure centre, then the owners of the leisure centre have the responsibility. If it’s in a hotel, then the hotel owners have the responsibility.

Slipping is an obvious hazard. It’s difficult to control this kind of thing given that water is bound to end up on the floor nearby a pool. Normally signs will be deployed to warn people of the danger of slipping and to warn people never to run. Mats could be used between doorways (say between the changing rooms and the pool area) to also help combat the problem. If you slip over in a swimming pool , whether you have a claim or not boils down to whether the owners can prove they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent the accident. To win a claim, we still must prove negligence and breach of law.
Read More

Given how difficult it is to secure a mortgage in this tremendous credit crunch we’ve been suffering from for what feels like an eternity, a lot of people nowadays, particularly the younger generations, are renting. Granted, when you think about it, it’s kind of a waste of money as your hard earned cash isn’t being invested in anything. But there are a few bonuses to the renting game.

When you rent, the responsibility for a lot of factors to do with the property fall on your landlord. Whilst it is probably part of the agreed terms in your contract that you are responsible for the upkeep of furniture and certain fittings, things like utilities comes down to your landlord (aside from paying for them!)

This means that there is a duty on your landlord to PAT test any portable electrical items that come as part of the agreed let, and sockets, fuses, generators, and anything else electrical related falls within their responsibility. It’s prudent for your landlord to therefore have a system of inspection and maintenance in place. This can be a simple callout on a regular enough basis for an electrician to come out and inspect the premises.
Read More

Tens of thousands of UK residents choose to have cosmetic surgery every year. The industry is fairly unregulated, as we came to understand from the PIP breast augmentation scandal from 2012. Each year thousands of people end up turning to lawyers because they want to make a claim for compensation for cosmetic surgery gone wrong.

In this article, we’re going to talk about nose surgery (rhinoplasty) compensation claims.

I can understand why some people may want to have a nose job. The nose is one of the most prominent parts of the face, and ultimately an ugly or badly distinguished nose can literally transform a good looking person in to a not so good looking person. It seems obvious that the end result is not always what people are after; cast your memory back to Michael Jackson’s nose, or take a look at Lil’ Kim’s.  But with any cosmetic surgery procedure, things can so easily go wrong.

Here are some classic examples of problems that can be caused by cosmetic surgery negligence:
Read More

We live in a world where appearance is everything. We also live in a world where science and medicine have developed to such an extent that suffering from even the most severe injuries can still lead to surgeons putting you in a position with a fairly good quality of life (I’ve had my knee pretty much entirely reconstructed; rewind a hundred years ago, I’d have had it amputated!)

So when you combine the need for looking great with the technology we have today, cosmetic surgery is now increasingly popular amongst anyone with enough of a disposable income to afford it. It is now so readily available that it isn’t just the celebs that are having work doesn’t to look as good as possible. In fact, many people take out loans or use credit to be able to afford cosmetic surgery.
Read More

In recent years, the number of horror stories about the quality of nursing home and nursing care workers has been explosive. I’ve seen loads of TV programs and read loads of articles about nursing care staff who just don’t seem to care at all about the patients, and even staff stealing and mistreating those in need of the care.

It’s a scary thought – especially for anyone with friends or relatives in a care home.

As a firm of specialist personal injury lawyers, we deal with all sorts of different claims for compensation. We represent victims for compensation against the NHS or private care homes if the care provided is inadequate or negligent. Common examples are failing to properly care for people, such as neglecting basic food, water, and sanitation needs, which can cause a range of health complications to already vulnerable people. Another example could be failing to properly medicate residents, which could lead to existing health problems getting worse.
Read More

For employers, adhering to manual handling regulations is one of the most important things they need to get right. It is so easy to injure your back by using poor lifting techniques or because routes and lifts are not properly risk assessed by employers. There is a significant duty on employers to make sure that their employees are adequate trained and the lifting exercise is risk assessed to take in to account the weight and size of the load, the amount of people needed to assist, the use of mechanical assistance, and the safety of the journey (to name a few common factors!)

As a law firm specialising in accident at work claims, I can tell you that despite the strict rules and regulations in place, employers are still cutting corners and getting it wrong. If you’re reading this I assume it’s because you have injured yourself at work due to manual handling. For the purposes of this blog, I’m going to go in to manual handling alone.

So, as I said earlier, your employer has a duty to risk assess any manual handling activity. If you are going to be instructed to lift something on your own, your employer needs to be confident that:
Read More