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You know what – I’m sick to death of potholes on the road! One cost me £200 in damage in January, so I’m even more wary about potholes on the road. I’m constantly dodging them! But as is commonly the case, it’s not possible to avoid every single one. I cringe whenever I feel the dip and hear the bang of driving straight over another damned pothole!
But it’s not just vehicle damage you have to worry about in certain situations when it comes to driving over a huge gaping hole in the road. It’s very easy to end up with a whiplash injury as well as doing some damage to your car. Hitting a pothole at speed will cause your car to suddenly and violently jolt. The instinct to brake may also kick in afterwards as well, or you may lose control of the car if the hole has bust a tyre or damage your vehicle.
If you feel stiffness and pain in the neck, back, and shoulder area, usually around 12 – 24 hours after the accident, you may well be suffering from whiplash caused by driving over the hole. You should see a doctor as soon as possible and explain the accident to them so your medical records can show a record of what has happened.
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How Do I Start a Claim for Compensation?
To be honest, with some companies it can be a pain; which is why we make the process simple. What you need to avoid are claims management companies, or these accident management specialists and accident advice services – they’re not lawyers, just middlemen who refer you over to a law firm for a fee. That fee is either payable by you, or is taken out the budget for running the claim, which can leave you with a rubbish service!
There is also an obvious delay as the company basically passes your claim to the highest bidding law firm. You don’t want to be in a situation where someone takes your basic details and then promises a call back within 48 hours – you want to know right from the start if you can make a claim, and most people want the ball rolling right away!
Achieving this is simple – call an independent law firm like us directly. As we are a real law firm, we won’t be passing your details around. We assess the claim, and then we actually represent you for the claim if you want us to do so. We don’t believe in waiting around – in the majority of cases we can assess your claim over the phone, and either get some paperwork out to you by first class post on the same day, or start the claim there and then.
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How much compensation for an ACL Claim
If you’re a sports fan, you’re probably aware of the dreaded cruciate knee injury. The cruciate ligaments are useful for knee stability on impact – so running or jumping is where they come in to play the most. Sadly the knee joint can be fairly easy to injure, particularly in sports. Tearing or rupturing a ligament in the knee can be severely debilitating. As the title of this article suggests, I’ll focus on ruptured ligaments.
A ligament rupture by definition is where the ligament is literally torn in to two (or I suppose more) pieces. Tearing usually means the ligaments remains intact but part of the tissue is torn or ripped. Ruptured usually means it’s been split. If the ligament tears off a piece of bone with it, this commonly known as an avulsion fracture and can usually be repaired with the bone being sewn back on. You’re better off with that than a rupture – I’ll explain why.
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Compensation for a Slip, Trip and Fall Whiplash Injury
The majority of people associate whiplash with car accidents. To be fair, the vast majority of whiplash claims are caused by car accidents. However, you can just as easily end up with a whiplash injury from a slip, trip, or a fall.
Whiplash symptoms are caused by the ligaments and tendons in your neck, back and shoulders being stretched beyond their normal range of movement. If you are jerked suddenly, like when you suddenly slip, trip, or fall over something, the tissue can be suddenly stretched and thus leave you with the injury. So don’t be surprised if you are diagnosed with whiplash after being involved in such an accident.
You’ll probably start to feel the symptoms around 12 – 48 hours post accident. This is common for whiplash injuries. There is no miracle cure for the injury, and a lot of it comes down to managing it effectively with anti-inflammatory medication, pain medication, stretching exercises, and physiotherapy. Physiotherapy is something we can normally organise for you on a private basis as part of a claim for compensation.
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Passenger Compensation Claims – Can I Claim?
Ultimately as a passenger you normally have a guaranteed compensation claim so long as a collision took place. As a passenger, unless you did anything daft like yanked the handbrake or barked in the drivers face and put them off, you can’t really be held responsible when you have no control over the vehicle or the collision. As an innocent passenger, someone else is at fault, so you normally have a guaranteed claim.
As a passenger, you have the same rights as any innocent driver to make a claim for compensation. Don’t think you have no right just because you don’t own any of the vehicles involved – you’re still covered by the insurers!
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Which Regulations Cover Accidents at Work?
There are so many regulations covering accidents at work. Many of these regulations have been introduced and amended over time to keep up with the modern workplace. Employers should adhere to regulations to avoid paying out thousands of pounds in compensation to injured victims. There are regulations covering all different types of jobs and hazards.
Here is a list of just some of the regulations currently in place:
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Chair Accident Compensation Claim at Work
Plenty of us now are sitting down in chairs at work. We trust we’re safe of course – it’s not normal for a chair just to collapse… is it?
In a workplace situation, if your chair collapses for reasons beyond your control, you may well have a good claim for compensation. Your chair is classed as your work equipment, and there are specific regulations in place that state that any defective work equipment that causes you an injury leaves your employer liable.
Even if the reason the chair became defective was totally out of your employers’ control, we can allege the defective work equipment rule and in theory the insurers should be strictly liable to compensate you. As long as it wasn’t you who was responsible for breaking the chair – say you jumped up and down on it or loosened a screw or something.
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Roll cage accident claims for compensation
Many people, particular in supermarkets and warehouses, use roll cages. It’s an everyday piece of equipment needed for moving stock around the premises – so they’re pretty useful! Having worked with them in the past, they don’t half get battered around sometimes! In fact, we see a lot of claims for compensation caused by roll cages at work.
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Is Dealing with Insurers Direct Quicker?
Put simply; it might be. But what you need to know is that are for more likely to under settle your claim for compensation if you settle with the insurers direct. Now, before you start telling me that the insurers have already told you they’ll pay you more by dealing with them direct as they avoid paying out legal fees, don’t bother! We know how the system works, and dealing with the third party insurers directly is very, very dangerous. I’ll explain why.
How to Value a Claim
There is only one way to properly value a claim for personal injury compensation. You must attend a medical appointment with a suitably qualified medico-legal expert. Your own GP does not count! The expert needs to be qualified to prepare a specific medico-legal report.
In most cases when people deal with insurers directly, they do not obtain a medico-legal report. Therefore, any valuations and offers made to you are based entirely on estimations and guesswork. Would you buy a new car based on what it ‘roughly’ might be worth? How do you know you’re not paying over the odds? Would you hand over your hard earned cash to a mechanic when you don’t know how much they will charge you for the work? Better yet, would you let a surgeon operate on you when he/she may or may not be qualified to do so? You can’t leave this stuff to chance.
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We take on a lot of road accident claims involving car parks; they’re extremely common. From people pulling out of spaces without looking (usually reversing), or people not paying enough due care and attention to pedestrians, we’ve seen it all!
From the perspective of a driver, there is an increased duty to look out for pedestrians in a car park. It’s obvious that car parks will be full of people walking in between cars with shopping, and it’s expected that there will be mums trying to juggle a trolley load of shopping together with screaming kids who are running around and generally hating being there! The Highway Code normally stipulates that in situations where pedestrians are likely to be, the driver has an increased duty of care.
As such, if you have been hit by a driver who has not been paying enough attention in a car park, it’s likely we can help you out with a claim for personal injury compensation. Even at low speeds being hit by a car can do some pretty serious damage, which is why we offer the whole package – we recover compensation for your injuries, as well as losses like lost earnings or medical expenses, and we will try and assist with private medical care funded by the other side right from the start as well.
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