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Whiplash Compensation in the News

Personal injury is often in the press; whiplash even more so. Sadly, the majority of what people hear about is nothing but bad news and the insurers’ side of the story. We have covered probably most current affairs issues surrounding whiplash and personal injury, and we will continue to defend the innocent victims of whiplash who genuinely suffer pain and incur loss until our dying breaths!

Once again whiplash is in the news as the government are announcing plans to cut car whiplash claims. It’s all very well making a good effort to cut out the fraudulent claims – we agree with that – but stating the plans to “cut car whiplash claims” is a careless statement.
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Read this to save yourself some money! Like, 30% of your payout!

Unfortunately (or rather fortunately perhaps for you!), we do not deal with claims for miss sold PPI – HOWEVER, there is a very good reason as to why we don’t. For anyone who has had a claim or who has considered a claim, you may well know that a solicitor or claims company dealing with the case will be taking a percentage of your payout because they are unable to recover fees back from the other side.

So you do not receive 100% of your PPI compensation payout. According to some research we have looked at, as much as 30% will go to the solicitors or claims company running these cases on their No Win, No Fee agreements.
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According to sources from The Telegraph, a young mother in Wales who was fitted with the dangerous PIP breast implants containing industrial grade silicon has died after a suspected overdose which the Telegraph says could be related to the worries and fears over having the implants inside of her.

According to the report (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9227694/Young-mum-died-after-worrying-about-PIP-implants.html), 24 year old mother and civil servant Paige Goldup had been airing her fears publically over social networking sites and was quoted to have said how stressful the situation was for her and how she was worried about having to pay for removal and replacement.

The report goes on to say she was a loving mum with so much to live for, leaving her family both baffled and heartbroken as to how this has happened. She was found unconscious at her home and was taken to nearby Moriston Hospital in Swansea where she tragically later died. An inquest has been opened and adjourned whilst toxicology and other tests are carried out.
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This is one of the most common questions we are asked by our own clients just as much as the accident victims who ring us up for our expert advice and to find out more about our quality representation. As a firm of specialist personal injury lawyers, we are the best guys to ask to answer this question.

Unfortunately, we can’t quite answer it yet…

It all comes down to the nature of your injuries, suffering, and losses. The value of your claim is entirely dependent on the severity of your injuries and how much they have affected your life. For example, a fractured leg is generally worth more than a bruise to the leg. If you are suffering for six weeks as oppose to two weeks, your claim will likely be worth more. If you are a very active person who has been prevented from taking part in sporting activities as a result of your injury, this can be taken in to account in comparison with someone who doesn’t take part in any sporting activities and has generally been impaired by the injury less.
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Any injury can end up being debilitating – but when it’s a vital limb we use as part of our everyday lives, the things we are normally able to do can end up being severely restricted.

A trip over a dangerous hazard or a slip on a wet floor can leave you falling to the ground, and doing what we all do when we are falling – instinctively put out your arms to break your fall! Whilst this vital instinctive defensive mechanism can minimise the damage to your body, you are likely to suffer a hard knock at the very least, if not a break in any area of your arm caused by the impact of the fall.

The common injuries we see here are fractures and dislocations to the wrists, fingers, and elbows, unless you’re luck enough to escape with soft tissue damage instead. The soft tissue injuries you can get can be equally as damaging and may leave you feeling tender for quite some time. If you suffer from ligament damage you could be in an even worse position as many ligament ruptures can be impossible to repair, leaving you needing some from of reconstructive surgery.
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The Commons Health Select Committee debated the question as to whether the PIP implants are actually classified as ‘unsafe’ remains unanswered. Two reviews are looking in to scientific evidence of any risk the implants pose, as well as assessing the regulation within the cosmetics industry, and also reviewing the reaction and steps that were taken following the notification that the implants were dangerous back in March 2010.

As many of you are fully aware, we have only really been finding out about all of this n the last few months – two years on from the initial notification!

The conclusions from the reports remain unclear. According to the Committee, there is “no evidence of likely long term negative health effects attributable to PIP implants.” However, the advice goes in to say that “the quality of evidence available does not allow definitive conclusions to be drawn.” Further research is therefore a requirement to confirm whether the use of the silicon in these implants poses any health risk to the victims who have them.
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Yes – the clinic director who said that women were simply being “whipped into a frenzy” and claimed that the PIP Implants were not unsafe is now having her own set removed, according to sources from the Daily Mail. Mrs Beryl Atkins, the director of the Transform clinic, one of the big users of the implants, said there was “no evidence in the UK that PIP implants could rupture or cause cancer.”

In January this year she said “I have had PIP implants for five years and I’ve never had any problems. We’ve used them on a number of women and we haven’t had any complaints. People are being told they rupture and cause cancer but in the UK there’s no evidence for that. As a result there’s a mass panic. We have had no ruptures though.”

She added “it seems wrong that women with PIP implants are being whipped into a frenzy even though there’s no evidence they are dangerous.”
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We are already aware that many clinics have not been too friendly or helpful with the PIP victims to date – our source of information on this is dead on as well; our very own clients. It also seems that the idea of legal waivers is not only a growing concerns amongst victims who want their implants removed as soon as possible, but also an increasing trend amongst the clinics according to our clients.

But what is just as hard to stomach as this whole scandal is the idea of any clinics taking advantage of the worried victims to increase their profit margins. According to British Association for Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS), some clinics are trying to bully the PIP victims in to further unnecessary surgery, sources from the BBC have confirmed.

Clinics are cross-selling other procedures and services to PIP victims using scare tactics to convince them that further treatment could be a necessity.
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A lot of people rent properties nowadays – and a lot of people end up with difficulties with landlords. Whilst I am sure there are many decent and upstanding landlords out there, my experience with many of them is that they will try and charge you for anything that goes wrong in the house – even if it’s not your fault!

But one of the really important things is the health and safety behind renting a property. Your landlord has an extremely important duty to ensure that your health and safety is not jeopardised whilst you are living in the property. Regular systems of inspection and maintenance should be carried out by your landlord in order to uphold this.

Anything that is associated with the agreement you have is covered by the laws. If you rent a fully furnished place, then it’s not just the building itself that has to be safe for you to live in – it’s the fixtures that came with the property as well! What is your responsibility and the landlords responsibility should be clearly identified in your tenancy agreement, so you know who is responsible for what.
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Since this whole scandal came to light, we have spoken to countless victims of the PIP implant problem and taken on a significant number of compensation claims over the last few months.

Our Specialist PIP Compensation Team have been growing increasingly concerned over the sheer number of people who are reporting that their medical groups and clinics have been treating them entirely inappropriately.

It’s fair to say that a good 99% of the people we speak to have all shared their horror stories of how their clinic has failed them in some way.
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