Can you get whiplash by hitting a pothole?

First of all, whiplash is an injury to the neck which is caused by the soft tissue in the neck being stretched and strained after a sudden jolt or movement. It is not just confined to the neck, it can affect the shoulders, back, arms and hands and most of the time can result in headaches.

Therefore, if you are travelling in a vehicle which has unluckily driven into/over a pot hole (and let’s face it, some of them at the moment are large enough to get stuck in), then the jolting movement of the vehicle can jolt your body and more importantly your neck.
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Injury Lawyers for Children

We, The Injury Lawyers, deal only with claims for personal injury. We do not deal with any other types of law – so day in day out, our hard working teams are fighting for the maximum compensation for accident victims across the country.  So we can easily say, with confidence, that we are the specialist in our field.

As such, we deal with many injury claims for children. Naturally there is a need for more care to be taken when it comes to our little ones being injured, especially as they can be more vulnerable to serious injury.

It’s sad to hear when a child has been injured, but where it is not their fault, we will step in and make sure your child is compensated for the maximum amount they are entitled to recover, and we’ll make sure that the whole process is as easy as possible.
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Personal Injury Compensation Payout on a Knee Injury – National Average for Knee Injury Payouts

Injuring your knee is usually very painful. As an area of the body that’s prone to injury, you can get anything ranging from some straightforward muscular swelling like a pulled muscle or a stretched ligament to the agony of a torn or ruptured ligament leaving you unable to walk properly for a long time, and even needing surgery.

The problem is that it is too easy to twist your knee to such an extent where you end up rupturing ligaments and needing reconstructive surgery.

A torn ligament may not be so bad, and can be repaired surgically but may be prone to tearing again and will leave you in a lot of pain for some time – but if the whole ligament ruptures, you will likely need a hamstring or patella graft (or similar) where pieces of the hamstring or patellar tendon are taken and fitted in the place of the ruptured ligament (hence the term ‘reconstruction’)
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Proving Fault in Road Traffic Accidents

In order to recover damages in any personal injury claim, you must be able to prove that someone else was legally at fault for the accident.

Fault in this sense means that someone was careless, reckless or negligent as to cause an accident.

In personal injury claims, the person who is considered fault is referred to as the Defendant.
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What is the Difference Between a Claims Representative and an Actual Injury Lawyer?

In short- a big difference! And one that can severely affect the service level you receive during your claim but also the final settlement!

“We have been trying to contact you regarding your accident; we now have details of how much you can claim”

The above is the classic example of correspondence from a claims handling company- it is highly unlikely that this is from a reputable solicitor’s firm. There are some major points that I will address in this blog which hopefully will show that a claims management company is NEVER the best way to go- ALWAYS seek your own solicitor to act on the case for you.
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Medical Negligence Claims Solicitors

A recent report showed that during 2011, the General Medical Council (GMC) the organisation that manage, register, and licenses doctors practicing medicine in the UK, received a total of 8,781 complaints from patients

The three most commonly reported types of complaint were related to:

• concerns with investigations and treatment, such as failure to diagnose or prescribing inappropriate medications
• problems with communication – such as not providing appropriate information or not responding to people’s concerns
• perceived lack of respect for the patient – such as being rude or dishonest

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Getting the Maximum Amount of Compensation – How do we do it?

Claiming for an injury is often something that nobody knows they will do; after all, an accident is by definition something you did not mean or want to do. However, if you have been affected and make the decision to pursue a claim an important part of this is, of course, is making sure you have a solicitor that will get you the maximum amount of compensation you deserve.

Now, claiming for compensation gets bad press sometimes – however an injury caused by an accident can have devastating consequences; for example, you suffer from loss of earnings or in serious cases you can no longer pursue the career you were heading for. Of course this is a main concern for many, however there are others such as medical and travel expenses that start to mount the longer your rehabilitation time is.

So how is compensation calculated? Basically, the compensation you are awarding depends upon how serious your injury is and how long this will affect your everyday life. For example; if your injury is going to affect you for the rest of your life, you are entitled to more compensation than someone who’s injury will be fully recovered in a couple of years (generally speaking).
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How Long Should it Take for an Insurance Company to Reply to an Accident Claim?

It is a question that many people want to know and a question which we are asked time and time again. In terms of how long a claim will take from us taking it on to you receiving a settlement cheque, it is always difficult to say as it depends on a number of factors.

We as a firm pride ourselves on being efficient; we move cases forward as quickly as possible. However, to an extent we do rely on others such as insurance companies, the courts, medical experts etc.

A claim is likely to go through quicker if liability is not an issue and if the symptoms are relatively minor so only one medical report is required. However every case is different and at the outset any time frames given by any Solicitor would be effectively a guess.
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Noise in the Workplace

Your employer has a duty to keep you safe and free from harm. One potential hazard in the workplace is noise. Exposure to excessive levels of noise can cause deafness – deafness caused by industry or employment is often referred to as industrial deafness. As people’s hearing deteriorates with age, many people who have worked in industry may not be aware that they are suffering from industrial deafness. Noise is measured in decibels (dB).

If noise is a potential hazard in your workplace your employer should have carried out a noise assessment or noise survey. This would involve checking the noise levels at different places through the premises and checking the noise levels emitted from all the various types of machinery. Your employer may also evaluate the noise exposure of each individual employer. Noise exposure is averaged out over an 8 hour working day.

Deafness claims are historic in nature as they can involve bringing a claim against one or more of your former employers. In essence you would seek to bring a claim against each and every employer who exposed you to excessive levels of noise after 1963. You cannot bring a claim for exposure to noise where the exposure occurred before 1963. Noise exposure before 1963 may have caused damage to hearing but in law it is classed as non-negligent exposure as employers were not aware of the dangers of noise at that time. A publication in 1963 meant that employers can be held liable for exposure to noise where the exposure occurred after 1963.
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Claiming for Whiplash After Accident

You may not be surprised to hear that whiplash claims are one of the most common types of personal injury claims. Whiplash claims unfortunately seem to attract a lot of bad press as well.

However anyone who has ever suffered a whiplash type injury will know that whiplash can cause a great deal of pain, discomfort and inconvenience. Whiplash is a genuine injury and an injury which is compensatable in law. I believe the main difficulty or the reason why whiplash claims receives such a bad press is due to the perceived difficulty in diagnosing the condition.

If you have sustained whiplash following a road traffic accident then it is your right to claim compensation.
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