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Many of us, using that old phrase –  ‘live for the weekend’. This meaning we look forward to the end of the working week when we can relax, have a lie in and go out socialising with our friends or loved ones. Nights out at these times can range from going dancing in a night club, going for a drink in the local pub, or going to a trendy wine/cocktail bar. Whatever your idea of a good night out, I can hazard a guess that you would not anticipate having an accident in an evening out venue that was not your fault.

Many potential clients that approach The Injury Lawyers with these types of claims are concerned that their consumption of alcohol may have an effect on their claim. This may have an effect, but it does not necessarily mean you cannot claim. At The injury Lawyers we give free claim assessments so whether we take the claim or not – you do not have to pay a thing for our legal advice. If we are unable to take on the claim we can usually suggest other avenues which you could explore.

Venues such as clubs, pubs and bars have a duty to protect their customers like anywhere else. They must abide by strict health and safety regulations and make sure their staff are trained to uphold the safety of the premises. These measures may include completing regular checks of the floors to ensure they are free of spillages which may cause a slip hazard, or ensure the floors are free of articles such as broken glass which may cause lacerations to your feet. Venues normally have a maximum capacity of people it may safely hold, so if an accident has been caused which was due to a venue being over capacity, this may be a potential claim.
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Car accident claims – the most common form of personal injury claims there is. There’s one heck of a competitive industry for car accident claims, and there are right ways, and very wrong ways, to go about making a claim after a road accident.

So – please take this advice seriously

If you have a car accident that wasn’t your fault, it’s more than likely you have a successful claim for compensation. It’s quite easy to establish who is at fault after a road accident – so in many straight forward instances, you have a claim.
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Many of our clients here at The Injury Lawyers are aware they can claim compensation for their injuries, but may not be aware they can claim for other losses. Upon approaching firms you should be given advice regarding the sorts of losses you can claim for after an accident.

Law firms tend to advise of these losses early on in the claim to allow the client to gather up past evidence of losses and save any ongoing evidence for future reference. What this evidence takes the form of depends upon the type of loss which is being claimed.

I have listed some of the more important and common types of loss below:
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The motorway can be a scary place to drive. With cars travelling at such high speeds and in close proximity to each other there is no doubt that confidence and elevated levels of concentration are needed. Many people aim to avoid motorways – always ensuring to set any sat nav to ‘avoid motorways’ preferring to take a longer route instead. This being said however there are people who enjoy the motorway because of its ease to get places. Whatever your thoughts on the motorway I would hazard a guess that most would not anticipate having an accident whilst travelling on one that was not their fault.

There can be many reasons why accidents can happen on motorways. I have discussed a couple below.

Undertaking

When I say undertaking I mean going past someone in a slower lane. This is not only illegal but also dangerous. Undertaking could cause a situation where a driver changes lane from the fast into the middle lane in front of another car. The driver then doesn’t see or expect another car to come down a slower lane and change into the middle lane, potentially causing a collision. In this type of situation the person undertaking would usually be at fault as they should not be undertaking. In order to avoid such accidents occurring drivers should not undertake and should use the motorway correctly by driving down the slowest lane possible.
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Sustaining an injury at work can be a trying time for the victim involved. You may feel that the accident should never have been allowed to happen. You may feel your employers are responsible, and they should do something about it. You may want to claim but you are worried about the backlash from your boss.

The answers are here: read on for a quick guide on what to do in this situation, and what you’re rights are.

Do You Have a Valid Claim?

There are numerous health and safety rules and regulations your employers must legally bide by; particularly in industries involving foreseeable and obvious hazards, such as a building site or a chemical plant. These rules and regulations are there to maintain the duty of care your employers have for you and to prevent you from coming to harm.
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Now you may look at the above blog title and think: “what is she talking about?” Well, in answer to that – I am talking about a landmark case which changed the face of product liability claiming.

The case I refer to is Donoghue v Stevenson and was heard in 1932. The facts of the case are quite simple – Mrs Donoghue was out with a friend and went into a cafe for a drink. Her friend bought her drink – ginger beer – and they both sat down.  Mrs Donoghue then proceeded to drink her ginger beer until she realised there was the remains of a snail at the bottom of the bottle.

Now, you may think – why is this a landmark case? Well, as a result of the incident Mrs Donghue suffered gastro – enteritis and nervous shock as a result of the contaminated drink. As a result Mrs Donoghue claimed compensation from the manufacturers of the product with whom she had no explicit contract (she did not have a contract with the retailer either as she did not buy the drink herself).
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We are all still seeing the effects of the winter madness over December last year that brought Britain to a standstill after seeing some of the most severe snow showers in years. The effects we are still feeling are the pesky potholes which have littered our roads and pathways since the big freeze; caused by water seeping in to cracks in the surface, freezing, and expanding, pushing and cracking the concrete, and forming hundreds – if not thousands – of potholes.

Unfortunately, claiming against the council can be quite a difficult process – so it’s always best to get a top quality injury lawyer on the case to increase your chances of success. The reason it is difficult is because of the legislation we have in place concerning the maintenance and repair of our highways. In reality, the local authority in charge of a stretch of highway is only responsible for the reasonable and practice inspection, maintenance, and repair duties.

But what does this mean?
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For any drivers out there, you probably know where I’m coming from for this article. I do a lot of driving on a weekly basis which involves a long 40 minute to an hour commute on motorways to and from work twice a week when I visit my partner (she doesn’t drive – so it’s always me clocking up the miles!). In my time of driving I have had my fair share of near misses (me being blameless in all), and I unfortunately happen to go across a few roundabout well known in my area to be a bit of a hotspot for accidents and traffic jams.

Every time I see an accident or avoid one myself, it really hits home just how easy it is to end up involved in a road accident. For many it can be a little scary and confusing, as you just don’t know what to do, and you may have already been inundated with calls from your insurers, claims companies, and even solicitors you have never even spoken to offering you money and services.

Well – step back, take a breather, and have a read of this article for what you should be doing if you end up involved in an accident that wasn’t your fault.
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At The Injury Lawyers we deal with all sorts of accident at work claims. The focus of this blog, however, is personal protective equipment; or PPE as it is known for short.

PPE is equipment that is needed at work to wear or use in order to protect workers from risks to their health and safety. If you have suffered an injury due to a lack of/insufficient PPE, then you may have a claim for compensation, just like a worker I read about some time ago. This worker was employed by a car manufacturer to pick out metal debris from a coolant at the base of a drill. Now, due to this, the claimant suffered irritant dermatitis on his hands – an extremely sore and painful condition which meant he had to take time off work. The claimant successfully sued his employers for £5,500 as it was found the claimant was supplied with inadequate gloves for the work as they were pierced by the metal cutting. The employer could also have provided a better procedure of clearing the debris from the machines by implementing a vacuum extraction procedure. So, not only was inadequate PPE provided, but a better procedure all round could have even prevented the victims suffering.

PPE is only really meant as a last resort, whereby the employers have no other way of protecting their employees against the risks to their health and safety.  Regulations in the UK state that this PPE should be provided to employees free of charge and without any contributions having to be made at all. It is also the duty of the employers to ensure the PPE is correctly used; i.e. by way training, and to check that the PPE is maintained regularly and stored correctly.
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If you have unfortunately been involved in an accident that wasn’t your fault, and you have suffered a personal injury as a result, you may have a claim for compensation. During the period after your accident you may have incurred some expenses which we at The Injury Lawyers feel you should not be responsible for. After all, the accident wasn’t your fault, so why should you bear the brunt of any costs?  

Whilst we try and recover most of the costs back that you have incurred, all claimants must adhere to mitigating their losses: this means that claimants must make a genuine effort to keep their costs to a minimum. One example of this – if you have been involved in a Road Traffic Accident which has left you without the use of your vehicle and you need to travel, instead of taking a taxi, where possible, try and see if there is a cheaper option; for instance, taking public transport.  Also, make sure to keep any receipts that can back up the use of alternative transport. This then makes it easy for us to justify the expense to the Defendants insurers.

There are certain circumstances where the losses are justified – a common one we can claim back is your loss of earnings resulting from any time off work you have had to take from the injury, or  from attending medical appointments etc. This is seen as a reasonable expense to claim back. We would normally request that you send us at least 13 weeks’ worth of pay slips as evidence of your earnings.
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