Highways Claims

I dodged yet another pothole on the way to work this morning – it’s getting to be rather tedious if I’m honest. OK, so I know the councils budgets are rather stretched thanks to the giant pair of scissors that are David Cameron’s hands; but something needs to be done about it. In fact, if anyone watched Channel 4’s Selling Off Britain on Monday night, you might agree that there is room for a bit of financial redistribution to help us sort out the meteor craters littering our roads.

But – Where does the genuine duty lie? What are the councils and highways authorities responsible to do? You’d be tempted to say “naff all” given the current state of the roads; but there is a duty there.  Under the Highways Act 1980, local authorities responsible for the highways have an important duty to ensure that the highway is reasonably and regularly inspected and maintained. What is classed as “reasonable” is largely down to the authorities themselves; they can range from monthly inspections, to three monthly, bi-annually, or even annual only inspections. It’s all about what is deemed to be reasonable and practical.

If a pothole or defect is reported, the rules change a little. The council now must make the area safe – either by reparations or cordoning off of the area etc, as soon as is reasonably possible. Again, that lovely ambiguous word “reasonable” is in there. How this can be measured is hard to tell. At the end of the day, it’s likely the local authority will put forward the “public purse” argument as to why they are not able to satisfy the safety of highway users.
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Claiming for Loss

Many clients that approach The Injury Lawyers with a potential claim are aware that they may be entitled to compensation for their injury. This heightened awareness may be due to the increasing amount of personal injury related advertisements on television and the radio. Many of these clients, however, are not aware that they may also be entitled to other losses they have sustained as a result of the accident.

When we advise clients we also advise and enquire as to their losses. These losses are then compiled in a document known as a Schedule of Loss which can then be disclosed to the other side and claimed for. There can be many items included in this Schedule and I have listed some of these below:

1. Care and assistance: – if you have needed care and assistance as a result of the accident then this may be claimed back at an hourly rate.  This means that, where you have required a carer or family or friend to assist you with personal care, such as dressing and washing, household chores such as vacuuming and cleaning, preparing meals or shopping (this list is not exhaustive), this may be claimed back. It must be of note however that due to the nature of the claim you may not get all of which you claim and whatever you receive is payable to your carer/carers.
2. Loss of earnings:- if you have suffered a loss of earnings as a result of the accident then you may be entitled to claim this back – it may be that you have had no pay at all or simply a reduced rate of pay such as Statutory Sick Pay.  If you are employed then a solicitor would usually ask you for 13 weeks of wage slips prior to the accident. Your loss of earnings is then calculated over an average of the 13 week period.  If you are self –employed this average is usually calculated over 3 years of profit loss accounts.
3. Treatment costs: – for many clients who come to us at The Injury lawyers we are able to arrange private treatment such as physiotherapy at no cost. This allows our client to have treatment quickly compared to the potential wait for the NHS treatment. This treatment can then be claimed back in the Schedule of Loss.
4. Other types of loss which may be included in the schedule could be travel expenses to medical appointments etc or even prescription costs – as long as they are a result of the accident.

The above list is not exhaustive so to find out more about losses The Injury Lawyers may be able to provide advice.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

You may guess the general topic of this blog is accidents at work – but more specifically accidents stemming from a lack of/inadequate personal protective equipment (or PPE for short).

PPE is safety equipment which is given to workers to either wear or use to protect them from risks to their health and safety. These are risks which cannot be limited in any other manner and PPE is the last resort.  PPE can include protection for eyes – i.e.goggles; protection for the ears – i.e. ear defenders; gloves; respirators or masks; or even protection from adverse weather conditions. This brings me onto a news story which I have recently read whereby a former army chef who could no longer work within this field due to contracting a non freezing cold injury. The chef worked at temperatures as low as minus 14 degrees Celsius and was not given the correct PPE for these conditions. The chef successfully sued the MOD for £150,000.

It is also noteworthy that an employer should not ask for you to pay for the PPE, or ask you to make any contributions towards it. Regulations in the UK state that it is the duty of the employer to provide the appropriate PPE to their employees. Furthermore, employers should check that the PPE is properly maintained and stored, and properly issue instructions through training as to the correct use of the PPE. Employers should then keep a check that the PPE is used correctly.
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What Losses Can I Claim For?

Many of our clients when they first approach us with a claim have many questions surrounding which losses they can claim for. All our legally trained advisors are able to answer these questions; however, we always feel it necessary to inform the wider public who may be sat at home equally unsure.

Losses from a claim can be wide ranging and can form a large part of any personal injury claim.  Compensation in personal injury claims is applied for in separate parts – there is the claim for compensation and there is the claim for losses suffered as a result of the accident. The latter is compiled in a document known as a Schedule of Loss and disclosed to the other side.

Below is a list of some of the types of losses you may claim in a Schedule of Loss:
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How Much is My Claim Worth?

This is one of the most common questions I hear at The Injury lawyers when speaking to new (and existing) clients. It’s something that most claimers want to know right from the outset of the case.

But unfortunately, answering this question is a little trickier than you might think!

As a pioneer of the online compensation calculators, we know that they can help – but only as a guideline. Ultimately, the information you put in to the calculator dictates its response. The calculator (or at least ours) matches the information you put in to it to something called the JSB (Judicial Studies Board) Guidelines, which are official guidelines we as lawyers and judges at court use to value claims.

To value your claim properly, you need:

• A good quality medical report from a qualified medico-legal expert in the field of your injury (e.g. Orthopaedic for muscular / skeletal, Plastic Surgeon for cuts and burns, Dermatological for skin etc).
• An experienced, fully qualified and specialist personal injury lawyer.

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The Importance of Wearing Seat Belts

With the roads being such a busy and chaotic place – everyone rushing to get somewhere, be it to work, to the shop, or taking the children to school, the importance of wearing a seat belt is and should be ever more pertinent. Thus the policing surrounding the use of seat belts has also heightened since the law was introduced.

Most people know the importance of wearing seat belts. We know that wearing a seat belt greatly improves our safety in the event we are involved in a road accident. We also know that it is illegal to not wear one. As drivers we must ensure we ourselves are wearing a seatbelt as well as the passengers in our vehicle.

In view of everything we know about the use of seat belts, there may be one thing you do not know, and probably have not considered – what are the implications of not wearing a seat belt in a road traffic accident for which you want to make a personal injury claim?  Well, in answer to this, if you were not wearing a seat belt and you make a claim, any compensation which you may be entitled may be reduced by up to 25%. In legal speak this is known as contributory negligence.
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Whiplash Claims

Whiplash is a common injury that is usually suffered after a road accident. It’s caused by the sudden jolting of your neck, either forward, backwards, or sideways. The muscles are stretched beyond their normal range of movement, and it can be an absolute pain to cope with!

Whiplash Symptoms

• Pain in the neck, shoulders, and back (either all three, or just some)
• Stiffness / loss of movement in the affected areas
• Headaches, drowsiness, and sometimes a feeling of sickness – even vertigo in some cases
• Pins and needles (normally in the arms)

It doesn’t matter whether you were hit in the rear, hit head on, were the victim of a driver pulling out of a side road or in front of you on a roundabout – the impact can easily cause a whiplash injury.
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Road Accident Claims

Being a regular user of the roads, or maybe you would say more than regular as I drive approximately 70miles a day to work and back, I have become accustomed to the hazards of the roads.  These hazards are numerous and come in all sorts of different forms.

It can be seen that a vast proportion of road accidents occur at meeting places for cars; junctions, roundabouts, and the like.  Accidents at these places are often caused by drivers rushing and not employing the necessary care and attention.

Roundabouts:

Now it is granted that roundabouts can be large and complex, with many lanes that can be confusing as to where they lead.  Yes, these situations on roundabouts, when you are not familiar with the particular roundabout, can be nerve-wracking. This being said however it is no excuse to start trying to shift lanes at the last minute, causing other cars around to panic and try to move out of your way. Much of the time on a busy roundabout especially if it is rush hour, there is nowhere for other cars to move to – and you cannot expect them to cause an accident themselves in order to make room for you. Hence from this you can see the problem that meeting at roundabouts can cause. When utilising roundabouts it is important not to panic; if you miss your exit, you can simply go round again and change lanes when it is safe to do so.
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Landlord Compensation Claims

If you live in rented accommodation, or a property owned by someone else, the onus to ensure your living space and communal areas are safe is largely on your landlord / property owner. This is of course circumstantial – if you leave a stack of your favourite DVD’s on the floor and you trip over them, or if you spill some water on the floor and forget to clean it up, later slipping on the spillage, then it’s your fault.  What I’m talking about is the condition of the premises, including the interior fixtures and fittings, being safe and usable.

To be honest, it’s rather similar to any claim against a supermarket or a shop. The building itself must be safe – i.e. floor surfaces must be even with no defects or tripping hazards, fixtures and fittings must be safe, ensuring nothing can fall off or break away whilst your using it, and the condition of the building itself must not pose a hazard to anyone.

Your landlord should regularly inspect and maintain the premises to ensure there are no potential hazards, and they should always act on any hazard being raised with them as a matter of urgency. If a resident reports that a drain is blocked and water is accumulating in a communal walkway and causing a potential slip hazard, they should get out immediately and either repair or make safe the area, cordon it off if required, or warn anyone using the walkway with appropriate signage.
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No Win No Fee Claims

You may think you know what no win no fee means as we hear the term a lot nowadays – whether it be on a television advert, radio advert, or from marketing people stopping you on the street asking whether you have had a slip or trip.  The term ‘no win no fee’ may sound fairly simplistic and ‘does what it says on the tin’; but behind this term there may be risks to you.  This is why at The Injury Lawyers we like to write these blogs in order to inform and help you make an educated decision as to which law firm is right for you to instruct.

When you instruct a solicitor to take your case on a no win no fee basis they may want you to agree to a no win no fee agreement otherwise known as a Conditional Fee Agreement. These agreements, depending on the solicitor, may be fairly lengthy documents containing a lot of small print; therefore it may be a temptation to simply trust your solicitor and not fully read the document. I must stress how bad this is – whatever the document, you should always read it through thoroughly before agreeing to it.

At The Injury lawyers we are always surprised by some of the agreements which clients who have transferred to us from another firm have agreed to. Some agreements place the client at a high risk of having to pay solicitors costs. When I say costs, this means the cost of the time the solicitor has spent on your claim – this can run into thousands of pounds.
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