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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At The Injury Lawyers we have many clients approaching us after being involved in a bus or a coach accident.  Many of them are unsure if they have a claim and or who the claim may be against.  This lack of knowledge surrounding this area of personal injury may be due to the large number of accidents focused at road traffic accidents in general for car accidents.

If you have been involved in an accident whilst on a bus or a coach you may have a claim for compensation.  If the bus/coach was involved in a road traffic accident then you may have a claim against the driver of the car at fault. If the accident was the fault of the bus driver you may have a claim against the bus company. With regard to dealing with motor insurance claims your specialist personal injury solicitor will correspond with the insurance company of the party at fault on your behalf.

The above being said, accidents whilst on buses or coaches may not just be a due to a road traffic accident. Many clients come to The Injury Lawyers and we successfully claim compensation for the client falling over on a bus. In order to have a potential claim a fall must be the fault of the driver or another road user. There are many potential reasons for falling over whilst on a bus/coach; it may be that the bus jerked violently to a stop, thus knocking you over, or you may have slipped on a spillage or tripped on a trip hazard in an aisle.
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A fall from a height can occur in many different types of situations and in many different professions. You may think that just because a receptionist falls from a chair whilst changing a light bulb, or a librarian falls from ladders putting a book on a shelf, that these types of accident cannot be claimed for. This thought process may be due to thinking that it is only in the obvious types of careers such as builders, roofers, or scaffolders where height is a normal, daily part of their job that claims regarding falling from a height can be successfully made.

This, however, is not the case; it may be true that these types of claims are more common in the careers mentioned above – but anyone in any career can possibly claim compensation for a fall from a height which caused them injury and was not their fault.

Employers have a duty to protect their employees from any risks to their Health and Safety as far as is reasonably possible. They must adhere to strict Health and Safety Regulations, and particularly, in the case of this blog, the Work at Height Regulations 2005. The topic of this blog need not be on the ins and outs of this legislation.  However, what can be taken from it is that employers should plan a working at height situation carefully – it should be properly supervised and the correct equipment for the job provided. This equipment must also be properly maintained and stored with the users of it trained in how to utilise the equipment correctly.
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I read an interesting story in the Daily Mail today.  It involves a man named Mark Noble who was forced to become a wheelchair user after sustaining severe injuries in a Road Traffic Accident back in 2003, and obtained compensation in the sum of £3.4million, only for the other side to try and reclaim some £2million of the compensation they paid out. 

It is reported that Direct Line insurance company had paid Mr Noble £3.4million to compensate him for his injuries, then proceeded to keep a close eye on him and when they saw that he had been able to regain some of the movement in his legs again and then took him to court to try and recover some of the compensation they paid out.  However, the Judge in this case dismissed Direct Line’s attempt to regain their monies.  Instead the judge stated that ‘Mr Noble was determined to walk unaided.  He did not dishonestly conceal from the court or the expert witnesses his then trust state of disability, or dishonestly emphasise his disability.’

The Daily Mail reports that Direct Line insurance had hired a few private investigators to monitor Mr Noble’s movements in the hope of demonstrating that he had exaggerated his injuries and therefore should not be entitled to all of the compensation he was awarded.  It was said that a neighbour had tipped them off that Mr Noble was able to walk again.  Indeed, Direct Line’s private investigators did find that Mr Noble could walk, use power drills, lift weight and drive a vehicle.  Mr Noble had been awarded the vast sum of over £3million not only to compensate him for his injuries but also the loss of earnings he suffered as a result of being unable to carry on with his job and for the loss of enjoyment stemming from his inability to play rugby.  However, the judge in this case found that the fact that Mr Noble had regained some of his lost movement was down to his sheer will power to get back to his previous state; not because he had faked or exaggerated his injuries.  As his wife said: ‘The reason he is able to walk now is because he worked really, really hard – through sheet bloody-mindedness – to get where he is today’.
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Whiplash is a highly unpleasant and frustrating injury to suffer from. It can make a person unable to complete or enjoy their normal daily tasks, such as going to work, socialising, or completing housework. Because the injury is not as plain to see as a broken leg or a laceration, some can write it off as being minor and think that it is nothing to worry about. This is simply not the case – and absolutely the opposite of what we believe here at The Injury Lawyers.

At The Injury Lawyers we have a great deal of experience with whiplash sufferers – we hear about their injuries and the debilitating effect it is having on their life, and we are able to easily help them out. So we have nothing but the utmost respect and sympathies to whiplash sufferers. You may say sympathy is no good – I want action and assistance with bringing my claim against the person/people responsible for my injury. This is exactly what we at The Injury Lawyers are able to assist with as well.

At The Injury Lawyers we are not only able to deal with your claim for compensation, but we may also be able to arrange private treatment for your injuries; this means you may not have to wait on the NHS waiting lists. This treatment could range from physiotherapy to osteopathy. For many whiplash sufferers the treatment side of things can be equally as important as the compensation side, as many sufferers simply want their life to return to normal as quickly as possible.
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There seems to be an increase in the exposure of personal injury claiming. This may be due to the increased amount of advertising we see regarding personal injury claiming on the television and radio. This increased exposure serves to make people more aware of their rights when it comes to claiming for personal injury, as well as what compensation they may be entitled to claim.

In saying the above however, at The Injury Lawyers one of the first questions potential clients ask after they have informed us of their accident circumstances is – ‘have I got a claim?’.

At The Injury Lawyers we give free claim assessments – so whether are answer is positive or negative, you do not have to pay a thing; so you have nothing to lose in trying and gaining a little advice. If we advise we are unable to take on your claim, we may still be able to give advice about what other options you have – we always like to help where we can.
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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 I can hazard a guess that most of us will complain at some point about the busy, chaotic state of the roads. We seem to be always in a traffic jam whether it’s going to work (which is probably expected when it is rush hour), taking the children to school, or doing the shopping (not so expected).

With this increase in traffic on the roads it is no surprise that road traffic accidents can easily occur.

Road traffic accidents can come about in many ways; they are most common at traffic meeting places such as roundabouts and junctions. It is no coincidence that when you hear traffic updates on the radio that it mostly seems to be at a motorway junction or a crossroad. Areas such as motorway junctions can be a particularly dangerous place whereby accidents occur frequently. It may be due to traffic merging incorrectly and drivers not checking their mirrors or drivers realising at the last moment that they need to exit the motorway at a particular junction, and desperately trying to get across the motorway in order to do so – thus causing panic and a possible collision.
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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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