Maintenance of Work Equipment Claims
The law you need to know: Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 – ‘PUWER’
The above Regulations outline that your Employer should ensure that all work equipment is maintained:
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Owner’s Responsibility When A Driver Drives Without Car Insurance
What happens if an owner of a vehicle gives his permission for someone who he knows is not insured to drive his car? Not only would he be civilly liable (which means any other injured party will be able to sue him for any injuries or damages caused), he would also be criminally liable.
To what consent the owner would be liable was considered in the case of Monk V Warbey. In this case the Claimant was injured by a car being driven by an uninsured driver with the owner’s knowledge. In order to claim against the owner of the vehicle, the Claimant must show:
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The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 cover manual handling operations at work.
The below is just an intro. to the Manual Handling Regulations, there is a lot more to the regulations and I will cover the other stuff in future posts.
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Accidents on Construction Sites
The facts:
- 7% of the UK workforce work within the construction industry
- 25% of fatal accident’s result from construction sites; and
- 16% of major accidents
It is clear from the above statistics that working within the construction industry is both a risky business and darn right dangerous. If your brave enough to work on a construction site it’s important to ensure that both you and your Employer do everything to ensure that the workplace is as safe as possible. Being lax on safety on a Construction site is a complete NO-NO and from our experience is like playing with fire!
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Your Accident Claim is Brought Under the Tort of Negligence
Tort means civil wrong, so where in criminal law a wrong is a crime, in civil law it is called a tort.
Negligence is one of the most important areas in tort. In order to establish negligence the following must be assessed:
- Was the defendant (the person you hold responsible for the ‘tort’) careless in his behaviour?
- And did this careless behaviour cause you a loss or injury?
Most accident claims are fault based – this means that in order for your claim to succeed, you must prove that the defendant is at fault (the Defendant being the person you hold responsible). In order to sue a party for the ‘tort’ of negligence you must prove (among other things) that the Defendant breached the duty of care he owed to you.
So to qualify for the fault ‘test’ you must show that the Defendant’s standard of care fell below that of a reasonable careful person and he is therefore blameworthy.
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Accidents On Other Peoples Premises
If you are injured on property owned or occupied by another person (e.g. at Tesco or at the Pub etc) then your claim is covered by The Occupiers Liability Act 1957 and the 1984.
The occupiers liability Act 1957 sets out duties for the occupier to ensure that an authorised visitor will be safe for the purpose of which he has been invited there for.
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Pleasure Beach Not So Enjoyable for Rollercoaster Victims
Blackpool Pleasure Beach is normally associated with fun and good times. Indeed, it is recognised as Britain’s top tourist attraction, attracting nearly six million visitors a year. However, it wasn’t so much fun for some visitors on Tuesday evening. Over 30 people suffered injuries after a collision on one of the theme park’s most famous rollercoaster rides, the Big Dipper. According to the BBC website, one of the carriages became jammed on the rails and as a direct consequence of this the second carriage, which had continued as normal, slammed into the back of the first carriage.
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Four Taken to Hospital after Possible Carbon Monoxide Leak
Four people have been taken to hospital following what police suspect to be a carbon monoxide leak. The Nationwide Building Society in Bushbury, Wolverhampton was evacuated after the people became ill around midday. In addition to the four people taken to hospital, a further two people made their own way there.
Early investigations in to what caused the onrush of ill customers has been inconclusive. According to the BBC, the branch have been given the all clear and will reopen on Wednesday and a spokeswoman for Nationwide confirmed that there was “no evidence of any gas leaking in to the branch, or any other environmental issues at the branch.”
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30 Stitches for Woman Bitten by Dog
A woman has suffered a horrific facial injury after being attacked by a Staffordshire bull terrier. The 47 year old woman had to have 30 stitches to deal with the wounds she suffered. According to the BBC website, the woman was attacked whilst standing at the door of a tenant’s residence while undertaking her job as a housing officer. She has been left with scars and is now said to be a lot more wary around animals and due to her injuries she had to take five weeks off work.
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