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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 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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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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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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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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Road Traffic Accidents – the motorway

Motorways – some people love motorway driving, whilst others avoid it at all costs. People may enjoy motorway driving as it gets you where you want to be quicker, whilst (mostly) avoiding traffic and traffic lights. Others may dread motorway driving as it needs a certain level of heightened skill, confidence, and concentration – with travelling at such high speeds you cannot afford to lose concentration for a second, and this can make many people nervous of it.  I personally used to always set the sat nav to ‘avoid motorways’ however currently driving to work I cannot go by any other route (that will not take me hours).  Due to this I have gained experience in motorway driving and have come to enjoy it.  Whatever your feelings on the motorway, it would be the last thought on your mind that you would have an accident that was not your fault.

If you have had an accident on the motorway and it was not your fault then you may have a claim for compensation.  Accidents on the motorway can be due to people not maintaining the necessary care and attention which is needed even more so for this type of driving. Accidents on a motorway can occur for a number of reasons as listed below, I have listed two of the main ones below:

Not leaving space: Many accidents occur on the motorway as cars are simply driving too closely together. Going at such high speeds, if/when there is a queue ahead or someone breaks suddenly there is no time to stop before hitting the car in front.  Accidents such as these have a heightened occurrence at motorway junctions where, at times of peak traffic, queues can back up and cause collisions. Some motorways have the chevron markings on the road and advise to cars to keep a certain number of chevrons distance from the car in front. If you are hit from behind whilst on the motorway, or any road, the chance, you are pretty much guaranteed a successful claim.
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Apparently we are all making claims for compensation.  As soon as the slightest thing happens to us we want to be compensated.  In fact, the situation has got so bad that no-one dare let us do anything now in case we get the smallest of ‘injuries’ and put in a claim.  Worse still, apparently people are getting compensation without having to prove any wrong-doing on the other sides’ part or with the flimsiest of evidence.  And this is all because lawyers keep telling us to make claims on a ‘No Win No Fee’ basis.  Well, that is what the media would have us believe at least.  So are we gripped in a ‘compensation culture’ that is worsening the society we live in?

I would say definitely not.  You simply cannot be compensated unless you have a real injury, and this was caused by someone else’s negligence.  Certainly, if you are making a claim for compensation owing to a personal injury, you will need evidence, such as a medical report, to support your injury.  And even then, you (well, your lawyers) will need to demonstrate that you were injured because of someone else’s negligent action(s).

And further, what would a lawyer get from taking on a claim that will never succeed on a ‘No Win, No Fee’ basis?  If you do not win your claim they do not get paid.  And how is a lawyer going to get paid for winning your case, if your injury is not real and you and was not caused by the fault of a negligent third party?  Here at The Injury Lawyers we work on a Genuine No Win, No Fee which means that we never charge you – ever!  That means there would be absolutely nothing in it for us at all to take on a claim that has no chance of succeeding.  We would therefore never encourage this.
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At The Injury Lawyers we often get asked whether a child is able to make a claim for compensation.  We have therefore prepared this short guide to hopefully answer all your questions regarding claims for compensation which involve children.

Who constitutes a child?

Legally speaking, a child, or a ‘minor’, is a person under the age of 18.

Can a child bring a claim on their own accord for a personal injury they have suffered?

As with any accident, a person must make a claim for compensation within three years of the date of the accident.  A child under the age of 18 however cannot make a claim for compensation by themselves.  As such, where a child is injured through no fault of their own, they are able to make a claim for compensation up until their 21^st birthday.  However, as we at The Injury Lawyers are well aware, many people wish to make a claim for their child sooner; after all, events are fresh in their minds and it would make sense to get the situation dealt with as soon as possible.  In this situation a child is able to make a claim for compensation through a ‘litigation friend’; in other words, a responsible adult who can act on the child’s behalf.  In most cases this will be the child’s parent or guardian.  Equally though it could be some other trusted adult.
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Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) , which can also be known Work Related Upper Limb Disorder (WRULD) is a general, umbrella term which relates to the pain suffered from the overuse and repetitive use of muscles, tendons and nerves.  It is reported that 1 worker out of 50 in the UK has reported an RSI injury. It is workers whose careers involve the use of computers or some sort of manual work who are most likely to suffer from a RSI.

There are two types of RSI – Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 is where the doctor can diagnose a recognised medical condition, such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, as there is usually some kind of swelling or inflammation.  With Type 2, the doctor is unable to diagnose a medical condition as there is no obvious swelling but the sufferer is reporting pain in the affected area.  Symptoms can vary but can include cramping, swelling, pain, or tenderness in muscles or joints, throbbing and/ or tingling and numbness.

Employers in the UK are under a legal obligation to prevent incidents of RSI wherever reasonably possible; this is through the Safety Act of 1974 and the Safety at Work Regulations 1999.  If you think you are suffering from an RSI as a result of your occupation, then you may have a claim for compensation. A particular RSI case comes to mind whereby an RAF data input clerk aged in her 20’s sued the Ministry of Defence for her RSI injury which stemmed from her occupation. The clerk suffered the RSI in her thumb and was unable to continue full time work in her current employment – the clerk received £434,000 in compensation for her injury.
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A lot of people are concerned and confused when it comes to thinking about making a claim – particularly in accidents involving slips and trips. I suppose the reason is that many people simply aren’t sure whether they can make a claim after being involved in a slip or trip accident. Furthermore, people genuinely feel a little “silly” about making a claim for such a seemingly “small” accident.

It’s better to approach the entire situation in a different way: your slip / trip accident is not in any way “silly” or “small” – particularly if you have been seriously hurt. At the end of the day, if you have been injured due to someone else’s negligence, you have a claim for compensation.

Any shop, restaurant, cafe, bar, club, pub, museum – any premises which you are allowed to freely access – involves a duty of care owed to you by the owners of the place you are in. The premises must be safe to use, and no hazards should be allowed to develop and endanger anyone in the area. It’s an obvious and sensible piece of legislation – without this important duty of care in place, no one would be responsible for preventing anyone from coming to harm.
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