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If you’re a sports fan, you’re probably aware of the dreaded cruciate knee injury. The cruciate ligaments are useful for knee stability on impact – so running or jumping is where they come in to play the most. Sadly the knee joint can be fairly easy to injure, particularly in sports. Tearing or rupturing a ligament in the knee can be severely debilitating. As the title of this article suggests, I’ll focus on ruptured ligaments.

A ligament rupture by definition is where the ligament is literally torn in to two (or I suppose more) pieces. Tearing usually means the ligaments remains intact but part of the tissue is torn or ripped. Ruptured usually means it’s been split. If the ligament tears off a piece of bone with it, this commonly known as an avulsion fracture and can usually be repaired with the bone being sewn back on. You’re better off with that than a rupture – I’ll explain why.
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Most people want to know at the outset of a claim how much compensation they are likely to recover. While this question is understandable to ask, Solicitors cannot give you a value with any great certainty at the outset of your claim. To understand why this is the case, you need to look at how claims are valued. In law, another term for value is quantum. When a claim is initiated your injuries are more likely to be still ongoing rather than resolved, unless there was some delay between the accident and you bringing a claim for compensation.

Either way, to value a claim we rely upon medical evidence. We arrange for you to be examined and assessed by a suitably qualified and experienced medical professional. The type of expert that examines you will depend on the nature of your injuries. You may be examined by a General Practitioner Expert, an Ear, Nose and Throat Surgeon, an Orthopaedic Expert, a Psychologist, etc.
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If you sustain injury on someone else’s premises or land, then you may be entitled to recover compensation.  This is because occupiers of premises or land are under a duty to take reasonable care for those using the premises or land. This area of law is commonly governed by the Occupiers Liability Act 1957 (which deals with accidents involving lawful visitors) and the Occupiers Liability Act 1984 (which deals with accidents involving trespassers).

An “occupier” of premises or land is someone who is in control of that premises or land. This could be control of a supermarket, a shop, a warehouse, a car park, etc. The occupier could be an individual, a company, a local council or a partnership. If there is an argument or disagreement as to whether or not someone is an occupier, the Courts look at the judgement in Wheat v Lacon [1966] which noted that a person is an occupier if he has a sufficient degree of control over premises that he ought to realise that any failure on his part to use care may result in injury to a person lawfully there. The Occupiers Liability Act also notes that occupiers must be prepared for children to be less careful than adults. This means that if a child does something a little bit silly, such as eating poisonous berries in a park, sustaining injury, then liability could be established – this was the facts in the case of Glasgow v Taylor [1922].
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Hearing deteriorates with age and this is something that we cannot avoid. As we get older it is likely that we will require hearing aids. When people start to lose their hearing it is natural and automatic to put the deficiency down to age. However if you worked in an environment with excessive noise levels, have you considered that you may be suffering from industrial deafness/noise induced hearing loss?

The fact of the matter is that many people are not aware that they are suffering from industrial deafness. They notice a hearing deficiency and automatically assume this is due to the natural ageing process.

If you were exposed to excessive noise at work then it is likely that you will have developed industrial deafness/noise induced hearing loss. You may not notice a hearing problem at the time of the exposure to excessive noise. This is normal. What happens is the noise levels damage your hearing but you only notice the hearing loss when you get older and age associated hearing loss adds to the noise induced hearing loss. By having a hearing test, an Ear, Nose and Throat Surgeon may be able to advise you if you have any hearing loss which is due to noise exposure.
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Pursuing a claim for compensation is a big decision and is one that in a lot of circumstances is a necessity to cover any losses and of course help with any future inconvenience. Therefore when you are looking for an Injury Lawyer, you want one that will ensure your claim is run efficiently and brought to a successful conclusion as quickly as possible.

The first step to ensuring that this will happen is to instruct your own solicitor directly. This cuts out any middle men such as claims management companies and claims farmers who will simply gather your details, and hold on to them before referring them to a solicitor. This solicitor may then take time to process the claim and contact you and so on and so forth. As you can see this is a lengthy process and one that can simply be completely avoided by contacting a solicitor direct. Here at the Injury Lawyers, we can get your claim moving the exact same day. We simply gather all the information we need and get things moving- it really is that simple.
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Potholes are unfortunately very common on both our footpaths and roads and therefore accidents resulting from them are also a lot more common than people would think! Injuries caused in these accidents can be incredibly painful and debilitating so can you claim for compensation?

The straight forward answer is yes but they are not the easiest of claims – the council is under a duty to take all “reasonable steps” to ensure the area is safe. Therefore, if they have good inspection regimes in place this can make your claim incredibly difficult. It is simply unrealistic and probably not that fair to expect the council to be able to keep an eye on every bit of pavement or road for when a pothole appears- especially with the in-climate weather we are experiencing at the moment!

Another key aspect of pothole claims is that the defect has to be a “foreseeable risk” – therefore one of the key bits of evidence and one of the most important things that a personal injury solicitor will request from you is photographs and measurements of the defect!
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What do we mean when we say GENUINE lawyer? Surely anyone saying they are a personal injury firm must be one? Unfortunately not!

There are certain companies out there that simply gather claims and direct them to actual law firms for a price. These companies are known as Case Management Companies or claims farmers. Ensuring you have a genuine personal injury lawyer running your case is extremely important for 2 main reasons:

1. The service level you will receive
2. The settlement you may receive.

Basically, by going through a Claims Management Company, rather than instructing your own solicitor can affect both of these things and unfortunately in a negative way.
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To people who do not work in law, contributory negligence may be a challenging term to explain. Basically contributory negligence is an element of blame or fault. It is probably best explained by use of examples. Contributory negligence is important as it can greatly affect the compensation that you are entitled to.

The example I will use is actually for a work accident claim situation; but commonly this is something that is applied to motorcyclists or cyclists who do not wear a helmet. Essentially the same rule of thumb below can apply to motorcyclists / cyclists not wearing a helmet as well.

Say you are injured in an accident at work whereby a piece of metal falls from a ledge and hits you on the head. It is later discovered that this piece of metal should not have been left where it was. It should not have been left in a position whereby it could fall and injure and employee. However at the time of the accident you were not wearing your safety hat that had been provided by your employer, despite being in an area where it is compulsory to wear the safety hat. In this situation, you may be entitled to recover compensation but it is likely that you will be partly at fault (partly contributory negligent).
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Being hit by a falling object is more something you see on a traditional English slapstick comedy – but it does happen in the real world. There is a duty in certain circumstances which means you may have a claim for personal injury compensation if you are unfortunate enough to be hit by a falling object.

When you’re out and about and a fixture or fitting from a building falls on you, there is a duty on whoever owns or is responsible for that building to compensate you if there is blame on their part. Acts of God as they are often referred to in injury law, like the one that took my chimney off in the earthquakes a few years ago in Hull that got me my 15 minutes of fame as I was interviewed by the BBC about the whole saga, are not so easy to claim for. That, or perhaps a lightning bolt or a tornado or something similar that causes something to fall and hit you is not necessarily the fault of the person who owns or is responsible for the building. There’s not a great deal anyone can really do to control the weather! By the way, in case you were wondering, I wasn’t hit by the chimney – hence why I’m alive today writing this blog!
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With the inclimate weather we have been having recently (Flooding, snowing, black ice!)  it’s not surprising that there has been a lot of damage to the roads and the high street. Potholes caused by the heavy rains washing loose tarmac away and freezing water creating hazardous cracks as it expands can unfortunately lead to a rise in holes and a rise in accidents. So what is the procedure for pursuing a claim if you have been unfortunate enough to suffer an injury because of a trip, slip or fall?

Firstly, it is important to make clear that these types of claims can be quite difficult and therefore it is important that you seek the help of an experienced personal injury lawyer with extensive experience in the area.

If you are seeking to pursue a claim against the council there are a few things that you will have to do to ensure you have higher prospects of being successful. This is because the council can only be expected to have taken “reasonable steps” to ensure the safety of the area. This means that if they can show that they have maintenance regimes in place that ensure the area is checked to be safe at regular intervals, your claim may be difficult to pursue. This is simply because it would be unreasonable to expect the council to be able to know whenever any new defect is created immediately. For example: If the heavy floods create a hazard by washing tarmac away on the Monday and you have your accident on the Tuesday- is it reasonable to expect the council to have even known about the defect let alone fix it?
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