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The other day I was speaking with a gentleman who had great prospects of a successful claim for compensation.  I advised him of this but he was a little worried that his claim might take a long time and was not sure whether to go ahead. 

At The Injury Lawyers we come across this a lot – people have an idea in their head that the claims process is hard work and could take a lot of time to get settled and as such they find this off-putting.  The thing is, the reality of claiming for injuries from a road traffic accident is that it is actually very straightforward in the vast majority of circumstances, and then whole claim could be done and dusted within just a few short months!

Yes, a few years ago, road traffic accident claiming could have taken a fair while.  This was because the Defendant was allowed almost four months to just simply come back with their position on liability, or in other words, whether they admitted or denied fault for the accident.  This was unacceptable; so from April 2010 the process was reformed.  The Defendant’s insurer now only has a period of just over two to three weeks to admit or deny liability.
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This is one of the most common questions we are asked by our own clients just as much as the accident victims who ring us up for our expert advice and to find out more about our quality representation. As a firm of specialist personal injury lawyers, we are the best guys to ask to answer this question.

Unfortunately, we can’t quite answer it yet…

It all comes down to the nature of your injuries, suffering, and losses. The value of your claim is entirely dependent on the severity of your injuries and how much they have affected your life. For example, a fractured leg is generally worth more than a bruise to the leg. If you are suffering for six weeks as oppose to two weeks, your claim will likely be worth more. If you are a very active person who has been prevented from taking part in sporting activities as a result of your injury, this can be taken in to account in comparison with someone who doesn’t take part in any sporting activities and has generally been impaired by the injury less.
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Any injury can end up being debilitating – but when it’s a vital limb we use as part of our everyday lives, the things we are normally able to do can end up being severely restricted.

A trip over a dangerous hazard or a slip on a wet floor can leave you falling to the ground, and doing what we all do when we are falling – instinctively put out your arms to break your fall! Whilst this vital instinctive defensive mechanism can minimise the damage to your body, you are likely to suffer a hard knock at the very least, if not a break in any area of your arm caused by the impact of the fall.

The common injuries we see here are fractures and dislocations to the wrists, fingers, and elbows, unless you’re luck enough to escape with soft tissue damage instead. The soft tissue injuries you can get can be equally as damaging and may leave you feeling tender for quite some time. If you suffer from ligament damage you could be in an even worse position as many ligament ruptures can be impossible to repair, leaving you needing some from of reconstructive surgery.
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Whiplash injuries can cause people much distress, pain and an inconvenience. Here at The Injury Lawyers we know too well about the terrible effect whiplash can have on our clients. The injury does not only affect your health, but it can also affect any aspect of your life which can sometimes cause great difficulties. If you have suffered or are suffering from whiplash I am sure you know exactly what I am talking about.

Most people do not realise that they can claim compensation for a whiplash injury, they just think that the pain will eventually go away and everything will be ok.

However, most of the time whiplash injuries can last up to 6 months and if you have been injured as a result of someone else’s negligent actions you are entitled by law to claim for compensation.
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In April 2010 a new system to deal with road traffic accident claims was introduced and has made claiming quicker and more straightforward.  Before April 2010 the claims process could be a little bit slow – it could take nearly 4 months for the Defendant to admit liability in the most straightforward of cases, and then could take several more months, maybe a year or so, to get settled.  Now you could have your claim settled in just a few short of months!

Under the new system, if you have been involved in a relatively straightforward road traffic accident you will need to submit what is called a Claim Notification Form.  If you have the right injury lawyer on your side they will do this for you.  In any event it is quite straightforward and just outlines what happened in your accident and details those involved.

Once ready, this gets submitted online via the Ministry of Justice Portal to the Defendant’s insurer who has just one business day to acknowledge it.  The Defendant’s insurer then has a further 15 business days to come back with their position on liability – in other words, whether they admit or deny fault for the accident.  Compared to the old system which could take several months, this is a vast improvement.
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My experience tells me that some people find using roundabouts daunting.  Roundabouts can be of varying size – some have traffic lights on them and some are busier than others.  Because of this some people get nervous on approaching a roundabout and some people go further than this and take a route which avoids roundabouts altogether. 

This uncertainty or ‘fear’ of roundabouts can unfortunately cause accidents and at The Injury Lawyers we have successfully dealt with many roundabout accident claims.  If you were not at fault for your accident, you could well be entitled to compensation.

One of the most common problems with roundabouts, particularly those drivers are not familiar with them, is that people are unsure which lane they should be in and start to hesitate or make rash decisions.  This can cause accidents because you either get cut up by someone switching lanes or if someone suddenly stops someone else may go into the back of this vehicle. 
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Given that work takes up such a huge amount of our lives nowadays, we expect to be safe when working; i.e. not running in to any hazards whilst we get on with our jobs. Health and Safety in the workplace is of paramount importance, and employers must adhere to loads of rules and regulations to make sure employees do not come to harm whilst in the workplace.

Whilst differing rules and regulations apply more to varying areas of employment, one of the most basic areas of health and safety law that applies to any employment situation is tripping hazards!

We get a lot of enquiries from people looking to make compensation claims for tripping injuries at work. At the end of the day, it’s so easy to get caught out. A tile on the floor becomes raised and isn’t inspected or maintained regularly enough by the employer, and you have yourself an employee tripping over an obvious and dangerous defect. A colleague leaves some bags in a corridor and you walk straight in to them; the likelihood is you ending up on the floor, humiliated, and injured.
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If you have been involved in a road traffic accident and you were a passenger in one of the vehicles involved, you have excellent prospects of a successful claim for compensation. 

Even better, under a new system to deal with claims, you should get your compensation fast!

The reason you have excellent prospects of a successful claim are simple – it is highly unlikely that as a passenger you were to blame for the accident.  Short of severely distracting the driver, grabbing the steering wheel or pulling the handbrake, I cannot think of many circumstances where a passenger can be held to have caused a road traffic accident.  It doesn’t matter whether you were the passenger in the vehicle at fault either; you are still the innocent party and can be compensated al the same.
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Tripping accidents are relatively common – there are tonnes of hazards out there just waiting to, well literally, trip us up. If you have tripped over and want to know if you are due compensation for the injuries you have ended up with, you will need to contact a specialist personal injury lawyer to assess the case and perhaps take it on.

But in the meantime, here is a little advice about making a tripping accident claim and some facts you need to know about:

Who Is At Fault?
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A fair few people don’t make whiplash claims because they can’t be bothered with the ‘hassle’ or have been offered some money directly by an insurer and don’t think that getting an expert injury lawyer on board is worth it if when they may only get a couple of hundred pounds more compensation.  I would say this is the wrong way to approach things, and here’s why:

A new whiplash claiming system was introduced in April 2010 which drastically cut down the amount of time whiplash claiming takes.  Under the old system you had to get all your details together, produce a Letter of Claim which outlined these details and then send this to the Defendant who had a period of 21 days to acknowledge it and then a further 3 months from when they acknowledged the Letter of Claim to investigate your accident and come back with either an admission or denial of liability. 

For a very straightforward accident which was clearly the Defendant’s fault, it could take nearly 4 months for them to admit liability.  I could understand why some people got a little frustrated about this.  But this has all changed!
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