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It’s that time of year again – Christmas! We are all busy buying gifts and decorating our houses and seeing family and friends. But for us here at The Injury Lawyers, it’s that time of year again for a different reason; yes, it’s Christmas – but it’s also the time of year for insurance companies to get rid of Road Traffic Injury claims as quick as possible and they use the costly Christmas period to lure clients in by offering them pre-medical offers as a final settlement payment for their claims.

For anyone at this time of year, £1,000.00 seems like a dream come true – but don’t be fooled – your claim may be worth a LOT more. Don’t let insurance companies stop you from getting the compensation that you deserve.

A pre-medical offer is a full and final offer to settle a personal injury claim before any medical evidence has been obtained or disclosed, and irrespective of what the future might bring when it comes to your continued suffering and losses. Offers can often be between the region on £1,000.00 and £1,250.00, which can often seem tempting for the client. A nice cheque of £1,000.00 laid out for you, no hassle of medical examinations, or waiting for the case to settle. But don’t be fooled as you need to consider the bigger picture before accepting any offer.
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These days we are all trying to do our bit for the environment – walking, sharing vehicles, trying the bicycle, and using the bus. Amongst the hustle and bustle of busy city life, many more of us are finding using the bus an easier and faster way to travel from A to B. You don’t have the stress of cuing in traffic or the worry of parking; it seems the perfect way to travel sometimes.

However, I can’t help but notice the increasing amount of claims for compensation as a result of a bus accidents here at The Injury Lawyers. Bus accidents can happen not only because of a collision with a third party vehicle, but they can also be a result of the negligent driving of a bus driver.

Whenever I have used the bus, most drivers are cautious to stop and start gently and ensure you have fully stepped off the bus before departing at the bus stop. Most of us are lucky and know nothing different – it seems like standard bus driver behaviour. However, unfortunately, some of us think very different about bus drivers. If you have been in an accident and sustained injuries as a result of a negligent bus driver, don’t suffer in silence – get the compensation you deserve!
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As a rock climber (albeit not being able to do it for a while over recent years) and as an advisor to the victims of work accidents on a daily basis, I know a thing or two myself about health and safety at height. The inherent risks of working at height are, well, obvious; even at low heights, such as from a ladder or a stool, you can end up with broken bones and nasty muscular injuries. People working at huge heights – roofers, scaffolders, etc – will know the risks all too well.

That’s why there are so many rules and regulations in place for those who have to work at height. Health and safety when it comes to working at height cannot be stressed enough – it’s so, so important! That’s why we have the Working at Height Regulations 2005; a powerful piece of legislation that’s in place to ensure that employers and those in charge of other employees in the workplace fulfil their duty of care to prevent injuries from falls.

But the big question is this – if you fall from a height at work, can you make a claim for compensation?
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I imagine that most of you reading this blog will be well aware that Christmas is approaching.  Shops have all their decorations up and have made it only too clear that Christmas is coming.  City centres have begun putting up their decorations up as well, and television already has so many Christmas adverts.  In fact, I might go so far as to say that we cannot get away from the fact that Christmas is almost upon us!

Christmas is a time for giving; but unfortunately giving can sometimes cost a fair bit of money, especially if you have children, or a close but extended family. 

Insurers are only too aware of this fact as we at The Injury Lawyers know only too well.  If you have an injury claim, given the time of year and money being that little bit tighter, it is not uncommon for an insurer to put forward an offer to settle your claim now at an early stage in the case.  This is what we call a pre-medical offer – an offer to settle your claim, made by the third party, before you have had a chance to obtain medical evidence in support of your injuries.  In other words, it is an offer, by the insurer, to get rid of your claim as soon as they can.
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So, you might have heard of friends/family who say “I had my claim settled at £1000.00 in a month” or something along these lines. The chances are that this is an early settlement offer they have accepted which we call a “pre med” offer, and although it seems like a quick and easy option, there are a number of risks when accepting pre meds which means it is not always a beneficial thing to do.

To explain what I mean by a “pre-med” – this is the term for an offer made without the use of expert medical evidence. I.e. “pre-medical”. Insurers tend to use these tactical offers at the outset of claims following an admission of liability to get claims settled as cheaply as possible, and off their desks as quickly as possible for them.

In the run up to Christmas, the amount of pre-medical offers we receive significantly increases as the insurers play on the needs of people to have more money over the Christmas period for presents and festivities. Pre med offers are generally around the region of £1000.00 – £2000.00. Without expert medical evidence, it is simply impossible to place an accurate valuation on your injuries.
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At The Injury Lawyers, we frequently speak to people who have been injured whilst out shopping at the supermarket.  Often they want to know if they have a claim, and if we are happy to advise them for free about their chances of winning. 

We advise that any potential claim can be brought about as an Occupier’s Liability claim, which means that if you are a visitor to premises, in this case a supermarket, the supermarket owes you a duty of care to ensure that you are safe whilst in their premises. 

So, if you have an accident at a supermarket and believe it was not your fault, you could bring a claim for compensation against the supermarket for neglecting this duty of care.
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Public Transport Accidents Rise with Petrol Increase.

Despite the recent statement by the government to scrap the 3p rise on fuel duty planned for January, families continue to struggle with the higher petrol prices we are subject to every day. As a result, more and more people are turning to public transport.

With the increase of usage of public transport, there is a noticeable rise of road traffic accident claims involving passengers on public transport.
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Have you been in a road traffic accident? Did your accident occur after 30^th April 2010? Did the accident occur in England or Wales? If you have answered yes to all three questions here, you may be able to claim compensation for your injuries as a result of your accident through the Road Traffic Accident Protocol.

The Road Traffic Accident Protocol is a more efficient and effective procedure to get the compensation you deserve. The Road Traffic Accident Protocol uses a Claims Notification Form which provides the Defendant insurers with all the circumstances surrounding your accident, and is submitted through an electronic portal to speed the process up.

We all would like claiming for compensation to be as simple and easy as possible – well now it is! All you need to do is ensure that you have all the following information and give us a call today and we can get your claim moving on that very same day!
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In the United Kingdom, if you have been injured as a result of somebody else’s negligence, you are able to obtain compensation from the negligent party to put you back in the position you would have been in had the accident not have happened. 

At The Injury Lawyers, we typically deal with injuries that arise from road traffic accidents and accidents at work, or those out and about in your local town centre –  but so long as you have been injured through someone else’s negligence, claiming for compensation is not confined to these types of accident.

A further type of injury claim is one for injuries that people have sustained whilst playing sport.  However, there are many things to consider when assessing the prospects of success of a sporting injury claim.  Firstly, what you have to realise is that, when you play sport, you are accepting the inherent risks of injury involved with that particular sport.  For instance, if you are a boxer, you are accepting that you will get punched in the face and might end up with a black eye or a broken nose.  In rugby, you are accepting that you are going to face some tough, heavy challenges for the ball, which carries an inherent risk of injury in doing so. 
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Road traffic accident claiming is straightforward – especially where the other driver has insurance as the usual route is to claim compensation from the insurance company.  However, it has been suggested that there are over one million uninsured drivers in the United Kingdom. 

So, how do you make a claim for compensation against an uninsured driver? After all, pursuing the driver themselves may not be fruitful as they will in all likelihood not be worth suing.  Does this mean that you cannot be compensated for the injuries you sustained at the hands of a negligent uninsured driver? No.

Over five decades ago, in 1946, an organisation called the Motor Insurers’ Bureau was set up to compensate the innocent victims of negligent uninsured drivers.  A compensation fund was started with roughly £15 to £30 of everyone’s yearly insurance policy being contributed.  This has meant that millions of innocent victims of negligent uninsured drivers have been able to obtain compensation for their injuries and vehicle damages.  It would be unjust if they could not be compensated simply because the negligent third party has broken the law – the Motor Insurers’ Bureau is able to deal with the claim and provide compensation like an insurer would.
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