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If you have been involved in a road traffic accident, you have probably sustained a whiplash injury. If the accident wasn’t your fault, you could be entitled to claim for compensation. Whiplash injuries may not be so obvious straight away. You may have some aches and pains initially but after a matter of weeks injuries can even leave clients bed bound.

If you have had a whiplash injury you will probably find that you are contacted by a number of companies trying to persuade you to claim with them. Try not to be persuaded by insurance or claims management companies; this is because your claim will be under settled in a big way! Insurances companies for the party at fault will probably contact you saying that they can settle you claim in a matter of weeks, and they may even give you an amount they are willing to pay you there and then.
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They are a lot more common that you might think! Which is surprising given that the rules and regulations employers must adhere to are strict and numerous to protect the safety of the employees in their working environment. So here’s a little insight in to why employers fail to adhere to regulations (leaving them open to a claim against them), and what employers are expected to do:

Well, perhaps it’s a lack of understanding of the importance of health and safety regulations in the workplace that is a root cause. There are common duties that all employers must ensure to uphold; such as ensuring all access ways are free from hazard (e.g. no holes in the floor!!!), ensuring all electrical equipment is duly tested for safety (e.g. no explosive kettles!), or even employees being trained and instructed on the buildings fire procedures. So what kind of rules and regulations must employers adhere to?
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Have you recently had an accident in a taxi? Perhaps your child has been in an accident in a Taxi? Providing the accident was in no way any fault of your own, you may have a potential claim for compensation. This is because, in the eyes of the law, the passenger(s) involved in an accident in most circumstances are completely innocent party; this should mean if you chose to go ahead and make a claim for compensation, your claim should be quite straight forward.

If you have a child under the age of eighteen, they will require a Litigation Friend to represent them for the claim; this is usually a parent or guardian who will act on behalf of the child with their best interests in mind. A person under the age of eighteen usually doesn’t have the necessary skills or abilities to deal with such circumstances, so the litigation friend is able to make the claim on their behalf.  For any settlement sum that is recovered for the child, it will be stored in a trust fund held by the court until the victim reaches the age of 18.
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On occasions, incidents occur at school where a young child suffers injuries at no fault of their own. We all know what school is like – it’s a bit of a jungle on the playground – and boys will be boys, and children have their scraps and scrapes. But when does a bit of adolescent innocence turn in to a case of negligence on behalf of the school?

Well, you are probably already aware of this, but all schools have a very clear duty of care to ensure that the students are well looked after and do not come to any harm. If a child is the victim of some kind of defect in the school, perhaps a pothole in the playground or a damaged chair, then the school is obviously liable for any suffering. But what if the incident is involving another pupil; perhaps some kind of a fight or instance of bullying – is the school liable?
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Have you had an accident whilst abroad? Perhaps you are wondering what to do as the accident was caused by no fault of your own; but because you were abroad, you may think it’s difficult to do anything about it. These types of accidents can be a little harder to deal with because different rules and regulations apply to different countries.

If you are looking to perhaps make a claim for compensation as a result of an accident you have had whilst abroad, you may still be able to claim. If the holiday was booked as part of a package through a UK based agency and the accident occurred due to the negligence of a party that is related to the package, then you can claim against the package provider.

For example, if you had an accident in a hotel, for instance you tripped over something that shouldn’t have been left lying around, and the hotel was part of the package you booked, then you could potentially have a claim for compensation against the package provider.
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And “cost” is pretty much the important part of it! Because if you deal with the insurers of the third party directly, it is more than likely it will end up costing you money!

So what do I mean by this? Well, in most instances, I am not implying that insurers will charge you for dealing with them directly in a claim for personal injury by way of a percentage of your damages, or invoicing you. What I mean is that if you go down the route of dealing with third party insurers directly, you are very likely to get less compensation than you are entitled to recover.

So what is this, why is this the case, and what can you do about it? It’s called Third Party Capture!
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Road accidents; they’re as common as you can get! In fact, they’re the most common type of accident when it comes to claims for personal injury! And there really are a million and one ways you can be involved in a car accident and end up with an injury:

Although common anyway, according to sources from the Telegraph (source), wider cars are a “major contributory factor” in minor accidents on rural roads.  They are also reportedly an issue in urban streets where houses have been turned in to flats, causing cars to line the streets. The widening of vehicles is the result of added safety features that manufacturers have installed on their vehicles, with some models being widened by inches!
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Have you ever been involved in an accident at your local supermarket and the accident was not your fault? Depending on the circumstances of the incident, you might be eligible to make a claim against a supermarket for compensation. This is because the supermarkets have a duty of care to abide to when dealing with members of the pubic on their premises; if they do not abide by these rules and regulations and an accident occurs, then they are negligent and liable to compensate the victim. You should not have to suffer at the hands of someone else’s mistakes, especially in places open to the public; which is the reason the legislation exists –  to ensure accidents don’t happen as a result of their negligence.

Big retail stores should always have a complaints procedure in place; they should also have an accident book and first aiders on hand. If you have been involved in an accident, always report the incident; that way, should you wish to pursue a claim for compensation, there will be records to rely on. If the store doesn’t have the necessary requirements to record the accident details, you should try and record exactly what happened and also note the steps that the staff members took in order to help you, and also record anything that you felt was missing or which contributed to cause your accident.
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It can be a very challenging role when you are working in the armed forces; we hear of more and more regiments being dispatched to the worn torn countries all over the world that are required to fight in gruelling wars.   Not only is it horrible that our soldiers have to fight in these wars but it’s even worse when you hear of the horrific tragedies that occur on what seems to be a daily basis.

It can be a very difficult experience to be injured on or off duty in a country which is not your own. Not only are your physical injuries a worry but so are the emotional scars you may have, plus any future health concerns you might have as a result of any incident.  There are also, of course, worries for your future career path and how you might financially support your family.  Depending on the circumstances of the incident you may be eligible to place a claim for compensation; there may be numerous parties liable for your military accident.
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I note that some of my colleagues have previously posted blogs surrounding the issue of referral fees; what they are, how they affect you and why should look out for them.

Today I was reading an article on the Guardian’s website relating to this particular fact once again, as the Legal Services Board have been carrying out a lot of research in to the area. It is thought that by the end of the summer a decision shall be made about whether or not these fees should be banned altogether.

By next Monday the Legal Services Board will have released information about how the referral fee system is impacting on the economy. Shortly after this release they will also be confirming the results of the report carried out with the board’s consumer panel.
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