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Since legal reforms came in to place on April 1^st of this year, the whole personal injury legal system has been shaken to the core with most law firms now charging clients up to 25% of their compensation and asking them to pay for an insurance premium after our genius government changed the law so lawyers can no longer recover all fees from the other side.

Before April, we had, in my opinion, a nice and fair system – you make a claim for negligence, and the other side pays for your legal fees because it’s not your fault that you were injured and it’s not your fault you need to make a claim as a result. But our current government, in all of their infinite wisdom, essentially decided that victims should pay. That’s why lawyers can no longer recover a Success Fee, which is a part of our fees that help us to fund the risk of taking cases on on a No Win, No Fee basis, and an After The Event insurance premium which is for insurance to protect you against costs from the other side or from having to pay unrecoverable disbursements.
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On 1^st April 2013, the whole personal injury system was shaken to its core when the government decided that the innocent victims should not be allowed to recover all their legal fees for pursuing a claim from the opponent. Whilst lawyers can still recover most things, we are no longer allowed to recover a success fee, which helps us fund no win, no fee claims, or an After The Event insurance premium, which is insurance to protect the client against costs.

A cap has been placed on lawyers so we cannot charge anymore than 25% of a person’s claim for pain and suffering and past financial losses for the success fee, and most law firms are now charging the full 25%. On top of that, they are asking for payment of the insurance as it’s no longer recoverable from the opponent either. To try and help offset clients being charged, compensation victims do get an extra 10% compensation under the new rules – but they are still at a loss.

According to our research so far, the vast majority of law firms have settled on charging the full 25% and are asking for payment of the insurance. People are losing out. But our boss here at The Injury Lawyers decided to be different – as we have always tried to be!
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Accidents in supermarkets are one of the most common types of accidents we see as personal injury lawyers. I suppose we can all see why this is the case. Supermarkets can be extremely busy places – the sheer volume of people coming through the doors, the sheer amount of products, the numbers of staff – accidents are bound to occur. We have come across a wide range of supermarket accidents including accidents involving roll cages, accidents caused by spillages, accidents caused by items falling off shelves etc.

Accidents at supermarkets come under the scope of occupier’s liability. Basically the supermarket owes you (as a lawful visitor) a duty of care. This is a duty to keep you safe and free from harm while you are on their premises. This duty means that the store must be kept safe to prevent visitors from sustaining injury. If a spillage occurs on the floor then this clearly poses a slipping hazard. A wet floor sign should be erected and the spillage should be cleaned up as quickly as possible. Of course other factors are important such as whether the wet floor sign was clearly visible, if erected at all at the time of the accident, the time between the spillage and the clean-up operation etc.
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Lifts are one of the common phobias that people have. Some people don’t think twice before entering a lift but other people do have a genuine fear of them. While in the most part lifts have proved to be safe and necessary, they have also been the cause of accidents resulting in serious injury and even death. I would argue that lifts are perfectly safe providing they are regularly checked and maintained by suitably qualified and experienced engineers. A simple internet search will give you examples of injury and death caused by lift accidents.

We all probably accept that lifts are necessary, especially for disabled persons or people with a trolley or pram. However I do think they fuel laziness in some people. Personally I would always choose to walk up a flight of stairs unless I had a pram with me. However I can understand using a lift if you are required to go up multiple flights of stairs, in a hospital for example. I don’t agree with taking the lift purely out of laziness but that is just me. I feel that lifts should only be used by people who need to use them.
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If you are involved in an accident as a passenger, and a collision took place, you generally should have a successful claim. As a passenger, unless you did something reckless like pulled the handbrake or distracted the driver or had some kind of impact on the accident, you shouldn’t be at fault. If one car hits another and you are a passenger in either of the vehicle, you should be able to make a claim.

The reason why I highlight the point of there being a collision is that, for a collision to take place, someone must have been at fault in the vast majority of circumstances. If there isn’t a collision, say you are a passenger on a bus and the bus suddenly stops, then you may not have such a strong case. It all depends on the reason as to why the bus stopped. If it stopped because another driver negligently pulled out of a side road, then it isn’t really the fault of the bus. If the other driver can’t be traced, it could be difficult to claim against them directly.
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We don’t often write about sporting injury claims for one primary reason – their success rate is rather low. Being injured in a contact sport is a very regular thing. I myself have been the victim of a multi-ligament rupture and nerve damage that has left me with a permanent condition called foot drop. When I stepped on to 5-a-side court that day, I never envisaged that my life would change forever in a matter of seconds. Whilst I blame the poor condition of the court, proving that is nigh-impossible, and I’m left unable to claim.

Rather than discuss the ins and outs of the quality of a football court or pitch, I’m going to discuss injuries in contact sports and when you may be able to make a claim. I’m going to keep it simple and relevant – so I won’t discuss past case law, I will simply outline what you need to know about trying to start a claim.

The biggest point here in my opinion is that there is a huge divide between proving what is negligence, and what is an unfortunate injury sustained when wilfully participating in a contact sport. The posh Latin word for this is volenti non fit injuria – which essentially means “to a willing person, injury is not done.” When you play a sport, particularly a contact sport, you are inherently accepting an element of risk of injury. Differing sports can dictate the level of risk. I’d imagine you’re quite safe when playing table tennis, but when rock climbing there is a lot more to consider!
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Well to be honest, this is hard to answer. It’s kind of like the old adage “how long is a piece of string” (twice the length from the middle if you really want to solve that one).

It can all depend on a number of factors, such as:

• Whether the Defendant admits liability for your case early – if they try and defend it, it could take a while to build a case to fight them for a successful outcome.
• The severity of your injuries – generally speaking, the more you suffer, the more we get for you, which means more medical evidence and possibly more treatment. It’s normally best to wait until you are fully healed before making any settlement negotiations with the other side, so if you are badly hurt, this could take a while.
• The service of your solicitors – some lawyers probably care little about providing a fast service – so make sure you instruct a law firm like us who aim to update you regularly and actually press the opponent for results and decisions.

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The NHS is stretched thin – so when you need treatment fast but you have to wait for weeks or even months before getting any, what can you do? You should have treatment when you need it the most, which for the majority of injuries is in the early stages. But you can get access to private medical care if you make a claim with The Injury Lawyers today!

If we accept your claim and the prospects of success are good, we can get access to private medical care right from the start of your claim. There are no upfront fees for it; we will claim the fees back from the other side at the end of the claim if we win, or claim it from insurance if the claim doesn’t win. We don’t have to wait for the other side to accept liability first. It’s kind of like treatment on a no win, no fee basis!

Our medical partners have to be happy that there is a good enough chance to win the claim, and there are certain bits of information they will need before they can look to sorting treatment out. But this shouldn’t normally take too long, and most people get a call within 48 hours of us asking them to help with treatment.
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Who is really offering 100% compensation now?

April 1^st 2013 saw one of the biggest shake ups in the entire history of personal injury claiming. Any agreements entered in to on or after April 1^st now means that it is unlikely you will be able to receive 100% of your compensation payout. The reason is that the law changed so that now lawyers are unable to recover all of their fees from your opponent.

That’s how it worked before – we were entitled to recover all of our legal fees from the other side meaning you get to keep your full payout. Now, there are two things we can no longer recover from the other side. One is something called a success fee, that is part of our fees deigned to reflect the risk of taking a case on, and the other is something called an After The Event Insurance premium. This is to protect you from having to pay out for unrecoverable disbursements (things we pay out on your behalf like a medical report) or costs from the other side.
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If you’re reading this, I’m going to assume that you or someone you know has slipped over in a supermarket. I’m sorry if this is the case, but I’d encourage you to read on because I need to tell you something very important that could be the making or breaking of your claim for compensation.

In these sorts of cases, evidence can be everything. By law, a supermarket is liable to compensate someone who has slipped and fallen in their premises if they have breached the Occupiers Liability Act. This important piece of legislation stipulates that the occupier of a premises has an important duty to make their premises as safe as they reasonably can.

To prevent a slipping hazard as reasonably as possible, the supermarket should have a system or inspection and maintenance to look out for and clear away any hazards on the floor or place wet floor signs or cordons in the area until a hazard can be cleared away. What could be classed as reasonable is open to interpretation – if it’s a really busy Saturday afternoon, then a half hourly or hourly inspection may be classed as reasonable. In the early hours of the morning where there are far less customers, it may be less.
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