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If you fall over and sustain injury on someone else’s property or in public, then you may be entitled to claim for compensation. Courts look at each case on its own merit and although drink can be a factor, it does not necessarily mean that you will not be able to make a claim if you fall over whilst intoxicated.

First of all we would consider what caused you to fall. Did you fall due to a defect in the pavement? If so you may have a claim for compensation, even if you had been drinking before or at the time of the accident. There is no strict rule saying that people under the influence of alcohol cannot make a compensation claim. Some people may be very drunk which causes them to fall over for no apparent reason. Other people may have had one or two drinks and trip on a defective pavement or pothole. Clearly there is a big difference here. Just because you have had a drink, it does not mean that you cannot claim.
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There are a lot of compensation solicitors out there ready and willing to take on your case. However, unfortunately things are not always what they seem – something that advertises itself as a firm of lawyers, may actually be a claims management company that then refers you across to one of their “panel” of lawyers; so the people you speak to initially may not be legal professionals at all!

Usually these companies will put in their small print “we are a cohesion of lawyers” or a “group of lawyers” or something similar, which is a posh way of saying we are a claims management company who put you in touch with lawyers that we have chosen. Of course, this seems an absurd way of doing things as you can simply go to a solicitor direct and cut out the middleman! Not many people hire a middleman to find them a dentist, hairdresser or accountant; you simply go to them direct. So why should finding a compensation lawyer be any different?
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Pre-action protocols were introduced for a number of reasons. The main reason was to speed up the claims process by providing guidelines as to when insurers should respond to a claim. Most personal injury claims come under a certain protocol, all of which differ slightly.

Road traffic accidents now come under the road traffic accident protocol, industrial disease claims (e.g. industrial deafness, vibration whiter finger etc) come under the disease and illness protocol and most other personal injury claims (e.g. work accidents, trips/slips etc) come under the more general personal injury protocol. Note that road traffic accidents differ slightly in the sense that a claim can “fall out” of the road traffic accident protocol. This is because road traffic accident claims are submitted through an online portal and should insurers fail to respond to the claim in time (within 15 business days) then the claim falls out of the road traffic accident protocol and continues under the more general personal injury protocol. This means that different time frames are then in operation. This also has cost consequences as Solicitors are only entitled to recover fixed costs for claims dealt with on the online portal under the road traffic accident protocol.
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Whiplash claims are oh so common; and the question as to how much compensation you are allowed to recover for a whiplash claim is all over the internet. We have done a fair few articles on this topic in the past, but the reason I wanted to write about this today is because I have a whiplash claim and I’ve just received my very first offer! Very exciting…
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One of my all time favourite things is that moment when I come home from work on a Friday night, crack open a bottle of beer, and collapse in to my lovely leather sofa to wind down from a hard week at work helping you guys fight for your rights to make a claim for compensation. It’s always great to sit down, and most of us probably spend a heck of a lot of time sat down in chairs at work and in everyday life. It’s a huge part of living when you think about it.

However, life is not so bliss when you’re sat in a chair and end up injured through no fault of your own. We do see a fair few chair accident compensation claims, which commonly arise from one of the following:
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Pursuing a claim can be quite confusing and daunting for people as some companies fail to explain the process in a nice straight forward way- they prefer to speak in complicated legal jargon that many people find just plain confusing and essentially means nothing to them. Unfortunately, this also means that many people may under-settle their compensation claim either because they do not understand or to simply end things as soon as possible.

It is a sad truth that some companies like to end things as soon as possible which can actually be against the best interests of you – mainly insurance companies of third parties like to deal direct with a quick and small settlement as this is advantageous to them as it saves them money! However, under settling a claim can have unfortunate consequences -especially if your injury is serious and has long term affects.
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Pre-medical offers are what they say on the tin! – Offers made before medical evidence has been gathered and reviewed. In most cases such offers should be treated with caution and should only be considered if you have the advice of a personal injury specialist as the majority of the time you may run the risk of under-settling your claim.

Compensation is based on the severity of your injuries and how long these will affect your everyday life. Therefore, it is a main and pinnacle part of any claim to gather accurate medical evidence using a medico-legal report from a proper expert. This expert has a duty to the Court which ensures that they are an impartial party in the claim. In the report compiled by this expert there are often key bits of information that affect the value of your claim, which include:

1. A prognosis period – which predicts how long your injury will affect you.
2. Any treatment you may require.
3. Effects on your ability to work.
4. Effects on the your daily routine and daily living.

Based on all the above and of course any consequential losses you have occurred, a valuation of your claim will be established and consequently any offers of settlement will be based on such evidence.
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Obviously as a firm of specialist injury lawyers, this question is asked of us a lot. Our specialist team is here to make sure that this question can be answered as best as we can answer it. Unfortunately it’s not so easy to judge whether you have a claim or not unless you give us a bell on our free claims helpline (0800 634 75 75) and let us assess your potential claim.

However, what I can tell you is this: if you have been injured and the blame is with someone else, you may have a claim. For example, you are hit by another vehicle who perhaps went in to the back of you, or pulled out of a side road in to your vehicle. If you weren’t at fault and they were, you may have a claim.

If you injure your back at work because your employer hasn’t given you enough assistance with manual handling activities, and hasn’t properly trained you or risk assessed your manual handling tasks, you should be able to make a work accident claim from their insurers. Employers have a legal duty to have employer’s liability insurance in place that covers their employees when they are injured through no fault of their own.
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Most people want to know how long a claim will take, but in reality any time frame you are given is simply an estimate based on averages. For example a solicitor may say that a typical road traffic accident claim could settle within 6 to 12 months. However, this cannot be relied upon as a guaranteed fact.

The truth is that solicitors cannot say with any great certainty how long a claim will take.
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When making a claim for compensation, there are 2 aspects which normally make up your compensation award. These are General Damages which is for your pain, suffering and loss of amenity, and Special Damages.

Special damages is any quantifiable expense that you have incurred because of the accident or injuries. The purpose is to address any economic loss and to give you back return your financial position to that which would have been had the injury not occurred.

Not many people keep receipts for every purchase (myself included) but without documented evidence, the Defendant or their representatives are unlikely to reimburse you for the loss.

What can you include as a Special Damage?
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