Archives

Cosmetic surgery is becoming increasingly popular with youth today due to the ‘need’ to look good and therefore there has been a noticeable rise of claims resulting from cosmetic surgery.

The issue of cosmetic surgery has been in the media this week with the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons calling for a ban on advertisement for cosmetic surgery to those under the age of 18. The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons want to prevent celebrities advertising the surgery who may be idolised by youth and to prevent all special offers on surgery as a way of protecting the vulnerable and discouraging people with the full process. 

The Government has taken real note of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons request and has announced that the Department for Health will be reviewing the regulations concerning cosmetic surgery. Already there have been twelve recommendations which have been sent to advertising regulator, the Committee of Advertising Practice, to consider.
Read More

Often at the outset of a claim people will want to know how much compensation they are likely to receive. Solicitors can sometimes give very basic and straightforward estimates but at the outset you should be aware that it is impossible to value a claim with any accuracy.

Any value given is simply an estimate which cannot be relied upon. If you understand how claims are valued then you will realise why Solicitors cannot give accurate valuations at the outset.

So how are personal injury claims valued?
Read More

For many reasons I imagine – but all generally revolving around one thing – legal expenses insurance (hereafter referred to as LEI)! For actual law firms like us, there is nothing more disheartening than when clients are taken in by this system and ultimately potentially deceived. LEI is a straight forward system but benefits usually only two groups of people – the insurers and solicitors!

Legal expenses insurance involves your insurers (like your car insurers) SELLING your details across to a solicitor who will then use a percentage of their costs to pay for your details in the first place. For example: a solicitor may pay your insurers £1,000.00 for your details which is then taken away from the amount of funds they have to run your case. The next question of course though is how does this make your claim go slower?

Less funds =  less phone calls, letters and less work being done on the case. Importantly – less fighting for the highest payout and therefore LESS compensation for you!
Read More

This is indeed a very important but tricky question. It is often best explained in the form of a scenario. Say for example you are in your local supermarket stocking up on those essential goods and you are unfortunate enough to slip on a wet floor.

Now, if there is a clearly visible wet floor sign in place which you should have seen, then it could be difficult to claim compensation for any injuries that you sustained. However, every case is unique and studied on its own facts. Say for example a wet floor sign was erected and was clearly visible but you failed to notice it because you were looking down at your mobile phone as you were walking. In this situation a Court would probably say that the store took all necessary precautions to warn you of the hazard and therefore there was no potentially negligence.
Read More

This is a common question and one that has a pretty straight forward answer. However, there isn’t a fixed time period and the reason for this will hopefully become apparent below…

Of course, the first thing that happens after your medical appointment is that a medical report is compiled and sent across to the solicitor. Your solicitor should chase this if it is taking longer than usual, but there can be delays at this point simply because the third party is not as speedy as we would hope them to be.

So the first bit of advice would be to take this into account and not be chasing a medical report the day after an appointment.  In the same way, once your solicitor discloses the medical report to the other side and invites offers, we will chase for a response but one cannot control another’s actions.
Read More

In today’s vast market it can be difficult to find a Solicitor who you can trust to run your claim. There are so many choices as there are so many personal injury law firms.

From my experience, most firms are run in different ways and have varying structures. We have procedures in place to put us ahead of other personal injury law firms. We have to keep ahead of other law firms to allow us to represent as many clients as we can! Here we have a motto that the clients (i.e. you) are the lifeblood of our organisation.

Without clients and claims we would not be here. This is why we put clients at the forefront of our minds throughout the case. We endeavour to make sure our clients are kept regularly updated as to the progress of their claim.
Read More

This is something that we will all be familiar with due to this sort of topic being highlighted on TV. Reckless driving incidents are unfortunately becoming a daily occurrence with the most common victims being children and the outcome is often devastating.

I am sure you all remember the horrid accident in Leeds involving 10 year old Sabah Saleem who was crossing a road with her 3 year old brother Rayhan Saleem when they were run over in the middle of the road by a speeding vehicle, which, unbelievably, did not stop at the scene and sped away leaving both children for dead in the middle of the road.

Brave Sabah actually took the brunt of the impact in order to protect her little brother and therefore was in a more serious condition that her brother – however luckily they both recovered well.
Read More

Legal expenses insurance is a form of insurance that is designed to cover legal expenses – rather obviously! It’s common as an added extra on your motor policy and sometimes with home insurance or bank accounts. As it’s significantly more common with motor policies, I’ll stick to that as its most applicable.

If you have an accident that was not your fault, your motor insurers will likely advise you that you have the benefit of Legal Expenses Insurance (LEI for short) and that this allows you to have a solicitor and make a claim nice and easy. It is true, that it is an insurance policy, and your insurers can sue it with a solicitor; but there’s a hidden motive as to why your insurers want you to use it. In fact, you’ll likely find that they will be rather pushy to make you use it.
Read More

It all depends on a few factors. Firstly, the accident or injuries have to have been caused through negligence. In short, someone, or some company, must have failed to do something that they can reasonably be expected to do, or have negligently done something and caused an accident or an injury.

There are genuine accidents – but if the accident caused was foreseeable, you may have a case.

The best thing you can always do is call us here at The Injury Lawyers, and explain the circumstances as to how you have been injured, and allow our team to assess the merits of your claim there and then.
Read More

Well preferably us! But here is a quick guide about what you should look for when you want to make a claim for personal injury compensation:

No Win, No Fee

If your claim is strong enough, a good lawyer will offer you a No Win, No Fee agreement. In principle this should do exactly what it says on the tin; if the case doesn’t win, you don’t pay your lawyers’ fees. However, make sure you read through any paperwork you receive thoroughly as there are some unscrupulous lawyers out there who may want to sting you with hidden fees. Usually it’s due to being referred through claims companies or insurers. But a good law firm like us can tell you that it really is true what we say – if your case doesn’t win, you don’t pay the fees!
Read More