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The term Occupier’s Liability may sound complex, but its meaning is fairly simple to explain. There are two Occupier’s Liability Acts; the one relevant for our discussions in this blog is the Occupier’s Liability Act 1957.  It is this act which offers protection to the ‘lawful visitors’ of premises rather than trespassers with which the other Act deals. The act states that the Occupier has a duty to ensure its visitors will be reasonably safe when visiting its premises. Contrary to how the name sounds an Occupier need not actually occupy the premises as such; an occupier is simply the person(s) who have overall physical control over the premises. A good way to illustrate this is with the following examples of Occupier’s liablity claims:

• An item falling on you from a poorly stacked shelf in a supermarket – this may be a strong claim for personal injury and would be directed against the supermarket.
• Slipping on a spillage in a night club – if you have been injured as a result, this too may be a claim and would be directed against the nightclub.

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If you have been involved in an accident that was not your fault, and you have been injured as a result, you may have a claim for compensation.

Another term for compensation is ‘damages’ and there are two types of damages for which you can claim – these are General Damages and Special Damages. General damages is the compensation for your injuries – i.e. for the pain and suffering you have endured and the effects those injuries have had on your life.  Special damages are the quantifiable financial losses which you have suffered as a result of your accident – these will be the topic of the following blog.

There are many types of losses which you can recoup and claim back from the other side – I have listed some of the more common types below:
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We, like many other lawyers out there, have our own personal injury calculator on our website that has been there to help accident victims get an idea as to what they could be entitled to claim for in compensation for years.  Whilst the calculator can be useful, it has its numerous limitations – so, here’s a quick guide to fill you in on how it works:

How Does it Value My Claim?

Well, firstly, it’s important to understand that I’m basing this on our own calculator – as many others out there could be different. Out calculator provides you with brackets and figures based on official guidelines that we, as specialist injury lawyers, actually use when we value our own clients claims. The figures come from the JSB (Judicial Studies Board) Guidelines, which are guidelines set out to assist lawyers and insurers when it comes to agreeing settlement for a claim.
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Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE as it is more commonly known, is equipment which can be used or worn to protect you from risks to your health and safety. PPE can come in all shapes and sizes, and so can be anything from safety boots, to ear defenders, to anti vibration gloves.

It is the duty of your employer to provide the necessary PPE, and to cover the full costs of the equipment. Once you are provided with the PPE you should also be trained in its use, your employer should be able to evidence this training with documentation.

Employers must also ensure that the PPE itself does not cause a risk to health and safety, For example, there should be no risk of the PPE getting trapped in machinery or the user overheating due to it.
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At The Injury Lawyers we have a vast amount of experience in whiplash claiming, and so are fully aware of the debilitating effect it can have on a person’s life. That is why we treat the condition with the seriousness that it deserves, fighting tooth and nail to get our client’s the best possible amount of compensation they are entitled to receive.

Causes

At The Injury Lawyers we tend to see whiplash most commonly as a result of road traffic accidents as the injury is commonly caused through a jolt to the head / neck area. It is common for people not to report injury at the scene of an accident, but to suffer whiplash later on as the symptoms, which I will discuss below, usually become apparent a few hours later, or even the following day or sometimes longer.
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At The Injury Lawyers we have a great deal of experience in road traffic accident claiming. For clients that have suffered an accident after 30^th April 2010 and whose claim is within a certain value, we are pleased to inform them that their claim can be run through a fast track system that can be much quicker than other common compensation claims.

The Process…

This fast track system is begun by completing a Claim Notification Form. This form is the first correspondence the other side will receive on your claim and sets out the accident circumstances in full, together with the necessary information required for your case to be investigated thoroughly. Once this is completed, it is submitted via an electronic portal over the internet, which means that all correspondence is sent and received simultaneously, therefore making the claiming process much faster and more streamlined. After this is submitted, the other side have one business day to acknowledge the claim, and 15 business days to provide their response regarding liability. This is in stark contrast to the system of old which allowed the other side nearly 4 months to respond.
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If you have been injured at work through no fault of your own, you may well have a successful claim for compensation.

Your employers have an important duty to ensure that your health and safety is maintained at all times whilst you are at work, and there are a number of rules and regulations that they must abide by. If your accident and / or injuries were caused because your employers failed in this important duty of care that they have for you, their insurance should cover you and compensate you.

So – how do you make a work accident claim, and what does it entail?
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Whiplash can be experienced very mildly or extremely severely, and so can have little effect on your life or an extremely debilitating effect on your life. This is why valuing a claim for whiplash can be difficult; some sufferers can recover from the condition in a matter of weeks, whereas others can suffer for months or years. As you will probably have gathered, there will be extremely different valuations placed on the two extremes I have just outlined above, and the point of this blog is to let you know how solicitors come up with these valuations for your claim.

A solicitor will use a wide range of tools to value your claim – I have set these out below:

1. Judicial Studies Board Guidelines: The JSB guidelines band neck injuries for the purposes of valuations – I have set out these bands below;

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This blog is designed to be a quick guide as to how a child or person deemed a ‘protected party’ under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 can bring a claim for compensation for injuries arising from an accident that occurred through no fault of their own.

As you will no doubt agree, a child or a ‘protected party’ is in no position to bring a claim for compensation on their own accord.  Can you imagine, for example, your five year old boy solely dealing with lawyers and obtaining compensation? I thought not.  So that a child or a protected party is able to bring a claim for compensation the law states that they will require a ‘litigation friend’. 

A litigation friend is a person, a responsible adult, who will act on the child or protected party’s behalf and deal with their claim for compensation for them.  In most cases a litigation friend will be a parent or a guardian, but equally a litigation friend could be a carer, social worker, another relative or close family friend.  The most important thing is that the litigation friend is someone who is trusted and will do their utmost for the injured party to help their claim for compensation.
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There may be many accident victims out there suffering from their injuries and wondering whether to make a claim for compensation – hence the reason for writing this blog. If you have been involved in an accident that was due to the negligence of another, and you have been injured as a result, you may be entitled to make a claim. I have listed below some of the main benefits of beginning a claim, many of which you may not have realised existed.

Compensation for Injury

I will begin with the most obvious reasons why people begin claims for personal injury, and that is of course for compensation for their injuries.  This compensation is meant to reflect both the pain and suffering due to your injuries as well as your loss of amenity.  Loss of amenity means the adverse effects the injury has had on all areas of your life.
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