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Many of us, using that old phrase –  ‘live for the weekend’. This meaning we look forward to the end of the working week when we can relax, have a lie in and go out socialising with our friends or loved ones. Nights out at these times can range from going dancing in a night club, going for a drink in the local pub, or going to a trendy wine/cocktail bar. Whatever your idea of a good night out, I can hazard a guess that you would not anticipate having an accident in an evening out venue that was not your fault.

Many potential clients that approach The Injury Lawyers with these types of claims are concerned that their consumption of alcohol may have an effect on their claim. This may have an effect, but it does not necessarily mean you cannot claim. At The injury Lawyers we give free claim assessments so whether we take the claim or not – you do not have to pay a thing for our legal advice. If we are unable to take on the claim we can usually suggest other avenues which you could explore.

Venues such as clubs, pubs and bars have a duty to protect their customers like anywhere else. They must abide by strict health and safety regulations and make sure their staff are trained to uphold the safety of the premises. These measures may include completing regular checks of the floors to ensure they are free of spillages which may cause a slip hazard, or ensure the floors are free of articles such as broken glass which may cause lacerations to your feet. Venues normally have a maximum capacity of people it may safely hold, so if an accident has been caused which was due to a venue being over capacity, this may be a potential claim.
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I think now that we coming into Spring it is a good time to assess what damage a harsh winter has had on our highways. I know when I drive I like to at least attempt to avoid driving over potholes and thus elongate the life of my tires as much as possible. However there is not just the issue of what damage a poorly maintained road can do to your car; there is the issue of public safety.

Many clients come to us after having had an accident on the road that is due to a pothole. The most vulnerable road users are those who ride bicycles or drive motorbikes or mopeds. These types of vehicles can more easily be knocked off course causing it to collide with another vehicle or simply knocking it off course and causing it to crash off of the road. This being said, there are also many claims we have here at The Injury Lawyers where potholes have caused cars to crash.

If you have been in a road traffic accident that was caused by any type of fault with the highway, pothole or otherwise, then you may have a claim for compensation. If you do have a road traffic accident it may be important to report it to the Police. Police reports can be used as evidence in any later personal injury claim you may have. You should seek medical attention for your injuries – this not only allows your injuries to be assisted with, but also allows the medical professional to make a record in your medical notes.
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Slipping up can be the butt of many a joke; this could be due to the many a used comedy scene whereby a person may slip on an item such as a banana skin. This being said however, slipping and falling in reality is no laughing matter. At The Injury Lawyers we have seen many a serious injury caused through what may at first seem to be a minor slip.

Slipping can cause injuries such as soft tissue damage, lacerations, head injuries and even broken bones. A hit to the head caused by a slip can even cause someone to be knocked unconscious and later cause concussion.

Slipping hazards can be anywhere. It may be that you are/ have been on a night out, maybe dancing in a night club, and slipped on a spillage negligently left uncleaned on the floor. It may be that you are completing your weekly shop and have slipped on a spillage in an aisle which has been left un-cleaned, not sectioned off, and unattended. Many of our clients have slipped on floors either at work or even in restaurants whereby the floors have been cleaned and a wet floor sign has not been placed at the area warning people of the hazard. All of the above could potentially make for a claim for compensation.
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At first glance you may think you know what no win no fee means. But when it comes down to a situation when you have had an accident and it was not your fault, and you really think about the term, there may be a few questions which you may have.

Many of our clients upon approaching The Injury Lawyers with a potential claim ask questions such as:

How do you get paid if I win my case?

How do you get paid if I lose my case?
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At The Injury Lawyers we have many clients approaching us after being involved in a bus or a coach accident.  Many of them are unsure if they have a claim and or who the claim may be against.  This lack of knowledge surrounding this area of personal injury may be due to the large number of accidents focused at road traffic accidents in general for car accidents.

If you have been involved in an accident whilst on a bus or a coach you may have a claim for compensation.  If the bus/coach was involved in a road traffic accident then you may have a claim against the driver of the car at fault. If the accident was the fault of the bus driver you may have a claim against the bus company. With regard to dealing with motor insurance claims your specialist personal injury solicitor will correspond with the insurance company of the party at fault on your behalf.

The above being said, accidents whilst on buses or coaches may not just be a due to a road traffic accident. Many clients come to The Injury Lawyers and we successfully claim compensation for the client falling over on a bus. In order to have a potential claim a fall must be the fault of the driver or another road user. There are many potential reasons for falling over whilst on a bus/coach; it may be that the bus jerked violently to a stop, thus knocking you over, or you may have slipped on a spillage or tripped on a trip hazard in an aisle.
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A fall from a height can occur in many different types of situations and in many different professions. You may think that just because a receptionist falls from a chair whilst changing a light bulb, or a librarian falls from ladders putting a book on a shelf, that these types of accident cannot be claimed for. This thought process may be due to thinking that it is only in the obvious types of careers such as builders, roofers, or scaffolders where height is a normal, daily part of their job that claims regarding falling from a height can be successfully made.

This, however, is not the case; it may be true that these types of claims are more common in the careers mentioned above – but anyone in any career can possibly claim compensation for a fall from a height which caused them injury and was not their fault.

Employers have a duty to protect their employees from any risks to their Health and Safety as far as is reasonably possible. They must adhere to strict Health and Safety Regulations, and particularly, in the case of this blog, the Work at Height Regulations 2005. The topic of this blog need not be on the ins and outs of this legislation.  However, what can be taken from it is that employers should plan a working at height situation carefully – it should be properly supervised and the correct equipment for the job provided. This equipment must also be properly maintained and stored with the users of it trained in how to utilise the equipment correctly.
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Now I can hazard a guess that most of us will complain at some point about the busy, chaotic state of the roads. We seem to be always in a traffic jam whether it’s going to work (which is probably expected when it is rush hour), taking the children to school, or doing the shopping (not so expected).

With this increase in traffic on the roads it is no surprise that road traffic accidents can easily occur.

Road traffic accidents can come about in many ways; they are most common at traffic meeting places such as roundabouts and junctions. It is no coincidence that when you hear traffic updates on the radio that it mostly seems to be at a motorway junction or a crossroad. Areas such as motorway junctions can be a particularly dangerous place whereby accidents occur frequently. It may be due to traffic merging incorrectly and drivers not checking their mirrors or drivers realising at the last moment that they need to exit the motorway at a particular junction, and desperately trying to get across the motorway in order to do so – thus causing panic and a possible collision.
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If you instruct The Injury Lawyers to deal with your claim for compensation we guarantee that you will receive 100% of your compensation – not a penny less! We do not charge our legal services to our clients, making it a free of charge service for our clients; this is why you get to keep 100% of any compensatory award you receive.  So how come we provide our services for at no costs to our clients? Simple – if we win your case we are able to recover our costs from the other side.  So, we get our work paid for by the Defendant, which includes any other costs, such as medical reports and court fees, all paid for by the other side.  We operate on what we have uniquely defined as a ‘genuine no win, no fee agreement’. 

That is, our Conditional Fee Agreement (the technical name for our No Win No Fee contract with you) explicitly states that we cannot attempt to recover any of our costs from you if we fail to recover them from the other side.  There is simply only one circumstance where we would seek to recover ours costs from you; that is, if a few months or maybe years down the line you decided you no longer wanted to go ahead with your claim.  We feel this is fair, as I am sure you would agree, because after all in those circumstances we would have done considerable work for you.  We really do have a genuine no win, no fee agreement with all of our clients. Most law firms operate the same policy – but not all law firms will restrict their fees to whatever they recover like we do.

Most other law firms only state in their agreement with you that they will seek to recover their costs from the other side – which in reality means that, yes, they will try and get their costs from the other side so as not to charge you, but, should they not recover all of these costs, they could in fact look to you to pay the outstanding balance.  For The Injury Lawyers this is unpalatable.  We acknowledge that your compensation is just that: it is YOUR compensation.  We therefore believe that you should keep all of it.  If we were to take some of it away, this would under compensate you.  You are awarded compensation to put yourself back in the position you would have been in had your accident not have occurred.  If we then take some of your compensation to pay for our services, then this is to serve so as not to put you back in the position you would have been in had the accident not have occurred.  The Injury Lawyers therefore state in their agreement with their clients that they CANNOT recover their fees from you.
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Vehicles such as motorbikes, bicycles, and mopeds have particular vulnerability on the roads, in that, in the event of an accident, there is far less protection for the rider. Due to the fact that they can be harder to see on the roads by drivers of other vehicles, road traffic accidents can also be more likely. The awareness of the vulnerability and increased road traffic accident statistics for the above named vehicles is heightened by campaigns such as Think Bike!, which I am sure many readers of this article have seen on car stickers or by the side of the road.

Now, accidents involving these types of vehicles happen most prevalently at traffic meeting places, such as junctions and roundabouts. It is a sad fact that many drivers just don’t see vehicles such as motorbikes coming down the road before they pull out – such is the television advertisement which tells us to look, look, and look again to ensure we treble check before we commit to pulling out of a junction. Accidents involving motorbikes, bicycles and mopeds can also be due to a defective road surface, adverse weather conditions, or debris in the road.

Statistics state that it is males around the age of 30-39 who are most likely to ride motorbikes. It is highly likely that this sector of society maybe the main bread winner for a family and are coming up to the peak of their career. This is why it is advisable to seek advice from a specialist personal injury solicitor as soon as possible after the accident, as a good lawyer will then be able to make applications for interim payments sooner before the claim has concluded. Interim payments are payments which can be paid to a claimant who may be suffering financial hardship due to their accident before the conclusion of their case.
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Whiplash can be an extremely painful and frustrating injury to live with. Many clients upon approaching the team at The Injury Lawyers report a whiplash injury; most commonly as a result of a road traffic accident. Road traffic accidents tend to be on the increase – this can be due to a number of factors such as the increasing amount of traffic on the road or the fact that people’s lives seem to be getting busier all the time and they may not be paying the necessary care and attention to the road.

Whiplash is caused by a sudden jolt to the head which causes the neck to move beyond its normal range of movement. Therefore, the injury may not solely be caused by road traffic accidents, but also from accidents such as a fall.

The symptoms of whiplash tend to become apparent between 12-24 hours after the accident and then can continue to increase in severity. So you may think you have come out of an accident unharmed, then unfortunately realise that this is not the case some time afterwards. Many people may think whiplash is solely an injury to the neck – yes, it can cause tenderness, pain, swelling and/or stiffness in the neck – but the term whiplash can also encorporate injury symptoms such as headaches and further pain radiating down through the shoulders and even down the back and arms.
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