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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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The term ‘Product Liability’ may at first seem like legal jargon for which you do not know what it means, and it may seem too complex to be bothering with finding out what it means. All it does mean however is that within a personal injury context, it is a product which has in some way caused you harm.

Products which appear on the shelves of our shops should go through a series of checks to ensure they are safe for the public to use. Now, for a product that causes you harm – these checks may not have been completed thoroughly, or the product may have been missed some how and not checked at all.

There are many potential claims for product liability. One of the first is due to faulty products. If you have received an injury due to a faulty product then you may have a claim for compensation. Examples of such an injury could be burns from a faulty hot water bottle bursting, an unsafe chair which causes it to collapse, or a child’s toy which may have not been suitable for that age group, and thus small parts have detached causing injury to the child. It may also include food items which have been contaminated and as such has caused you an injury or illness – an example of this may be that small pieces of glass has entered your product – this could be due to a fault at the manufacturers and their packaging process.
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BBC News has reported that police forces across the country have paid out nearly £800,000 in compensation in the last three years to victims of dog bites by police dogs.  Astonishingly, one single dog bite victim received almost £50,000 alone in compensation.  The Greater Manchester Police faced the greatest payout, nearly twice as much as any other police force, with approximately £180,000 handed out in compensation.  In second place were the Metropolitan police with around £95,000 in compensation paid out.  The total compensation awarded compensated 2,725 suspects, 196 members of the police forces, and 155 members of the public who were bitten by police dogs.  The West Midlands police were accountable for the most amount of dog bite incidents, with 644 over the last three years.

Although these figures seem high, I imagine most of you would agree, and as the police themselves have suggested, that dogs are an important resource in the fight against crime.  That said, any incident which sees an innocent member of the public bitten by a police dog is far from satisfactory and must be avoided.  As the BBC News reports, one victim, Brian Kiddel, has described his dog bit as ‘the most frightening experience I ever had in my life’.  It simply is a position none of us would like to be in, nor would we want anyone to be in.  It is therefore welcome news that the Associations of Chief Police Officers Assistant Chief Constable Nick Ingram has stated that although ‘Police dogs are a valuable and essential resource which, when used effectively, make a valuable contribution to reducing and detecting crime and disorder and building safer communities’, the police are trying to ensure that ‘the training, deployment and management of dogs is constantly improved, devised and developed’.

Unfortunately it is not just police dogs that happen to bite innocent people.  In recent times there has been a substantial increase in the number of people being bitten by dogs throughout the United Kingdom.  Currently we have in place the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 which has banned certain, dangerous, categories of dogs, and it is well set out that it is the responsibility of the dog handler to ensure the safety of members of the public when the dog is unleashed.  That said, dog bites do still occur and it is important that if you have been unlucky enough to have been a victim of a dog bite, you do seek the advice of a professional injury lawyer who can advise you on a potential claim for compensation.
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People can have mixed feelings regarding work. They can love their work or they can dread it – when work only becomes a means to making up the cost of living.  Whatever your feelings regarding work I can hazard a guess that it is the last thought on your mind that you will suffer an accident at work which was not your fault.

Many clients come to us after having gone through the trauma of having, what maybe, a serious accident at work. More often than not they are worried about claiming against their employer due to potential repercussions. We always advise clients that employers could get into a lot of trouble if they treated you any differently due to you claiming against them.  Also, that is why firms like us here at The Injury Lawyers are here – to act on your behalf within the claim.

If you suffer an accident at work that was not your fault then you may have a claim for compensation. After suffering an accident at work it is important to report it to another member of staff as an accident book record needs to be completed. You should also seek medical attention for your injuries; this not only assists with your injuries but also allows the medical professional to make a note in your medical records.  Check for any witnesses to the accident as they may be able to provide valuable support to any later claim you may have. Lastly, you should seek the advice of a specialist personal injury lawyer. This is best done as soon as possible after the accident whilst the events are still fresh in your mind; many sorts of cases have a 3 year limitation period, whereby after 3 years from the accident date you may not be able to bring your claim.
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You’ve probably seen the adverts in the past where people have slipped on a wet floor and caused themselves an injury. The idea of slipping on a dangerous floor has even become the punch line of many jokes for those that either don’t understand or misconceive the concept of claiming for compensation.

If you have slipped over and injured yourself in a premises owned by someone else, you may have a claim for compensation.

Ultimately, an injury from a slipping accident is not a nice thing to endure. In fact, it can be the cause of serious injury – which is why the rules and regulations are in place to ensure owners take proper responsibility for their premises.
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It seems that many more people are becoming aware of their rights when it comes to claiming for a personal injury.  This may be due to the increased amount of advertisements on television and radio heightening awareness for people who have had an accident that was not their fault.

With the above in consideration, many clients still come to us entirely unsure and unconfident in the fact they have a valid personal injury claim for compensation.

Claims for personal injury can stem from all sorts of different accidents and types of personal injury; I have listed some of these below:
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