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Working at height poses a great risk to safety, accounting for a quarter of all workplace deaths. Falling from a height is the one most common causes of an accident within the workplace causing minor/major injuries and fatalities. Of course most of the time the fall isn’t from a great height, with 70 per cent of all accidents being caused from falling from below head height.

Injuries likely to be caused by falling from a height are as follows:

• Twist or swelling to the knees
• Sprained or broken limbs
• Back pain or slipped discs
• Soft tissues damage to the body area

The Working at Height Regulations 2005 were introduced to try and prevent accidents caused by a fall from height, and the regulations are to apply to anywhere where there is a risk of falling. The 2005 regulations set out that a height is to be defined as ‘any place, including a place at or below ground level‘, which liable to cause a personal injury.
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Personally, I can’t tolerate people who drink and drive. There is a very good reason why drinking and driving is illegal – intoxicating substances impair our judgement, and being behind the wheel whilst drunk is like a child running round with a knife. We see it all too often in the news when a person is badly hurt or killed because a driver loses control of their vehicle and causes an incident.

So what happens if you are the unfortunate victim of a drunk driver who has not only caused you a loss by mixing alcohol with driving, but also happens to have no insurance? It’s a lot more common than you might think. This dangerous combination though does not stop you making a claim for personal injury compensation.
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As always, it really depends on the type of accident you’ve had. But I will try and help out with some general guidance as to what happens next once the Defendant has accepted liability for your personal injury compensation claim.

Accepting liability is essentially the Defendant agreeing that they owe you compensation for what has happened. They accept there’s been a breach of duty on their part.

When making a claim for compensation there are two hurdles to cross that make for a winning claim – liability and causation. So liability is that first part – proving someone is at fault – causation means proving that the fault has caused a loss to you.
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Cutting ourselves is easy to do. You graze past anything with a bit of an edge and our skin is vulnerable to being cut. But can you make a claim for personal injury compensation if you are cut by a sharp object? Can you even claim for just a cut or scarring? Here’s some advice.

Firstly, you can make a personal injury compensation claim for a cut – or laceration as we call it (the posh term!). You do not have to have broken anything to make a claim. Superficial scarring is a claimable injury, and it’s normally based on the severity and longevity of the scarring. You may not be in pain, but the fact you have a scar on you is claimable. If you have a facial scar, this is obviously taken in to account way more.

Lacerations can of course be much more serious if they are deeper and hit a tendon or nerve.  The damage that can be done if a tendon is torn or severed is significant, and can affect mobility in the affected area. Inuring tendons in the hand and arm could lead to a permanent loss of mobility in the hand or fingers, and this will of course be taken in to account for a claim.
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The Montreal Convention covers accidents that occur during the course of international travel by air. If you have been involved in such an accident, sustaining injury, then you may be entitled to make a compensation claim. Many of us travel by aeroplane these days and when things do go wrong and an accident occurs, a person should still have a right of action. Under the Montreal Convention a person may have a right of action if they have sustained an injury through an accident that was not their fault. Holiday excursions such as travelling by hot air balloon may also come under this convention, so travel by air is not solely specific to travel by aeroplane.

In terms of dealing with such a claim, it will be useful to consider any contractual terms and conditions which should have been issued to you at the time of booking the flight/holiday or excursion. Bookings are often made through a tour operator. Most personal injury claims run to a 3 year time limit within England / Wales jurisdiction. This means that court proceedings must be issued within 3 years of the date of the accident; otherwise you will lose your right to claim compensation. However under the Montreal Convention the time limit for bringing a claim is commonly 2 years from the date of the accident. It is said that the benefit of the convention is that it is not necessary to establish fault for the accident in order to succeed with the claim. This is known as strict liability. It is merely necessary to show that a plane accident occurred and that the passenger was injured as a result.
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One bit of loose carpet can be a serious issue if someone trips on it or slips because it isn’t gripping the floor. Tripping or slipping can be bad enough if you fall down to the floor fast and hard, but what about carpets on stairs? You take a fall down a flight of stairs and you can end up with serious injuries.

So is there a law or a duty when it comes to loose carpets? It depends on where it happens, but given its likely it will be in a place of work or in a public place, here is the info you need to know:

Loose Carpet at Work

Regulation 12 (2) (a) states:

The floor, or surface of the traffic route, shall have no hole or slope, or be uneven or slippery so as, in each case, to expose any person to a risk to his health or safety.
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When we act on your behalf in pursuing a personal injury claim, we aim to recover General Damages (damages for your injury and suffering) and Special Damages (any loss that you have incurred due to the accident). Special Damages can be wide ranging from claiming travel expenses, medical expenses to claiming for damaged clothing, care and assistance, lost earnings etc. In this blog I will attempt to explain how we go about recovering lost earnings after an accident.

We can try and recover lost earnings if you have been injured in an accident and as a result you were not able to work and you lost earnings as a result. We can even claim for loss of overtime pay if we can prove that you worked overtime before the accident but were not able to after the accident. As I say, Special Damages are wide ranging. The most important aspect of any Special Damages claim is providing documentary proof/evidence that the loss actually occurred.

In terms of lost earnings we would ask you to send in pay slips for a number of months prior to the accident. We would also request pay slips for the period following the accident (if applicable). If you have sustained a loss of earnings then the pay slips should show this. Perhaps you can only work reduced hours after the accident, your earnings would be down and we can seek to recover the difference. If your wage is not set (i.e. you receive a different amount of pay each week or month) then we can calculate your average pay for say the 6 month period before the accident. We can use the average pay figure to calculate your loss after the accident.
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Traction alopecia is a condition caused by continuous “pulling” on the hair follicles. This pulling puts stress on the hair and therefore ultimately it commonly results in premature hair loss and balding patches that many people may complain of.

One of the main causes of this condition is badly fitted hair extensions – more frequently with the hair extensions that are “bonded” to the hair rather than glued (however it can occur in both circumstances) as the natural hair is put under a lot of stress supporting the greater weight of the extra hair. Many Claimants’ often complain that the injury occurs most frequently around the hairline and temples as naturally the hair is always thinner.

There are two ways which the hair extensions can be negligently fitted:
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When it comes to manual handling at work, there are specific regulations that your employer needs to abide by. These are the covered by The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992. Under 4.—(1) of the regulations, each employer shall:

(i) make a suitable and sufficient assessment of all such manual handling operations to be undertaken by them
(ii) take appropriate steps to reduce the risk of injury to those employees arising out of their undertaking any such manual handling operations

So, any manual handling activities you undertake should be risk assessed by your employer to determine how to best manoeuvre the load(s) and what prerequisites need to be taken in to account. As the title of this article suggests, we will look at your eligibility to make a claim in the event no equipment was provided to you for a manual handling activity.
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If you have had an accident that was not your fault, and you are thinking of making a claim, here is one piece of advice I need to give you that could save your claim – have medical attention! Whether it’s a quick visit to your GP or nipping down to your local walk-in centre or to hospital, you should always see someone as soon as possible after your accident.

It’s important for two reasons – one is to make sure you’re OK, and the other is for evidence purposes. We will send you to see an expert that is qualified to prove us with a medico-legal report. This report serves two main purposes – it allows us expert lawyers to value your claim, and it also serves to prove that your injuries were caused as a result of the accident.
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