Archives

A pre-medical offer is an offer made by the Defendant’s insurer to settle your claim without the need for medical evidence in support of your injuries.

These offers are usually made when the accident is pretty straight forward, liability is not an issue, and the insurer just wants the case off their desk. If you have a legal representative, they should inform you of the risks of accepting such an offer once it has been made.

Basically, the main issue we at The Injury Lawyers have with pre-medical offers is that, if accepted, you never know if this accurately reflects the amount of compensation you deserve.
Read More

In a claim for personal injury and loss you can claim General Damages for pain suffering and loss of amenity (PSLA). This covers compensation for your injuries sustained in the accident or the illness developed due to exposure at work etc. In addition to General Damages you can claim Special Damages. Special Damages can include things like loss of earnings (say because of the injury sustained you were not able to work for 1 month), damage to property (say you tripped over a raised slab and as a result you ripped your clothing). You can also claim for care and assistance, this is another head of loss which comes under Special Damages.

Care and assistance covers all the things that you were not able to do as a result of your injuries. Say you tripped and broke your arm; you may need help from you partner, daughter, son etc in getting dressed. You may also need help with household chores such as ironing, cooking, cleaning, preparing meals etc. You may need help with gardening or cleaning the car. Care and assistance covers things that you did before the accident that you are not able to do following the accident due to your injuries. Family members and friends will of course provide you with the care, such as helping you to get ready, free of charge. However you are entitled to recover Special Damages from the Defendant. It is settled law that the Claimant (the person bringing the claim) is entitled to recover damages in respect of the fair and reasonable value of such care and domestic assistance.
Read More

Being hit in the rear by another vehicle is seen as a pretty straight forward type of accident, and usually it is. After all, how can you control what the person behind you is doing?

Under Rule 126 of the Highway Code you must:

“Drive at a speed which will allow you to stop well within the distance you can see to be clear: You should leave enough space between you and the vehicle in front so that you can pull up safely if it suddenly slows down and stops”

Read More

Maybe you have taken on some part-time hours to help out with the bills or maybe you are a student with a part-time job to help you fund your studies – whatever your circumstances it is a sad fact that you may suffer an injury at work while at your part-time employment. What you need to know is if this does happen to you what can you do about it?

The truth is that the answer is fairly simple: you can still claim against a part-time employer. Just because your hours are part-time it doesn’t mean that you only have part of the rights to claim of a full-time employee!

Employers are required by law to have insurance policies in place to cover all of their employees regardless of employment status; these policies are known as Employers’ Liability Insurance which is required under The Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969.
Read More

A gas explosion is some kind of explosion which may result from a gas leak in the presence of an ignition source.  Explosive gasses include methane and propane to name just a couple.

The BP oil disaster was caused by a methane bubble which triggered the explosion. The deadly bubble of methane forced its way up from beneath the ocean floor and caused the explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, according to workers who survived the disaster. The disaster itself caused severe consequences with 11 deaths and more than three million gallons of crude oil pouring into the sea. Such a disaster highlights the dangers of a gas explosion.

Of course we should be well aware of the dangers anyway as the BP oil disaster was certainly not the first disaster of its kind. Many people will recall the Cleveland East Ohio gas explosion which occurred back in 1944. The gas leak, explosion and resulting fires killed an estimated 130 people and destroyed one square mile area on Cleveland, Ohio’s east side.
Read More

Well there are two notable things to point out here; firstly, as it’s an injury at work, if it was caused through no fault of your own then it is likely you have a good chance of succeeding with a claim. The reason for this is that there are numerous health and safety rules and regulations that employers must abide by, and if we can prove that they have breached at least one of them, making a successful claim is a possibility.

The other thing to point out is that it’s nigh impossible to value a claim for personal injury accurately without proper medical evidence and a fully qualified personal injury lawyer, like us, to value the claim. Other than that, the other thing to note on the topic of the injury and its potentially worth is that ligament injuries to the knee is a very broad term.

Basically, the more you suffer and the longer you suffer the more compensation we get for you. If you are suffering for 9 months, you will likely receive more compensation than if you were suffering for just one month. If you have ruptured multiple ligaments in your knee, requiring you to have reconstructive surgery, months on crutches non weight baring, and a heavy stint of physiotherapy, you will likely get more compensation than if you have just strained ligaments in the knee that required you to hobble, albeit painfully, for a few weeks with the hope of a full recovery in a couple of months.
Read More

Really, the best advice we can give is for you to just be honest! The point of the medical appointment is to allow a suitably qualified expert to produce a medical report that confirms the nature, extent, and impact of the suffering that has been caused to you as a result of your accident / injuries. It should also confirm how long you will be suffering for as well.

So really there is no right or wrong answer – you just need to advise the above. The expert will judge what’s reasonable; i.e. don’t try and cheat the system by saying your whiplash stopped you from being able to go to work because it was too painful to move! Whilst this can happen in severe cases, you would need medical proof that it was silo bad it stopped you from even being mobile!

The expert will know what to ask you anyway, so you shouldn’t need to worry too much. They will look at your relevant medical history and records, and ask how the injury has affected you in all aspects of your life; socially, domestically, at work, etc. They will also examine you to see if there are any noticeable symptoms that they can write about in their report as well – like your back still being stuff, or limited ranges of movement.
Read More

Accidents at work can be extremely serious- especially if you work with dangerous equipment. Injuries can be extremely debilitating and can even affect future employment opportunities. Although many people know they are entitled to compensation and may be in desperate need of it to cover loss of earnings, medical expenses and other such losses, many are hesitant to claim against their employer.

However, employers know that, unfortunately, accidents are a part of life and although all steps can be taken to avoid them, it is sometimes unrealistic to think that one is never going to happen. For this reason, employers are obliged to have Employer’s Liability Insurance under The Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 and they can be fined if they are not found to have a valid policy in place – (this is different to Public Liability Insurance which is sometimes optional).

This ensures that, if an employee is injured in the workplace, the employer will be able to meet the claim for compensation should they be eligible to make one. Usually, this means that the claim is between us and their insurance – for example the majority of the time the employer will receive the letter of claim (this is the first letter that is sent from us detailing the claim) and pass it straight across to the insurance and then it is them that we will correspond with- not your actual employer.
Read More

Very common question we get here at The Injury Lawyers; but the answer is not so easy to give you. I will try and be brief with this blog so you can get an insight in to how we find out what your claim is worth, and why I can’t tell you now!

There is only one foolproof way to value a claim for personal injury compensation – by seeing a qualified medico-legal expert who produces a report, and by having an expert personal injury solicitor to assess the report and value the claim.

This is the way to truly find out how much the claim is worth.
Read More

Losing a loved one is a harrowing experience. This can be intensified when the incident involves an element of negligence on behalf of a third party. In the event a loved one has lost their life as a result of negligence (e.g. some sort of preventable incident), the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 (‘the Act’) may apply should the need arise to make a claim for compensation.

The Act allows a claim to be brought against a negligent third party, if that act caused or contributed to the death of your loved one; despite the fact that your loved one has passed. To be successful, under the Act, it would need to be proved that any ‘wrongful act, neglect or default’ occurred which would have given your loved one entitlement to maintain a claim and recover damages from that third party.

By way of example, this could be circumstances relating to a work place accident; a negligent act made on behalf of a medical professional, or a road traffic accident attributed to negligence.
Read More