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It was reported in The Eastwood Advertiser yesterday that a council worker named Mr Andrew Bowler has been awarded £60,000 in compensation having suffered severe damage to his hands.  It is said that Mr Bowler’s hands are irrevocably damaged having used vibrating work equipment for over 30 years and having been made to continue working with the same equipment despite developing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. 

What this has meant is that, because Mr Bowler has been exposed to excessive amounts of vibration, he has suffered a tingling sensation in his fingers and hands and has complained that his muscles feeling numb and often weak.  As a result he has had had surgery on his hands, but unfortunately this has not been successful and has left him permanently damaged.

Mr Bowler sought the expert advice of personal injury lawyers following his injury; something that we at The Injury Lawyers would always recommend to someone in that position, or in fact anyone with a potential personal injury claim. His representatives argued correctly that Mr Bowler’s employers should have taken precautions when allowing their employees to work with vibrating work equipment.  That is, Mr Bowler should have been made aware of the perils of prolonged usage of vibrating work equipment, and his employers should have done as much as they could to make sure that the usage of this vibrating work equipment was not continuous.  For example, Mr Bowler should have been allowed regular breaks and a change of activities at certain intervals so that he was not exposed to excessive vibrations.
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The Press and Journal has reported that an elderly man was almost killed having been involved in a road traffic accident.  It is said that Mr Mackie was airlifted to hospital with potentially fatal injuries after a trailer collided with his vehicle near Aberdeen having become detached from the tractor that was pulling it.  It was later revealed that Mr Mackie sustained a collapsed lung and had broken both his legs. 

Mr Mackie received surgery and treatment and was kept in hospital for nearly three months.  As a result, Mr Mackie claims that the accident has changed his life, that he now fears driving, and that his days in the garden are now at a premium.  As such Mr Mackie has recently won compensation totalling around £115,000 for his injuries and other losses resulting from the accident.

Road traffic accidents are unfortunately a part of everyday life in the modern world we live in.  Whether they are major or minor, people can sustain all sorts of injuries in road traffic accidents.  Where the accident occurs through no fault of your own, or even if you are partly to blame, it is likely that you may be able to make a claim for compensation.  It is important then that you seek expert advice from a personal injury lawyer with experience of dealing with road traffic accident claims.
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I read an interesting story in the Daily Mail today.  It involves a man named Mark Noble who was forced to become a wheelchair user after sustaining severe injuries in a Road Traffic Accident back in 2003, and obtained compensation in the sum of £3.4million, only for the other side to try and reclaim some £2million of the compensation they paid out. 

It is reported that Direct Line insurance company had paid Mr Noble £3.4million to compensate him for his injuries, then proceeded to keep a close eye on him and when they saw that he had been able to regain some of the movement in his legs again and then took him to court to try and recover some of the compensation they paid out.  However, the Judge in this case dismissed Direct Line’s attempt to regain their monies.  Instead the judge stated that ‘Mr Noble was determined to walk unaided.  He did not dishonestly conceal from the court or the expert witnesses his then trust state of disability, or dishonestly emphasise his disability.’

The Daily Mail reports that Direct Line insurance had hired a few private investigators to monitor Mr Noble’s movements in the hope of demonstrating that he had exaggerated his injuries and therefore should not be entitled to all of the compensation he was awarded.  It was said that a neighbour had tipped them off that Mr Noble was able to walk again.  Indeed, Direct Line’s private investigators did find that Mr Noble could walk, use power drills, lift weight and drive a vehicle.  Mr Noble had been awarded the vast sum of over £3million not only to compensate him for his injuries but also the loss of earnings he suffered as a result of being unable to carry on with his job and for the loss of enjoyment stemming from his inability to play rugby.  However, the judge in this case found that the fact that Mr Noble had regained some of his lost movement was down to his sheer will power to get back to his previous state; not because he had faked or exaggerated his injuries.  As his wife said: ‘The reason he is able to walk now is because he worked really, really hard – through sheet bloody-mindedness – to get where he is today’.
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BBC News has reported that a police sergeant has been awarded nearly £400,000 in compensation having suffered serious injuries in a motorcycle accident.  It is said that Mr Steve Ball, who was on duty at the time, was involved in a head-on collision with another motorbike back in 2006.  He spent nearly two weeks in hospital having had to have surgery after losing the use of the right side of his body.  Despite his operations, Mr Ball still suffers from the effects of the accident, that is, he is still in a lot of pain and has restricted movement.  In fact, Mr Ball has had to retire early due to the severity of his injuries.

It just goes to show that your day can be totally different from how you imagined it would be.  The negligence of another motorcyclist has jeopardised Mr Ball’s career and life.  It will simply never be the same again.  If you have similarly had a life-changing experience as a result of the negligence of another person then you are more than likely due compensation to help place you back in the position you would have been had you not have been injured.  That said, even if your injuries are not as bad as Mr Ball’s you may still be entitled to make a claim for compensation; though the amount of compensation you receive will likely be significantly less.  Simply put, if you have been involved in an accident through no fault of your own and as a result you have been injured, no matter how serious, you have a potential claim.  The key thing is that you have been injured; you cannot make a claim if you have no injury. This means that if you have been injured and you may be somewhat to blame, you may still have a claim for compensation.  It is therefore best to get in touch with a professional injury lawyer with years and years of experience in dealing with these sorts of claims who can advise you as to whether you potentially can win compensation.

At The Injury Lawyers we do our utmost to make sure you receive the proper advice that you deserve, and should you have a claim, we will do all we can for you to make sure that you get the maximum compensation you deserve.  In fact, we go further than most other law firms and make sure that you always receive 100% of this compensation.  We always make it clear that we will never take any of your compensation away from you, and put this in writing in the agreement; it is all yours.

If you have been unfortunate enough to have been involved in a road traffic accident and have sustained an injury as a result, you may be entitled to compensation.  Importantly, this is still the case even where the other driver is uninsured or where the other driver is ‘untraced’ – that is where he or she has driven off without providing you with their details.  So, if you are one of around 23,000 people a year who are injured as a result of a road traffic accident with an uninsured or untraced driver, please do get in touch with a professional injury lawyer who will do their utmost to obtain the maximum compensation you may deserve.

At The Injury Lawyers we understand that those who have been involved in a road accident may find themselves extremely frustrated by the thought that the other driver may have ‘got away with it’.  After all, they either have no insurance and would seemingly be unable to compensate you for your injuries, or they have fled the scene and left you with no one to obtain compensation from.  However, this is where an expert lawyer is able to properly advise you and progress your claim for compensation through the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (‘MIB’).  Founded in 1946, the MIB is funded by you through your insurance premiums.  Around £15-30 of your insurance policy goes to the MIB who are then able to compensate victims of uninsured and untraced drives.  In 2008 over 60,000 claims for compensation were settled through the MIB.

If you have been involved in a road traffic collision involving an uninsured or untraced driver and you have suffered injury and loss through no fault of your own, it is key that you get in touch with an experienced injury lawyer.  They will be able to give you the advice you require and take you through the process of submitting a claim through the MIB which will involve your lawyers submitting a claim form on your behalf.  Importantly though, you should seek any necessary medical attention for your injuries, make sure that your accident is reported to the police, and see if you can get hold of any witness details.  This is important to ensure your well-being and to assist in efficiently progressing of your claim with the MIB.

The Bristol Evening Post has reported that a gentleman who suffered a serious head injury after falling out of a taxi has won his claim for compensation.  It is stated that Grant Parfitt was using a black cab to make his way home from a night out when the accident happened.  As a result Mr Parfitt was left fighting for his life having suffered brain injuries and was in a coma for the best part of a month.  Fortunately Mr Parfitt’s emergency surgery was a success; however, he has subsequently been unable to return to work and can no longer play football and attend the gym.  His life has changed forever.

Because Mr Parfitt suffered life changing injuries that have had effects on him other than those directly related to his injury, the compensatory award that he was awarded would have reflected this.  For example, he would have received what is known as ‘General Damages’.  This is compensation in respect of your physical and psychological injuries.  In this case it would be for the horrific brain injuries that Mr Parfitt suffered.  Further, because Mr Parfitt was unable to resume his usual routine activities, such as playing football and going to the gym, he would have received compensation in respect of this consequence of his actor.  This is what is known as ‘Special Damages’ and is compensation relating to all your other losses which result from your accident.

The aim of a compensatory award is to put you back in the position you would have been in had the accident not have occurred.  This is typically through a monetary award that takes into account all the injuries you have sustained as a result of your accident, and all the losses you have suffered as a consequence of this accident.
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I don’t know whether it’s just me, and that I have a particularly impressive ability to find stories about holiday illness, or whether it is more that recently there seems to have been quite a few ‘holidays from hell’.  A lot of the news articles I have flicked through have seen high numbers of tourists win compensation for the bugs they have caught whilst on holiday.  For instance, the Daily Mail has today run a story which involves 138 people who have won compensation from their tour operator having contracted illness whilst on holiday in Bulgaria.

The Daily Mail reports that these 138 tourists had to put up with poor food hygiene, rooms with frogs, could not flush their toilets, were unable to wash, had to go without electricity and water for a few days, and travel through mud to reach reception.  As such the tourists began to complain of things like sickness, diarrhoea, and stomach cramps.  In a recent judgment, those affected have been awarded compensation; the level of which each person is to receive is still to be decided.  However, in the meantime, a £300,000 interim payment has been raised to help those who suffered illness whilst on this holiday.

As the victim’s legal representatives suggest, ‘What our clients experienced…was simply unacceptable…Many of those who became ill have gone on to suffer years of pain and torment, all of which could have been avoided had Thomson and the management of the hotel acted reasonably and put their clients’ safety first.’  And they are exactly right!  Your tour operator has a duty of care to its customers to ensure your health and safety whilst on holiday.  If there is an outbreak of sickness at your accommodation, your tour operator must ensure that you are aware of this and provide you with advice as to how to deal with this.  Your tour operator must also make sure that your hotel is up to standard.  For example, the sanitary conditions must not put you at risk.
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It would appear that people like you and me have become so fed up with potholes that we are taking things into our own hands and attempting to repair them ourselves.  According to BBC News a series of websites have been set up to combat potholes.  For example, Potholes.co.uk details the locations of potholes and has links people can use to help notify the council of the potholes.  Such is the craze on this website that there was even a poem competition dedicated to potholes! And here is the winning poem:

‘When almost dusk and light turns grey, potholes greedily grasp their prey’.

The BBC news also reports that the website FillThatHole has seen its users report nearly 50,000 potholes, and as a result, nearly 15,000 of these have been fixed.  Granted, this is some way short of all the potholes being fixed; but it is something and can go a long way to ensuring that people do not get injured or damage their vehicles as a result of these potholes.  And further, as a FillThatHole spokesman has commented, ‘it places extra onus on councils to fix the problem because it is in the public domain’.  In other words, the council know about the problem and should adhere to their duty to ensure the safety of its highway users and get it fixed ASAP.
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I would hazard a guess that most people are aware that driving without insurance is illegal.  However, we have many clients that come to us at The Injury Lawyers after being hit by an uninsured driver.  It can be a particular point of frustration for an accident victim that the driver who caused them to have an accident has been driving without the insurance; something which most of us have the burden of paying monthly or annually. It has been quoted that on average 23,000 people are injured and 160 people are killed after being involved in an accident with an uninsured driver.

Many of our clients are not only involved in accidents with uninsured drivers, but also with untraced drivers.  This again can be a point of anger and frustration for an accident victim that they have been involved in an accident, that was not their fault, whilst the driver at fault has fled the scene of the accident without the potential claimant being able to gain their contact/insurance details, and without being able to take note of a registration plate.  A recent news article brings this topic of untraced drivers to the forefront as it details an accident which took place on the M3 near Camberley where a man sadly died at the scene whilst another of the cars involved fled the scene.

The first question many of our clients ask after being involved in an accident with an uninsured or untraced driver is: ‘can I still claim?’  The answer to this is ‘yes’. Any claims with uninsured or untraced drivers can be dealt with through the Motor Insurers Bureau, or the MIB as they are more commonly known.  The MIB was formed in 1946 and is funded by motor insurance companies.  Ultimately the MIB is funded through a portion of what we pay for our motor insurance premium. The cost to us can be calculated at between £15 – £30 per policy.
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BBC News has recently reported that the government is providing councils across the country an additional £100m in a bid to repair the potholes that have appeared after last year’s tough winter.  As I am sure many of you reading this will be aware, last winter was one of the worst we have had in ages and as such, a great deal of damage was done to our roads.  The freezing conditions have meant that potholes of varying sizes have cropped up all over our highways because the water has seeped into cracks in the roads, frozen, and expanded: breaking the surface.  This in turn has meant that many accidents have occurred and many people have been injured as a result.  Here at The Injury Lawyers we have come across many cases where people have been injured due to an accident involving potholes.  For example, people have gone head over heels on their bicycles having cycled into a pothole, or people have fallen when crossing the road because they have tripped in a pothole.

BBC News suggests that last year alone over two million potholes were filled in, and with the weather being worse recently, the number of potholes to be repaired has increased.  However, it is also observed that even with this additional money there will likely be numerous potholes that still require attention when the money runs dry.

Your local authority has a duty to make sure that the safety of its highway users is not in danger because of the conditions of the roads.  What this means is that your local council has to undertake regular inspections of its highways.  For example, at least every 6 months; should any be faults be found, urgent action should be taken to make the necessary repairs.
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