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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.
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Starting any claim can be a daunting prospect for many people; but, there always seems to be more reluctance and fear surrounding accidents at work as many worry it will affect either their current employment or their employment in the future. Hopefully this blog will put some minds at ease. If you have been injured through no fault of your own in the workplace, your injuries may be extremely debilitating and lead to losses that you just can’t afford.

Making a claim may well be the only option to take…

Pursing an accident at work claim should NOT affect your employment status as the law does protect you for making a claim. In most cases, if the company is quite large, employers may encourage people to do get a lawyer and make a claim. This is because all employers are required to take out insurance to cover just this type of thing, and many big companies will have been sued several times over. The majority of the time it is not that person you work with everyday that will be pursued, as most places just pass the letter of claim across to their insurers and it is them that deals with the entire process.
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A common question I have been asked concerns how we can possibly take on cases on a ‘No Win No Fee’ basis – surely there are some fees along the way? So to address this question I decided to do this blog just too clarify how this does work and how ours may be slightly different from the rest.

The Main Points

No Win No fee, or its ‘posh’ name, Conditional Fee Agreement, allows us to pursue your personal injury claim without you having the worry of having to pay expensive legal fees. Having to cope with an injury that was not your fault is stressful and worrying enough, and we understand this and therefore do not agree that paying to seek compensation is right.
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Well preferably us! But here is a quick guide about what you should look for when you want to make a claim for personal injury compensation:

No Win, No Fee

If your claim is strong enough, a good lawyer will offer you a No Win, No Fee agreement. In principle this should do exactly what it says on the tin; if the case doesn’t win, you don’t pay your lawyers’ fees. However, make sure you read through any paperwork you receive thoroughly as there are some unscrupulous lawyers out there who may want to sting you with hidden fees. Usually it’s due to being referred through claims companies or insurers. But a good law firm like us can tell you that it really is true what we say – if your case doesn’t win, you don’t pay the fees!
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There are undoubtedly A LOT of personal injury solicitors out there that help with road traffic accidents and whiplash injuries. However, it is important that you choose the right one to help run your claim since, unfortunately, there are some out there that may present themselves as something they are not.

Whiplash is the injury primarily to the neck and is most commonly caused by the action of being jolted forwards and backwards quickly. This distorts the muscles in your neck and can consequently lead to long term problems in this area such as reduced movement and constant pain and discomfort. Settlements for whiplash injuries can differ with regards to the “grade” of the injury you have sustained. The JSB guidelines (for more information on these see the JSB guidelines blog) separate whiplash injuries into three main categories: minor, moderate and severe- with understandably the last being valued at the highest amount.

I mention these different categories as this links directly to being prudent when deciding on a solicitor to pursue your claim as it is important you are classed as the right one and receiving the right settlement.
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Legal expenses insurance is undoubtedly the biggest scam in the personal injury claims arena!. It involves your insurance company SELLING your details across to a solicitor – and this solicitor will then contact you and run your case (if you confirm with them of course). Many would think that, this has nothing to do with them – so what if they have bought my details – why does that matter to me?

I assure you IT DOES! Nothing causes more frustration here in the office, than when insurance companies and the solicitors involved in this system catch people in their trap.

Under the road traffic accident protocol, solicitors are only able to recover fixed fees. This is relevant because, if your solicitor has already paid a chunk of money to the insurance company for your details (shall we say £1,000 – which is not an uncommon amount), this takes away from the amount of money they have available to them to run your case.
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A recent report showed that during 2011, the General Medical Council (GMC) the organisation that manage, register, and licenses doctors practicing medicine in the UK, received a total of 8,781 complaints from patients

The three most commonly reported types of complaint were related to:

• concerns with investigations and treatment, such as failure to diagnose or prescribing inappropriate medications
• problems with communication – such as not providing appropriate information or not responding to people’s concerns
• perceived lack of respect for the patient – such as being rude or dishonest

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It’s actually quite common for people not to be happy with their medical report – particularly in road accident cases. So why is this? Is the medical expert you have been sent to no good? Are your solicitors just not listening to you? What can you do?

To address something first, let me tell you the point of the medical report. We lawyers are, unfortunately, not medical experts. To win a claim for compensation, you need to commonly satisfy two key elements – that the injury was caused by a breach of duty, and that the injuries were caused as a result of the incident or accident. In legal speak – liability and causation.

We need a suitable medical expert to examine you, discuss your injuries and suffering with you, and look in to your medical past. The expert, who is independent and has a duty not to you, but to the courts, to provide their impartial medical opinion, writes a report containing all the facts needed for a lawyer to prove that your injuries were caused by negligence and value the claim. So if you are a genuine client, what could go wrong?
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This is a question that we get asked time and time again. It is not always an easy question to answer. We always try to move a case forward as quickly as possible but at times we are relying on other parties (such as insurance companies and the Courts) to do this. We have policies in place to ensure that we move the case forward as quickly as possible at our end.

When a claim is formally taken on, that is when we have entered into an agreement (such as a Conditional No Win No Fee Agreement) with a client; we can start to prepare a formal Letter of Claim. The agreement is simply confirmation that we as a Firm of Solicitors agree to act on your behalf to pursue your claim.
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With the lovely weather we have here in the United Kingdom, it is not surprising the amount of potholes that have appeared on the roads and pavements.  As someone who commutes to and from work on a daily basis, I have experienced the far from smooth ride which often involves my car dipping down unexpectedly and rattling my very bones. However, potholes, although annoying, can be dealt with rather easily when in a car and usually do not pose an immediate risk of injury.

This is definitely not the case when you are not in the car, but on foot or a bicycle. Here at The Injury Lawyers we deal with a high volume of personal injury claims that have been caused by someone either tripping over a pothole, or alternatively, riding a bike when the front wheel gets caught and consequently results in the cyclist being thrown from the bike.

It is important to stress that these are not straightforward cases and therefore should not be approached lightly. One of the first things we require to assess is whether we are able to pursue your claim, are photographs are extremely important for this.
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