If you’re expected to lift and carry boxes and packages around the workplace, the last thing you expect is for the packaging / box to suddenly break, causing a sudden shift in weight or objects contained inside to fall out and cause you an injury.

So what if it does happen? Do you have any right to make a claim for personal injury compensation caused by the incident?

All employers do have a general duty to make sure that you’re safe in the workplace. So if they have failed to take steps to look after you, or cut corners or do things that could potentially be dangerous, you may able to claim from their insurance.

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Generally speaking, the Supply of Goods and Services Act means that both the manufacturer and the seller of a product have a duty to ensure that the product being sold is as descried, fit for purpose, and safe for use.

So what happens if you buy a set of ladders and you are injured because they are defective? Perhaps the ladders fold or collapse even when the locking system is in place? Or perhaps a rung or a section breaks and causes an accident?

If you have suffered because of a dodgy set of ladders you have bought, you may well have a claim for personal injury compensation.

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When you’re walking around a supermarket, the last thing you are probably concentrating on is the floor or your feet. I’d expect you are browsing the shelves. So it’s not hard to end up tripping and injuring yourself if there is a box, crate, or other item(s) of stock left on the ground in an aisle.

The Occupiers Liability Act puts an important duty on supermarkets to take all reasonable steps to ensure that people are not injured when in the store. Reasonable steps are normally systems of inspection and maintenance to clear away any hazards – such as stock on the ground that can be a tripping hazard.

So whether you can win a claim for personal injury compensation for tripping on a  box or item of stock on the ground is largely down to how it ended up on the floor and  / or how long it has been a hazard for.

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If another driver hits you in the back, you have an almost guaranteed claim for personal injury compensation.

For another driver to hit you in the rear, they must have either (or a combination of) been driving too fast, not leaving a safe enough distance between them and you, or not concentrating on the road ahead etc. Unless you slammed your brakes on for no good reason, the other driver should be at fault.

Whether you’re stationary in a line of traffic or at the edge of a roundabout and you have been hit, or whether you were driving along and the other driver has simply gone in to the back of you, it is likely you will end up suffering with a whiplash injury.

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For some reason, a lot of ramps can often get very slippery in wet weather, and you’d think they’d have really good grip on them given that a sloped surface could be even more of a hazard if it’s slippery.

If you are the victim of a slip on a ramp, can you make a claim for personal injury compensation? I’ll split this one in to two sections – one for accidents at work, and one for general ones when out and about.

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Petrol stations can be obvious hazards due to petrol being spilled and splashed on to the floor. Over time, even the smallest of puddles could accumulate in to a larger puddle of petrol that’s capable of being a slip hazard. Given petrol is generally clear, it’s not easy to spot spillages on the ground.

So what happens of you slip over because of spilled petrol and you end up with an injury as a result? Can you claim for personal injury compensation?

Read on for more!

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A lot of people are keen to know how much compensation they may be entitled to after having an accident – and when it comes to whiplash accident victims, people are often very keen to know what the average whiplash settlement figures are.

So what is the average whiplash settlement for a personal injury compensation claim?

Firstly I need to let you know how the system works – as there is a lot to consider. The whole value of the claim is based on the following things:

• The length and severity of your suffering
• The extent it has had an impact on you – some people are affected more (for example more active people may be unable to enjoy exercise and as such have had a bigger impact than someone who perhaps doesn’t exercise)
• Your losses – like lost earnings from time off work, medication expenses, general medical and treatment expenses, and any other financial losses or expenses on your part

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To give you the insight as to whether you have a potentially winning claim if this has happened to you, I need to explain in brief how the law works:

The Highways Act 1980 puts a duty on local councils and highways authorities to take all reasonable steps to prevent a defect on the highway becoming a hazard. So to do this, they must employ a system of inspection and maintenance to review roads and paths for defects that have formed. These can be potholes, broken kerbs, or anything that could cause a tripping hazard.

A reasonable system of inspection should take in to account how busy the area is. So a city centre road may be inspected every one to three months, and a country road could be every 12 months. So if they can prove that they have a system that is reasonable, they’ve kept to it, and that the defect that caused your injury must have arisen in between inspection periods, they can very easily defend your claim.

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You’re walking along and your foot suddenly goes through the floor – stopping you in your tracks and causing an injury – what can you do about it?

Well you may have a claim for personal injury compensation if this has happened to you. We would defiantly be able to look in to a claim on a No Win, No Fee basis; no one expects their foot to just go through a floor.

Injuries caused can be widespread – whether you twist your knee or ankle because your still moving forward when your foot falls through, or whether your foot is badly bruised and grazed from the friction of falling in, this kind of thing should never happen. If it happens in a public place or a place of work, there may be a claim against those is in control of the premises / the employer.

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The Occupiers Liability Act is an important piece of health and safety legislation that puts a duty on those who are in control of a premises to take all reasonable steps to avoid visitors being injured. So keeping the place maintained is an important thing to do – allowing a place to fall in to disrepair and become a hazard would leave the owners of such a place liable to compensate any injured victims.

Some examples of slips and trips caused like this could be:

• From a piece of concrete or wall or roof coming off and causing a trip of slip hazard due to poor maintenance.
• Slip on a broken piece or section of fallen off tiling – these specifically can be very slippery.
• Injury caused by a piece of defective chair or table or other fixture that has broken off through ill repair.

So what happens if you are the victim of such an accident? Can you make a claim for personal injury compensation?

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