A weak floorboard bends inwards; or perhaps concrete in an outdoor area has cracked and is falling inwards due to traffic – a person will not generally notice if there is a dip in the flooring. It’s not easy to spot. But if you walk over it you are liable to either trip or fall if your ankle is twisted or gives way because of the sudden change in the contour of the surface.

So what happens if you are in a shop and you fall because of a dip in the ground? Or perhaps it happens in the workplace? Can you make a claim for personal injury compensation?

Well let’s take a look at the law – starting with public places and then moving on to work accidents as differing laws apply!
Read More

Many industries, particularly for construction, will involve the digging of deep holes, trenches or perhaps caverns. It doesn’t take a genius to understand that it is dangerous to be somewhere exposed to a risk of a hole, trench, or cavern collapsing inwards. You could end up seriously injured or worse…

So what if this happens to you? Perhaps you are in a hole and the walls collapse inwards causing an injury?

There is a general duty to ensure a person isn’t injured in the workplace. So if the accident could have been prevented, you may have a successful claim for personal injury compensation. Here are a few examples that can apply:
Read More

As Christmas approaches, the retailers are going to inevitably load up their stockrooms as much as they can. I know this because the Christmas period is always one for shopping and spending, and I’ve worked in retail and seen just how much stock a large retailer will try and cram in their stockroom!

At the place I used to work at, I can tell you now that it was one huge health and safety hazard. As a college student with no legal experience, I couldn’t have told you that back then. But thinking of it now, I’m surprised more people weren’t injured!
Read More

Our backs are very susceptible to injuries caused by lifting and poor manual handling technique. That’s why there are specific regulations that address the issue of manual handling in the workplace. These are covered in The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992.

The actual legislation for this is simple and to the point. The important part reads as follows:

4.(1) Each employer shall–
Read More

Are you looking to make a claim for personal injury compensation? Where you expecting to get 100% of your payout, only to find lawyers are now talking about taking up to 25% from your payout instead? Or have you just got some paperwork through from a firm who neglected to mention that up to a quarter of your compensation will be swallowed up by them in legal fees?

The reason for the sudden U-turn in lawyers offering 100% compensation is because the government has changed the law on April 2013.

Many law firms are misadvising people because they don’t understand the changes. Some are potentially misleading people with offers like “100% No Win, No Fee” which isn’t actually confirming you will receive 100% of your compensation.
Read More

Normally when a ride goes wrong people end up claiming for a whiplash type injury for a sudden stop or if the ride breaks mid-use and traps people upside down for a while. But according to sources from the BBC, Alton Towers’ brand new £18m Smiler ride has been shut down after wheels fell off and hit four people in the front carriage (source)!

One rider who was hit by debris from the cascading ‘guide wheels’ described the experience as “pretty frightening“. He went on to say “you are at the highest point of the ride and you’ve got all these loops to do and you just think that the carriage is going to come off.”
Read More

Firstly, this is not one of those offers where we give you extra money which basically comes out of the running costs for your claim; leaving you with a potentially rubbish service! In fact, our 110% compensation for you pledge is because of law changes that have increased the general amount of compensation you can recover by 10%.

The Changes

In April 2013, the government stopped lawyers being able to recover all of their fees from the other side. They stopped us recovering a Success Fee and an After The Event insurance premium.
Read More

Building sites are dangerous places; so making sure that health and safety is done right is of paramount importance. That’s why there are usually specific routes for pedestrians or workers to use when navigating a building site, and these are often referred to as Green Routes.

There should, in theory, be no danger to a person correctly using a green route on a building site. But that doesn’t mean that rules will not be broken, or people will fail to follow procedure.
Read More

We recently did a blog about the duties owed by employers when it comes to the effectiveness and suitability of work equipment like roll cages and trolleys, and it’s something we have covered in the past as well. But as a firm of specialist injury lawyers who only represent victims for compensation claims, we’re used to winning all sorts of accidents that occur from a wide range of scenarios.

So here is an article about being injured due to a roll cage or trolley not because it is defective or unsuitable, but because of uneven ground.
Read More

On occasions, the only way an employer could reasonably have known about a health and safety hazard is if someone reports it to them. But what happens if a problem is reported and nothing is done about it? Let’s say a leak is reported and not resolved? Or a loose step is reported and nothing is done about it? If someone has an accident involving a reported hazard, can a claim be made?

Reasonable Notice

The fact that the matter had been reported should act as reasonable notice of a problem. As such, the employer is duty bound to do all in their power to either rectify or make safe the issue as soon as possible. So in failing to act, they can be negligent if someone has an accident.
Read More