Every time I see one of these claims come in to the office, the first things that runs through my head is how common and classic these types of accidents are. General supermarket slipping accidents are of course common in general, but for some reason, grapes seem to be one of the biggest culprits of supermarket slipping accidents.

Perhaps it’s because they can easily end up falling out of a bag or out of a box, and their size is probably fairly difficult to spot on the floor. But despite its small size, they can be a horrendous slipping hazard when stepped on. You might not have thought it, but as I’ve said, we take on a lot of grape slipping claims.

The injuries can be fairly severe. Aside from the obvious broken bones from landing hard on a supermarket floor, you could easily stretch and rupture ligaments and tendons in areas like your back, ankles, or knees, which in the worst case scenarios can leave you needing surgical intervention. All because of just a grape!
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Together with roundabouts and junctions, traffic light controlled areas are up there with the most common scenes of a road traffic accident. So here are a few examples of classic crashes and a little advice about who may be at fault.

Rear End Shunt

Keep it simple to start with – when traffic slows or is stationary, rear end collisions are fairly common. If the lights change and traffic suddenly slows, it only takes one driver who isn’t concentrating as much as they should to not notice the traffic has slowed or stopped. In the vast majority of cases, the person who collided with the rear of another vehicle is at fault. The excuse that traffic slowed too suddenly isn’t normally a good enough defence!
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Cosmetic surgery is becoming more and more popular as the industry has shifted and now caters for everyone and not just the rich and the famous. Prices seem quite steep from what I’ve seen, but they are far from unaffordable if you want the look of your dreams.

But the big question that many people ask is this – how safe is cosmetic surgery?

Any surgery, particularly invasive surgery, carries numerous potential side effects and risks. Risks of infection are probably the most common ones, and infections alone can lead to all sorts of complications. But inherent risks aside, how safe is it when you put your life and body in the hands of a surgeon for money? How qualified are they to do the procedure?
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Store rooms can be fairly dangerous places if employers fail to follow basic health and safety regulations. The most common types of store room accidents are usually caused by the room being too full or dangerously organised (or not organised at all) which normally causes trips, slips from spillages, and accidents involving working at height with ladders or steps.

Employers have an important general duty to make sure that all areas of the workplace are safe to navigate; so when it comes to a stock room being organised and not overfilled, we can apply The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992. These state that all traffic routes shall be safe to navigate. So if you fall because you can’t properly get round a stockroom as it’s too full, you may have a claim for compensation.

If you trip because stock is on the floor when it shouldn’t be, you may also have a claim. Commonly this comes down to one of two things – either poor organisation on your employers part meaning you could apply the above regulations again, or something called vicarious liability.
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We deal with all types of accidents at work which can obviously be wide ranging from tripping and slipping accidents from accidents involving machinery or equipment etc. If you have sustained injury in an accident at work then you may be entitled to claim compensation.

The first point to note is that your option to make a claim is not open indefinitely. You normally have 3 years from the date of the accident to either settle the claim or to issue court proceedings on your claim. If court proceedings are not issued within the 3 year period then you may lose your right to claim compensation. Obviously the claim may settle before the 3 year period is up. If the claim is not settled 3 years from the date of the accident then court proceedings would need to be issued – otherwise the claim becomes statute barred. This basically means that you may lose your right to claim!
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One bit of loose carpet can be a serious issue if someone trips on it or slips because it isn’t gripping the floor. Tripping or slipping can be bad enough if you fall down to the floor fast and hard, but what about carpets on stairs? You take a fall down a flight of stairs and you can end up with serious injuries.

So is there a law or a duty when it comes to loose carpets? It depends on where it happens, but given its likely it will be in a place of work or in a public place, here is the info you need to know:

Loose Carpet at Work

Regulation 12 (2) (a) states:

The floor, or surface of the traffic route, shall have no hole or slope, or be uneven or slippery so as, in each case, to expose any person to a risk to his health or safety.
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Chest injuries can actually be a lot more painful than most people think. If you overstretch the muscles in the chest, it can actually leave you in a considerable amount of agony, restrict your movement, and may even result in time off work. You can normally tell if a chest injury is soft tissue related because it hurts to move or breathe – sometimes even shallow breathing may be painful. But before I go on, if you need advice about chest pain, speak to the NHS immediately because chest pains can be a whole host of serious problems.

Chest injuries are common in slips and trips if the muscles are overstretched as you fall, and they are also common in road accidents. A lot of people get soft tissue injuries on the chest due to seatbelts. This is of course much better than being thrown through a window of course.

Chest injuries that are muscular can also take a long time to subside as well. So you could face a number of weeks or even months in pain. I find that its best to keep moving as this can help the pain symptoms. But always consult a doctor!
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Despite what insurance companies tell people, they are there to save money – not pay out as much as possible. I can say this with a huge degree of confidence because I see it in action everyday here at The Injury Lawyers HQ and I’ve seen some of the absolutely appalling offers insurers try and fob people off with.

If you are dealing with the insurers directly, and you are looking for some guidelines valuations, I will give you a few breakdowns later on in the blog but heed this massive warning – dealing with the insurers is not a clever way to settle your claim. Yes, you may be able to settle it quicker, but it’s highly likely you are in serious danger of under settling the claim. If I had a pound for every time people had settled directly and then come to a lawyer for help because they feel they’ve under settled, I’d be writing blogs about my worldwide travel escapades on the back of a 164ft yacht.

So what is the maximum whiplash compensation you can get? Is there an upper limit? How much is your claim worth? How much is the average whiplash compensation claim worth? This isn’t something that you can easily estimate…
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According to Wikipedia: Plastic Surgery is a medical specialty concerned with the “correction” or restoration of form and function.

It is something that is always in the news; including very recently with Jackie Stallone speaking out about her regrets on having plastic surgery after suffering from her 3^rd heart attack. But Jackie is if course not the only one that has fallen foul to the scalpel; other famous figures such as Michael Jackson, Pamela Anderson and David Guest are all examples of what plastic surgery can do. In recent years however, it seems that plastic surgery is no longer just something that the rich and famous pay for with many people now undergoing the knife to achieve the look they have always desired;  For example, in 2010 a total of 38,274 cosmetic procedures were carried out in the UK, compared with 10,700 in 2003 (source).

However, unfortunately not all of these procedures go the way the patient thought it would when they paid for the procedure, with negligence unfortunately happening in some.
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If you have been involved in a road traffic accident whereby the vehicle in which you were driving or travelling in was hit from the side, have you considered your eligibility to make a personal injury claim?

The basic principle is that, if you have been injured in an accident that was not your fault, then it is likely that you can make a successful claim. If you are a passenger then you cannot (bar exceptional circumstances) be at fault for causing or contributing to the accident. However an issue can arise as to who the claim is actually against. Say for example you were a passenger in a car which your friend was driving. You may think the claim would not be against your friend but would be against the driver of the other vehicle who collided into the side of the vehicle that you were a passenger in. Ordinarily this would be correct. However if during liability investigations it is found that the driver of the vehicle in which you were a passenger in (i.e. your friend) is at fault then the claim would be against them. This can cause an obstacle as people are naturally concerned about claiming against friends etc.
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