If you are involved in an accident as a passenger, and a collision took place, you generally should have a successful claim. As a passenger, unless you did something reckless like pulled the handbrake or distracted the driver or had some kind of impact on the accident, you shouldn’t be at fault. If one car hits another and you are a passenger in either of the vehicle, you should be able to make a claim.

The reason why I highlight the point of there being a collision is that, for a collision to take place, someone must have been at fault in the vast majority of circumstances. If there isn’t a collision, say you are a passenger on a bus and the bus suddenly stops, then you may not have such a strong case. It all depends on the reason as to why the bus stopped. If it stopped because another driver negligently pulled out of a side road, then it isn’t really the fault of the bus. If the other driver can’t be traced, it could be difficult to claim against them directly.
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If you have an accident at work and it wasn’t your fault, you may have a claim for compensation against your employer. All employers have a legal duty to have a policy of employer’s liability insurance that covers them for claims being made against them. The insurance is there to be claimed from.

But what happens if you are at work and you are injured by one of your colleagues? What happens if you are lifting a heavy item and your colleague drops it because they weren’t paying enough attention? Or what happens if your colleague accidentally drives in to you with a forklift truck? Or what about if they switch a machine on whilst you are cleaning it?

Who is to blame?

Well the colleague is generally at fault if you look at it from a literal perspective if they were the negligent one, but in the eyes of the law you may be able to claim against your employer for compensation. It’s called vicarious liability, and it generally means, in a workplace scenario, that the negligence of a colleague falls on to your employer.
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According to official Judicial Council Guidelines that are used to assess claims, examples of severe ankle injuries include:

• Transmalleolar fractures which often come with severe soft tissue injuries in the surrounding area as well.
• Bilateral ankle fractures which can lead to degeneration of the joints.
• Injuries that require an extensive periods of treatment and rehabilitation, with operations involving pins and plates being inserted.
• Any injury causing a form of residual ankle instability or disability.
• Any injury that results in significant scarring or has any affect on your employment or quality of life – perhaps due to a requirement to wear special footwear.

These sorts of injuries could result in below-knee amputations or the event of a future injury, or arthrodesis, which is an artificial joint inserted in to the foot, being required. Or, as already mentioned above, the requirement to use a splint or some kind of orthotic device or specialist footwear to help you walk properly.
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If you sustain injury due to falling, tripping etc over a defective or wobbly pavement, then you may be entitled to claim compensation. Ordinarily these claims would be against the local council if the accident occurred on a public footpath or road. However any potential claim could also be against a local shop for example if the accident occurred in front of a shop and that land is owned by the shop in question. Whoever owns the land (whether it be the council or a shop owner) owes you a duty of care. This is to ensure that you are safe whilst on their land.

To be successful with a claim of this type there must be some defect that has caused the injury. It is highly important that, should you wish to pursue a claim, you obtain photographs of the defect in question. This is of paramount importance should liability be disputed in the case. The depth and nature of the defect is likely to be extremely important in determining liability. Also note that the defect could be repaired at any stage meaning that you may lose the opportunity to obtain photographic evidence of the defect. Video footage showing the wobble of the pavement could also prove very useful to help show how dangerous it was.
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If you have been injured and you were not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident, can you still make a claim for compensation? In simple terms the answer is yes, you still may be able to make a claim. You should of course be wearing a helmet if you are on a bicycle or motorbike. The same concept also applies to work accidents in terms of wearing a hard hat where neccessary. There is a possibility that the Defendant (the other driver, an employer etc) may allege something called contributory negligence. This can reduce the compensation that you are entitled to; however this does not normally wipe out your compensation in its entirety.

It may be works practice or rules to wear a hard hat at all times whilst on site. Say you forgot to wear your hard hat and you sustained a head injury when an object fell. In this case it is likely that an element of contributory negligence would be found by a court. You can still claim and recover compensation, as there may still be negligence in that an object fell, putting employees at risk of sustaining injury. If contributory negligence is agreed or found by a court, your compensation would be reduced.
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Any knee injury can be extremely painful and potentially debilitating. As the main joints that are helping us to remain upright and walk around, walking with pain in the knee or restricted movement can have significant affects on both your work and domestic life.

So here is some advice about making a claim for minor to moderate knee injury compensation – what you should do, how to claim with us, how we can help you out, and roughly what you might be looking at payment-wise.

Medical Attention

Firstly, we are specialist injury lawyers and not medical experts – so any advice about the medical side of things is for general guidance only. You should see your GP or go to a walk in centre or hospital as soon as possible to get the treatment you need. Knee injuries, especially if you are having trouble weight bearing, could be serious. It may be prudent to have an x-ray or be seen by an orthopaedic expert to assess if there is anything that needs urgent attention.
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At The Injury Lawyers, we specialise in most claims for personal injury. We have a dedicated team that assists victims of cosmetic surgery claims, and with the rise in the amount of people having cosmetic surgery nowadays, and given how poorly regulated the industry can be, cosmetic claims are rife!

The PIP breast implant scandal is still fresh in our minds, and we are dealing with hundreds of cases against varying clinics and credit providers. For many it has been an uphill struggle as clinics have selfishly liquidated themselves in order to avoid paying out for a claim.
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We don’t often write about sporting injury claims for one primary reason – their success rate is rather low. Being injured in a contact sport is a very regular thing. I myself have been the victim of a multi-ligament rupture and nerve damage that has left me with a permanent condition called foot drop. When I stepped on to 5-a-side court that day, I never envisaged that my life would change forever in a matter of seconds. Whilst I blame the poor condition of the court, proving that is nigh-impossible, and I’m left unable to claim.

Rather than discuss the ins and outs of the quality of a football court or pitch, I’m going to discuss injuries in contact sports and when you may be able to make a claim. I’m going to keep it simple and relevant – so I won’t discuss past case law, I will simply outline what you need to know about trying to start a claim.

The biggest point here in my opinion is that there is a huge divide between proving what is negligence, and what is an unfortunate injury sustained when wilfully participating in a contact sport. The posh Latin word for this is volenti non fit injuria – which essentially means “to a willing person, injury is not done.” When you play a sport, particularly a contact sport, you are inherently accepting an element of risk of injury. Differing sports can dictate the level of risk. I’d imagine you’re quite safe when playing table tennis, but when rock climbing there is a lot more to consider!
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Many people drive as part of their work. Field salespersons, lorry and delivery drivers, couriers; I’m talking to you! So what happens if you have a road accident whilst you are driving a works vehicle? Do you sue your employer? Is it different to making a ‘general’ road accident claim?

Well if you are not at fault, then it should work in the same way as any other claim – you pursue compensation from the insurers of the driver at fault. Say you are hit in the back, or someone pulls out from a side road; if you are not at fault, you won’t be making a claim against your employers insurance – it’s against the other drivers insurance!
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A whiplash compensation claim is valued using expert medical evidence from a medico-legal report. It then takes a lawyer to read the report and value the claim using a combination of experience, guidelines, and previous similar cases. So how much is your whiplash claim worth?

Well without seeing a medico-legal report, I can’t tell you! But I will try and help you out with an insight in to the average paid out for a minor whiplash claim.

Most people fall in to the category of a minor whiplash injury. If your doctor or a medical professional who is not doing your medico-legal report tells you it is moderate or severe, then we are likely talking about totally different definitions. A minor whiplash from a personal injury definition could last months or years. So if your doctor has told you that you have a severe whiplash injury, that doesn’t mean you fall within the severe whiplash personal injury category which normally means your claim is worth more than £15,000!
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