We live in a world where image is everything! Nowadays it is so easy to get access to invasive surgery to enhance the way our body looks. From the well known face lifts and Botox treatment to breast implants, nose reshaping, and even buttock implants (which sounds crazy!), it’s all available on the high street for the right price.

But one thing that many people are not too aware of is the relatively poor state of the regulation here in the UK for cosmetic surgery. Don’t get me wrong, there is regulation; but we have all learned from the PIP breast implant scandal that there is nowhere near enough protection for people who have suffered due to negligence in the cosmetic surgery industry. There are no group insurance schemes for when a clinic goes in to liquidation (of which some have purposefully chosen this route to avoid paying out!) and clearly there is not enough being done to make sure that products used in the body are continually tested.

Anyway, breast implants aside, where do you stand when it comes to needing legal advice or representation for a plastic surgery claim? Do you have the right to claim compensation when something has not turned out the way it was meant to?
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Spinal Surgery Claims come under the field of medical negligence which is a specialised area of personal injury law. It is imperative that you speak to a firm with experience in dealing with similar medical negligence matters. By its very nature, spinal surgery is dangerous; it is probably one of the most dangerous types of surgery there is. Spinal surgeons are extremely experienced and highly skilled individuals. However, should something go wrong, the potential effects can be devastating. The injuries are likely to be life changing, with individuals requiring constant care and attention.

One potential danger or effect is nerve damage. Although spinal surgeons are experienced and highly skilled, there is no guarantee with surgery and there are always inherent risks involved. You may be referred for spinal surgery if you are in severe pain and that pain has not improved with other treatments. Other treatment could include physiotherapy, pain management, manipulation, acupuncture etc. Spinal surgery should not be undertaken lightly and is normally a final option should less invasive treatment not be successful. There could be a number of conditions that lead to spinal surgery. Your surgeon may use open or keyhole surgery. Open surgery normally means making a singular large cut on your back. Keyhole surgery means making several small cuts on your back. Your surgeon will use special instruments to perform the operation.
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Whiplash, contrary to popular media fuelled belief, is a real injury. I know, as I’ve had it myself. I’m in the process of settling my claim as we speak, and I will write an article at a later date about how much I settled my whiplash claim for.

So if you have suffered or are suffering from whiplash, how do you make a successful whiplash compensation claim?

Firstly, there has to be someone else at fault. If another driver drove in to the back of you, or pulled out of a side road in to your vehicle, you should have a successful claim. As long as you were not 100% at fault for the accident, we should be able to help you make a successful whiplash claim.

There is a very straight-forward procedure for dealing with most road accidents, which provides quick timeframes for responses and generally allows claims to be resolved at a fairly quick pace. When we submit a claim electronically to an insurance company, they typically have 15 business days to formally accept liability for the accident. They have probably already accepted liability anyway, so a swift response can be common.
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These days if you do not like something about your body and how you look, there is normally always a cosmetic procedure that can help. Although not one of the most advertised procedures, buttock augmentations is a procedure that is increasing in popularity with people yearning for a derrière to rival Kim Kardashian and Nicki Minaj.

Buttock augmentation is incredibly similar to a breast augmentation – the obvious difference being that it is a different part of the body. The procedure involves implants (similar to those used in breast augmentation) being placed underneath the gluteus maximus muscle through an incision just above the tailbone. The procedure can often last around 2 hours but after care can be much more demanding than with breast surgery with guidelines concerning sleeping on your front and reducing the amount of time sitting during the first few weeks.

Just like other cosmetic procedures, the decision to go under the knife for buttock implants should never be one that is taken lightly as unfortunately things can go wrong and consequently you could suffer from long term health effects.
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Tripping over can result in some serious injuries – especially on hard flooring. I know most of us like to have a little laugh when we see someone trip over, and any slapstick British comedy involving people tripping up is funny to watch. But when it happens to you and you’re injured as a result, it isn’t so funny.

For this blog, I’m going to talk to you about tripping over due to broken tiles.

Broken tiles can be obvious tripping hazards. Commonly the tile, or a section of the broken tile, may be raised due to it being broken and loose. You may be unaware that the tile is broken until you step on it when it rises, which again can cause someone to trip over.

So if this happens to you, can you make a claim for personal injury compensation?
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The United Kingdom is now the obesity capital of Europe with every magazine and newspaper having at least one story everyday about the way that our society now looks upon food and being overweight. One of the hot topics in this area is that of Gastric band surgery, especially with the high profile case of Fern Britton and her fast weight loss because of the surgery.

Whether your opinion on the surgery is positive or negative, it seems that it is time to accept that people will now start to turn away from the traditional way of losing weight (dieting and exercise) and instead turn to the help of an operating table, a surgeon, and the knife.
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There are several different procedures that are covered by the term “facial surgery” and this area of the body is one of the most common areas for people to undergo cosmetic surgery. Procedures can include:

• Eyelid surgery
• Cheek augmentation
• Forehead lifts
• Face lifts
• Skin peels- including the current celebrity favourite the “Vampire Facial” recently demonstrated by Kim Kardashian on her TV show.

All of these procedures are designed to give people that everlasting youthful look by manipulating and changing the features of the face to try and reach desired “perfection”. However, given that facial surgery is so common and involves a very exposed area of the body, when something goes wrong the affects can be utterly devastating.

Some of the most common problems caused by these procedures are as follows:
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In these difficult financial times, most public sector services are spread thin. There’s an insane amount of potholes littering our roads as local authorises cannot keep up with the sheer volume of defects popping up in the road; school classrooms are become increasingly overcrowded; and people are being let down by NHS care professionals.

Now I want it to be known that I’m not ‘having a go’ at the majority of NHS staff who work unsociable hours and under significant amounts of pressure to provide the level of care that is expected of them. They’re fighting an uphill battle to keep on top of trying to put everyone’s needs first. I’ve been hospitalised, and during the six days in total I was there, it was clear to see how difficult it was for the nursing staff to keep up with the demand from patients.

But sadly, with falls in the level of expected care, comes an increase in the amount of people pursuing claims for compensation against the NHS. We live in an age now where people are much more confident about voicing their opinions when they feel the level of care received has been below standard. Complaints and claims against the NHS are therefore on the increase‘.
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Cosmetic surgery in general is a common thing for people to undertake. Breast implants in particular are very common nowadays, with prices in the region of £5,000 from the private sector. All invasive surgery carries with it potential risks, and breast implant claims come with the same risks most surgery comes with. But aside from the inherent risks, you are putting yourself in danger of suffering due to negligence.

With the PIP breast implant scandal still ongoing, we learned a great deal about just how unregulated the cosmetic surgery industry is here in the UK. A total of around 40,000 women in the UK alone are thought to have received the implants privately, which were filled with none medical grade standard silicon and are likely to rupture. Apparently, for almost a decade nobody knew that the PIP Company were putting people’s lives in danger.

So when you go for cosmetic surgery, there are serious risks and unknowns that you should always consider. How do you know that the implants you are being given are safe? How do you know that your surgeon is going to do a good job? Given the poor regulation in the industry, at present, you don’t. So what happens when things go wrong?
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We take on a lot of claims involving accidents in and around swimming pools. The combination of water and a hard surface can usually lead to people suffering some potentially serious injuries. Fractures are extremely common in these sorts of circumstances.

So if you do have an accident involving a swimming pool, can you claim, and who is responsible?

Generally speaking these claims fall within the realm of the Occupiers Liability Act. This stipulates that the occupier of a premises has an underlying duty to take all reasonable steps to prevent injury from occurring on the premises they are in control of. So if it is a swimming pool in a leisure centre, then the owners of the leisure centre have the responsibility. If it’s in a hotel, then the hotel owners have the responsibility.

Slipping is an obvious hazard. It’s difficult to control this kind of thing given that water is bound to end up on the floor nearby a pool. Normally signs will be deployed to warn people of the danger of slipping and to warn people never to run. Mats could be used between doorways (say between the changing rooms and the pool area) to also help combat the problem. If you slip over in a swimming pool , whether you have a claim or not boils down to whether the owners can prove they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent the accident. To win a claim, we still must prove negligence and breach of law.
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