As Britons, we love to panic sometimes don’t we? We’re the type of society that rushes to our GP when we are feeling a little tense or under the weather. My understanding is that the NHS is encouraging people to make use of help lines and walk in centres. And let’s not even start on getting an appointment with your GP – if you’re lucky enough to get one before a full lunar cycle, you have a very well organised (or quiet) General Practitioner.

With the NHS in general being thin on the ground, it is a real concern that the standard of care that we would expect from our GP can fall. We get a lot of enquires for cases of misdiagnosis from GP’s or being prescribed the incorrect medication. Although we have had claims where it isn’t the GP who has provided the incorrect medication, it’s the pharmacist. Scary stuff… I recall I once went to my GP about a clicking in my back. I was asked to “Google back stretching exercises”. I was pretty angry to be honest.
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Cosmetic surgery is extremely common these days and not just with the rich and the famous. Many people now turn to the surgeons to achieve the body and face of their dreams. Unfortunately, the outcome can be far from the desired one with cosmetic surgery carrying with it so many inherent risks!

To start I shall briefly explain the regulation in place when it comes to these types of claims. Private clinics offering surgical treatments such as facelifts under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 must be registered with the Care Quality Commission. This ensures that the clinics offering these invasive procedures meet a set of essential requirements of safety and quality. One of the main comforts for Clients is that the Care Quality Commission inspects clinics at least once a year and have the powers to impose fines and simply shut clinics down for non-compliance!

Furthermore, surgical procedures are regulated activities and therefore ensure that only appropriately licensed medical professionals may carry out such procedures and if they are found to be unqualified they are liable for prosecution.
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Package holidays are fairly common nowadays. Who wouldn’t want to just pay a single fee for an all inclusive stress free holiday, where you don’t have to worry about booking the hotel, flights, transport, and other things separately. It saves a lot of time.

However there is also another benefit to booking an all inclusive visit abroad – you may be afforded the protection of the Package Tour Regulations in the event something goes wrong.

Under the Package Tour Regulations, if you have an accident abroad, you may have a claim against the package provider. The general prerequisites are that:
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These types of claims would have been quite uncommon a few years ago, but nowadays with the rich and famous openly admitting to have hair transplants, it appears that everyone wants perfect hair. However, as this procedure is relatively new it also means that a lot can possibly go wrong and consequently result in unfortunate injuries or adverse affects.

There are three main ways that a hair transplant can be done, which are:

• Follicular Unit Transplantation – this is where a strip of skin is transplanted from where hair grows.
• Follicular Unit Extraction – this is where hairs are “punched” into the scalp
• Artificial Transplant – this is where synthetic fibres as opposed to organic hair sourced from the scalp is “punched” in.

All three procedures come with inherent risks (as with any cosmetic procedure) and therefore all three can lead to a potential personal injury.
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We often like to follow the trends of our American friends across the pond. They’re huge on shopping malls with everything you need under one roof, and that trend is somewhat catching on over here. I live in Derby and a few years ago, what was the Eagle Shopping Centre was transformed in to one huge Westfield shopping centre with pretty much everything all under one roof!

Personally, I like it – because in winter you don’t have to worry about being cold when shopping! But with such a huge building with a variety of outlets, and with the place being packed with shoppers rushing around, accidents can easily occur. A child drops his ice cream, and someone slips on the remains. A gherkin drops out of a burger, and an innocent old age pensioner ends up slipping on it. Because accidents can easily occur, those in charge of shopping centres need to be on the ball for keeping people safe.

If you have slipped or tripped in a shopping centre due to a hazard that was not cleared, cordoned off, you may have a claim under the Occupiers Liability Act. Under this important piece of legislation, whoever is in charge of the centre must take all reasonable steps to prevent an accident from occurring. Commonly, these are:
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There are a lot of rules and regulations that employers must abide by when it comes to preventing accidents at work. It can depend on the type of industry of course – you’d expect less accidents in an office than on a construction site – but all employers are equally responsible for complying with the law.

To comply with the law, one of the most important tools of course is training. It is your employers direct responsibility to make sure that you receive proper and adequate training when it comes to anything health and safety related. If there is something in the workplace that could cause you harm, you need training to make sure you don’t end up injured.

If you feel you have not been trained properly and this has caused you an injury, you may have a claim for compensation. Here are a few examples of the sorts of training you should expect:

Manual Handling Training

If you need to do any lifting in the workplace, your employer must properly train you how to lift safely. This is a form of training that should be refreshed on a regular basis as well; perhaps annually. Any manual handling activity at work should be risk assessed, so training needs should be identified by your employer. If you have been injured due to a lack of, or inadequate, manual handling training, you may have a work injury compensation claim.
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This is a very common scenario! With the insane amount of potholes and defects that have been caused by the cold winter we have been through, I think it’s safe to say the highways authorities are facing huge amounts of work (and so maybe behind!) when it comes to rectifying defects on public ground. In this article, I’m going to focus on raised paving as oppose to pothole defects.

A raised section of the highway is a recognised defect. It can commonly occur when paving slabs become loose and rise up as part of the ground sinks down below it. Obviously a raised section of the paving is a dangerous tripping hazard. There is case law to support that you shouldn’t have to look at your feet all of the time when walking around, or you’d be liable to walk in to street furniture. So don’t be daft and think that it’s your fault because you should have been watching where you were walking!

Tripping on a raised section of paving can end up in serious injuries. If you’re lucky you might catch yourself and not fall over; but if you’re not, landing hard on concrete can easily lead to fractures and serious damage. The question is what can you do about it if you have been injured due to a raised section of paving? Can you claim compensation for your injuries and suffering?
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So you have had an accident, instructed a firm of Solicitors, established an admission of liability, and you are ready to settle your case.

As soon as your solicitor has finalised the value of your compensation claim, they will immediately send the evidence, including a schedule of special damages and medical evidence to the insurer of the person at fault for your accident.

The third party representatives will review all documentation in support of your claim. Judicial college guidelines are used to correctly value your injuries along with previous case law.

Your legal representative has a duty to inform you of any offer put forward and will manage the entire negotiation process on your behalf in order to settle your claim fairly and quickly.
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Generally speaking, someone or some company is responsible for a pipe (I would have thought!). If it’s manmade, it’s been fitted by someone and is someone’s responsibility! So a pipe shouldn’t be allowed to leak and cause a potential hazard. Rather obviously if the pipe is carrying water or any other liquid, a slipping hazard can result.

If it’s at work, workplace regulations apply. Your employer has an important duty to keep you safe at work , so traffic routes should not be hazardous. If water is allowed to accumulate due to a leaking pipe, and a slipping hazard is caused, this is a failure on your employer’s part to keep the traffic routes and your welfare safe at work. As soon as your employer is aware of the problem and the hazard, the problem needs to be rectified as soon as possible.

If it isn’t at work, then whoever is responsible for a premises or the pipe that is causing the hazard has the duty to rectify it immediately. If it’s in a shop or a public premises, the Occupiers Liability Act should apply which means that the person or company in charge of the premises has the duty to sort it out. The area beneath the pip can be cordoned off so there is at least no slipping hazard.
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When you’re going about your everyday business, you rarely expect to end up on the floor after tripping over a hazard on the ground! But it does happen. For this article, I’m going to quickly discuss claims for compensation arising from tripping over an object on the ground.

If you go to a shop or a restaurant, or a pub or a club, or any place where you have free public access, there is somebody who is responsible for that premises. That person or company has a duty under the Occupiers Liability Act to make sure that the premises they are in charge or of safe for the public to use. This means that floors should be clear of any hazards.

Those in charge of a premises should have systems of inspection and maintenance to make sure that the floors are free from any objects that could pose a tripping hazard. Obviously in certain places like busy supermarkets, many an item of stock ends up on the ground after being knocked off by kids or falling out of a basket. So the purpose of having systems of inspection in place is for staff to clear away any potential hazards.
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