If you’re a sports fan, you’re probably aware of the dreaded cruciate knee injury. The cruciate ligaments are useful for knee stability on impact – so running or jumping is where they come in to play the most. Sadly the knee joint can be fairly easy to injure, particularly in sports. Tearing or rupturing a ligament in the knee can be severely debilitating. As the title of this article suggests, I’ll focus on ruptured ligaments.

A ligament rupture by definition is where the ligament is literally torn in to two (or I suppose more) pieces. Tearing usually means the ligaments remains intact but part of the tissue is torn or ripped. Ruptured usually means it’s been split. If the ligament tears off a piece of bone with it, this commonly known as an avulsion fracture and can usually be repaired with the bone being sewn back on. You’re better off with that than a rupture – I’ll explain why.
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If you fall over and sustain injury on someone else’s property or in public, then you may be entitled to claim for compensation. Courts look at each case on its own merit and although drink can be a factor, it does not necessarily mean that you will not be able to make a claim if you fall over whilst intoxicated.

First of all we would consider what caused you to fall. Did you fall due to a defect in the pavement? If so you may have a claim for compensation, even if you had been drinking before or at the time of the accident. There is no strict rule saying that people under the influence of alcohol cannot make a compensation claim. Some people may be very drunk which causes them to fall over for no apparent reason. Other people may have had one or two drinks and trip on a defective pavement or pothole. Clearly there is a big difference here. Just because you have had a drink, it does not mean that you cannot claim.
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In personal injury claims, you can claim General Damages which is money or compensation for the injury that you sustained. Further to this, you can also claim for Special Damages which covers any expenses or losses that you have incurred as a result of the accident.
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The majority of people associate whiplash with car accidents. To be fair, the vast majority of whiplash claims are caused by car accidents. However, you can just as easily end up with a whiplash injury from a slip, trip, or a fall.

Whiplash symptoms are caused by the ligaments and tendons in your neck, back and shoulders being stretched beyond their normal range of movement. If you are jerked suddenly, like when you suddenly slip, trip, or fall over something, the tissue can be suddenly stretched and thus leave you with the injury. So don’t be surprised if you are diagnosed with whiplash after being involved in such an accident.

You’ll probably start to feel the symptoms around 12 – 48 hours post accident. This is common for whiplash injuries. There is no miracle cure for the injury, and a lot of it comes down to managing it effectively with anti-inflammatory medication, pain medication, stretching exercises, and physiotherapy. Physiotherapy is something we can normally organise for you on a private basis as part of a claim for compensation.
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Children unfortunately end up with cuts, bruises and sore heads from time to time after some vigorous playground fun or just simply because children can be unsteady. The question is can you claim compensation if your child becomes injured at school? Simply put you may be able to, but they can be very difficult claims and are very circumstantial.

Usually a claim such as this comes from an occupier’s liability perspective –  by this I mean accidents arise from defects on school premises such as faulty equipment or uneven ground, and it is the occupier of the premises (i.e. the school) who then have the responsibility. These claims can proceed just like any other occupier’s claim and therefore there are certain requirements to help your claim move along:

1. Photographs- Try and obtain photographs of what has injured your child!
2. Reports- Has the accident been reported to the school?
3. Witnesses details!

All of these things can help your child’s case and can make the claim more likely to succeed.
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Under Section 2 of the Health and safety at work act 1974 employers are under a duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the health safety and welfare of their employees at work is maintained. Therefore, if you have been injured whilst at work you may be entitled to compensation. Certain injuries sustained at work can be incredibly debilitating and can, of course, affect your future job prospects and therefore compensation may be a necessity.

There are many different ways that you can be injured at work especially taking in to account the range of industries and sectors that are out there. However, whether you work on a building site with extensive heavy machinery or you’re working as a care worker there is always the risk of sustaining an injury.

Of course in the majority of cases your employer will have protected you against these by putting in place policies, guidelines and by providing adequate training. However, it is hard to make everything 100% safe and therefore sometimes these measures simply do not protect you against danger. So who do you pursue if you are injured at work?
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Ultimately as a passenger you normally have a guaranteed compensation claim so long as a collision took place. As a passenger, unless you did anything daft like yanked the handbrake or barked in the drivers face and put them off, you can’t really be held responsible when you have no control over the vehicle or the collision. As an innocent passenger, someone else is at fault, so you normally have a guaranteed claim.

As a passenger, you have the same rights as any innocent driver to make a claim for compensation. Don’t think you have no right just because you don’t own any of the vehicles involved – you’re still covered by the insurers!
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There are so many regulations covering accidents at work. Many of these regulations have been introduced and amended over time to keep up with the modern workplace. Employers should adhere to regulations to avoid paying out thousands of pounds in compensation to injured victims. There are regulations covering all different types of jobs and hazards.

Here is a list of just some of the regulations currently in place:
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Plenty of us now are sitting down in chairs at work. We trust we’re safe of course – it’s not normal for a chair just to collapse… is it?

In a workplace situation, if your chair collapses for reasons beyond your control, you may well have a good claim for compensation. Your chair is classed as your work equipment, and there are specific regulations in place that state that any defective work equipment that causes you an injury leaves your employer liable.

Even if the reason the chair became defective was totally out of your employers’ control, we can allege the defective work equipment rule and in theory the insurers should be strictly liable to compensate you. As long as it wasn’t you who was responsible for breaking the chair – say you jumped up and down on it or loosened a screw or something.
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Many people, particular in supermarkets and warehouses, use roll cages. It’s an everyday piece of equipment needed for moving stock around the premises – so they’re pretty useful! Having worked with them in the past, they don’t half get battered around sometimes! In fact, we see a lot of claims for compensation caused by roll cages at work.
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