As a firm of specialist personal injury lawyers with years of claims experience under our belt, we’re more than used to dealing with insurers, and we’re more than used to the fact that they aren’t always the easiest of people to work with! Thankfully there are protocols in place where we can impose deadlines on insurers to respond to claims within appropriate timeframes.

For example, when a letter of claim is submitted to a Defendant in a common accident at work, occupiers case (like in a supermarket or shop), claim due to defects on the highways, or product claims for example, the other side has 21 days to acknowledge the letter of claim under the pre-action protocol for personal injury. Once it has been passed to whoever will be dealing with the case, usually an insurer, they have three months to investigate a claim. So, generally speaking, the other side has just under four months in theory to respond with a decision as to whether they will pay you out for the claim or not.

Some may respond quickly, leaving you knowing whether the other side intends to defend the claim at an earlier stage; whilst some may well take the entire timeframe just to come back to us. Some may not respond at all – in this case we can issue an application for pre action disclosure against them to force them to respond with the power of a court order. This unfortunately will add time to the claim, but at least it’s something we can do to force a response in the event they fail to respond. An application, if successful, is costly for insurers; so it’s within their interests to respond in time!
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The only way to value a claim for personal injury compensation is by getting examined by an appropriate expert who then produces a medico-legal report, that is in turn used by a fully qualified personal injury lawyer who will review the evidence and value the claim based on the correct legal guidelines.

On top of that, if you have suffered any loss of earnings, or medical expenses, travel expenses, care and assistance from friends and family etc, these can be added in as well.
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People are often worried about returning to work when they’re suffering from whiplash. It normally comes down to one of three things:

1. You’re worried you can’t work because of the pain and will lose out on earnings.
2. You’re worried that you can work, but the pain will be uncomfortable.
3. You’re worried about not being able to claim because you are able to work.

In law, you have a duty to mitigate your loss. You also have a duty to follow medical advice to make sure you don’t worsen your symptoms. So it’s best to seek medical advice and find out whether your doctor feels you are able to work or not. If not, then you should probably follow their advice and stay away from work. Any earnings you lose out on can be recovered as part of the claim in most circumstances.

If you can work, or you’re in the category of people who must work to make ends meet, then you can still make a claim. The other side isn’t necessarily going to raise the argument that you can’t be in any pain because you are able to work. Whiplash didn’t stop me from working, and they haven’t raised it with me. Yes, I was in pain; but it wasn’t pain enough to warrant loads of time off work and then claiming lost earnings fees from the other side. If you can work, and you’re medically fit to do so, you shouldn’t worry about it affecting the claim.
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When the claim is settled and the only thing that’s left is for the cheque to be received, cashed, and spent, a lot of people get anxious and want to know how long it will take for the cheque to get from the insurers and in to their hands. The problem is that it can be hard to say.

We normally put insurers or solicitors to a deadline of around 14 – 21 days to get the cheque to us from the day they confirm the settlement amount, but all sorts of things can go wrong. The cheque itself may not be too easy to track.

It will normally have to be raised by the insurers or whoever is dealing with matters on the opponent’s side, sent out to your solicitors, and then sent to you. How long it takes the accounts department for the other side to raise a cheque is anyone’s guess. How long it takes the royal mail to get it to us and then for us to get it to you is again, difficult to predict. Second class doesn’t always get to its destination in time, and first class doesn’t always mean next day delivery.
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Personal injury claims can be a necessity, especially when the injury sustained has resulted in a number of consequential losses such as loss of earnings, medical expenses and treatment costs. So how much can you look to receive when claiming for an injury resulting from a fall?

This is impossible to say at the beginning of the claim – and the main reason for this is that there are many different factors that will affect your settlement and this is why it is so difficult for anyone to ever give a definitive sum. One of the main factors is the medical evidence gathered to support your claim as this is mainly what a settlement will be calculated on.

In this medical report something called a “prognosis period” is given – this gives a time frame of how long you are going to be affected by the injury you have sustained. It is always advisable not to settle your claim until this time period has passed, as you may run the risk of under settling your claim. Your personal injury solicitor should continue to support you throughout this period, logging the progress of your injury and arranging any medical treatment you require. If at the end of this period you are still suffering it may be necessary to arrange another medical appointment which will provide a second prognosis period.
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With the introduction of the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 it is fair to say that the majority of employers have taken action and introduced manual handling training to their employees. However, it seems that there are still certain sectors of employment where statistics show more could be done by the employer to prevent injury when moving obstacles within the employment.

In social care, moving patients, equipment and supplies or waste is a significant part of a daily routine. Subsequently around 2,000 injuries are reported each year in social care work which has occurred from manual handling. Over 50% of the injuries reported involving lifting and manoeuvring patients. The statistics of how many injuries occur in social care may be alarming to some especially with the introduction of the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992.

Under the Regulation 4 Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 your employer owes you a duty to reduce the risk of injury to employees when a task involves manual handling. By reducing the risk it can involve avoiding the handling all together where reasonably practice, putting in measures in place to avoid injury to individuals and other employees and to assess the risks when manual handling cannot be avoided.
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Many types of accidents are a traumatic experience in some way, and I would say that even a minor accident can affect a person psychologically. Some psychiatric injuries can be long term and more sever and when there is a proper diagnosis of a recognised psychological condition, the Claimant can claim compensation for the psychological injuries sustained in addition to any physical injuries.

To get compensation for psychiatric injury there are a number of conditions a Claimant must satisfy. There must be an actual psychiatric injury (that is diagnosed) and mere fear, worry or grief is not always sufficient. Primary victims are those in the zone of physical danger.

Primary victims need to establish that physical harm was foreseeable and there is no need to establish that psychiatric injury was foreseeable.

Secondary victims are those not within the physical zone of danger but witnesses of a horrific events. Secondary victims must show that they are in a close tie of love and affection (with the primary victim), that they witness the event with their own unaided senses. There must be proximity to the event itself or its immediate aftermath and the psychiatric injury must be a result of a shocking event.
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Crossing a road is part of everyday life. We are all well aware of the dangers – whether it be as a driver looking out for pedestrians or as a pedestrian trying to safely cross to the other side of the road. Zebra crossings are in place to assist pedestrians in crossing the road. On busy roads, it would be very difficult without some kind of crossing in place to get to the other side. It would be very dangerous without some kind of crossing. Of course there are duties upon both drivers and pedestrians when it comes to zebra crossings. Liability can often be split depending on the circumstances of the individual case.

Pedestrians should wait for cars to stop in both directions before stepping out into the road. Other factors to consider include the speed of the vehicle, whether the pedestrian had waited for it to be safe before stepping out into the road etc. Especially in this type of claim, witnesses could be crucial.

The Zebra, Pelican and Puffin Pedestrian Crossings Regulations 1997 prescribe an absolute duty for the driver to stop if anyone is on the crossing. Therefore even if the pedestrian ran out into the road it can be difficult for a driver to escape liability all together. Hence in some situations it leads to a split in liability whereby the driver and the passenger are both to blame to some extent.
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We often get asked how long a particular claim will take. In response, I would ask how long is a piece of string? Jokes aside, the truth is that it is impossible to say with any certainty how long your claim could take. At the outset of the claim it is impossible to predict.

All lawyers rely to a certain extent on other businesses/people whether that be insurers, other solicitors, clients, the courts etc. We endeavour to do our part as soon as possible but if for example, an insurer is failing to respond to us, we can take action via the courts to progress matters but we have to comply with the relevant protocols (which for example means that we have to give the insurers a certain amount of time in which to respond to the claim). However protocols are a good thing and are designed primarily to speed up the claims process.

To initiate an accident at work claim we basically draft a letter to the Defendant known as a “Letter of Claim”. This letter will set out the nature and circumstances of the Claimant’s claim, reasons why the Defendant is at fault and the relevant disclosure documentation that should be provided if liability is not admitted. The Defendant or the Defendant’s insurers have a period of 21 days in which to acknowledge receipt of the Letter of Claim.
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You’re doing 40mph on a country road (which is at the limit) and it’s dark (so you can’t see the road properly) when you hear a huge smash as your wheel dips in to an “impossible to notice” pothole hiding in the road; one with enough depth to do some serious damage to your car! You immediately feel the car isn’t right, so you pull over and discover you’ve suffered a blowout from the tyre being slashed by hitting the pothole at force.

What’s worse, is you cannot change the tyre yourself because the last time you had a service, the nice men at the garage used their automated tools to put the wheel nuts back on! Not only that, but it isn’t easy to change a tyre in the dark and you have breakdown cover for a good reason. So, you call your breakdown recovery service to come out and change the tyre for you, only to be told there’s a longer than normal call-out time for them to get to you because of how busy they seem to be.

Half an hour later after the time they were meant to arrive, you give them a call only to be told it will be another hour. Repeat the last step and then some, and you’ve got a three and a half hour wait on your hands!
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