Giving advice to people who were injured as a passenger in an accident is normally very simple.  You almost certainly have a claim for compensation.  A passenger would have to do something extreme and unusual to have been at fault for the accident they were involved in – and no matter who was at fault for the accident, as long as it wasn’t them, they are entitled to compensation for their injuries.

Types of passenger claims where you can be compensated:

• You are in a car and the driver loses control and goes off road, causing you injuries
• You are in a car which is involved in a collision with another vehicle
• You are on a bus which for no reason slams on its brakes throwing you out of your seat (perhaps the driver wasn’t concentrating and only saw the red traffic lights at last minute)

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If you are a pedestrian and you are hit by a motor vehicle and injured, your claim for compensation still comes under the heading of a road traffic accident despite you not being in a car yourself. 

At The Injury Lawyers we are only too aware, despite the numerous hard hitting safety campaigns that are out there, that every day pedestrians are injured by negligent motorists.  This is still the case even though pedestrians have their own pathways and crossings.  In particular, accidents often occur on zebra crossings.

Motorists are under a duty of care to other road users, pedestrians and the passengers they carry in their vehicles.  Nevertheless accidents do happen and can happen on zebra crossings.  It appears that despite zebra crossings being clearly marked out on our roads and with warning signs on their approach, motorists do not heed their presence or consider that it is likely that pedestrians will be using them to cross from one side of the road to the other.
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At The Injury Lawyers we are frequently asked about how much a claim is worth.  Thing is, everyone’s claim is different because no-one has the exact same symptoms and those symptoms do not last the same amount of time in every case.  For this reason, at the very start of your claim, we cannot give you an exact valuation, it is simply impossible no matter what anyone else may tell you.  That said, we can explain how whiplash claims are valued and value your claim at a later stage. 

Here’s how:

At The Injury Lawyers we are expert whiplash lawyers having dealt with thousands of whiplash claims over many years.  In fact, not a day goes by without one of our busy team progressing a whiplash claim towards settlement.  Due to this experience, we are able to give you a rough idea as to how much your claim may be worth. 
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Nowadays, if you have been involved in a road traffic accident and have been injured through no fault of your own and you want to get compensation for your injuries, the process of doing so is actually straightforward and fast. 

A couple of years ago you could have been waiting a few months just for the other side to admit liability and your claim may not have been settled until a year down the line, but now, most claims can be settled in a few months.  This is because of a new protocol led by the Ministry of Justice being put in place, and I will quickly outline this for you:

The first thing you should do is instruct a quality injury lawyer who will recover their fees from the other side for their work and won’t seek to reduce your compensation payout in anyway.  They are best placed to do the legal work for you and make sure that everything goes smoothly. 
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According to sources from The Telegraph, a young mother in Wales who was fitted with the dangerous PIP breast implants containing industrial grade silicon has died after a suspected overdose which the Telegraph says could be related to the worries and fears over having the implants inside of her.

According to the report (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9227694/Young-mum-died-after-worrying-about-PIP-implants.html), 24 year old mother and civil servant Paige Goldup had been airing her fears publically over social networking sites and was quoted to have said how stressful the situation was for her and how she was worried about having to pay for removal and replacement.

The report goes on to say she was a loving mum with so much to live for, leaving her family both baffled and heartbroken as to how this has happened. She was found unconscious at her home and was taken to nearby Moriston Hospital in Swansea where she tragically later died. An inquest has been opened and adjourned whilst toxicology and other tests are carried out.
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I must get asked this question at least everyday working here at The Injury Lawyers as it is an important aspect of making a whiplash claim – how much compensation am I likely to get? As we are expert personal injury lawyers, here is a quick guide to help explain valuing whiplash compensation:

Before I start it must be noted that not every claim will be the same. Each whiplash claim is different as people are affected in different ways.
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Its common for a third party insurer to do anything to settle a whiplash claim as soon as possible. They do not care that you’re injured and how it is affecting your life, they just want to get rid of the claim as quickly as they can and save themselves as much money as possible! So do not be fooled if the third party insurer offers you an inviting sum of money to settle – you may well deserve far, far more!

Third party insurers usually offer a sum around £1,000.00 to settle a claim before any medical evidence has been obtained, which is known as a pre-medical offer. Medical evidence is used to value your whiplash claim as it consists of a report outlining the injuries you sustained in the accident and how long you are likely to suffer for. Without this evidence it is impossible to value your claim – therefore by accepting a pre medical offer you could be settling your claim for far less than it is actually worth!

Accepting a pre-medical offer seems extremely tempting, but there are serious risks.  If you accept a pre medical offer then there is no going back! Once you have accepted to settle your claim you cannot claim for any more compensation if you discover that you are still suffering from your injuries months down the line, or if you incur any more out of pocket expenses. So if your solicitor advises you not to accept a pre medical offer, they are doing this for your own good.
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The other day I was speaking with a gentleman who had great prospects of a successful claim for compensation.  I advised him of this but he was a little worried that his claim might take a long time and was not sure whether to go ahead. 

At The Injury Lawyers we come across this a lot – people have an idea in their head that the claims process is hard work and could take a lot of time to get settled and as such they find this off-putting.  The thing is, the reality of claiming for injuries from a road traffic accident is that it is actually very straightforward in the vast majority of circumstances, and then whole claim could be done and dusted within just a few short months!

Yes, a few years ago, road traffic accident claiming could have taken a fair while.  This was because the Defendant was allowed almost four months to just simply come back with their position on liability, or in other words, whether they admitted or denied fault for the accident.  This was unacceptable; so from April 2010 the process was reformed.  The Defendant’s insurer now only has a period of just over two to three weeks to admit or deny liability.
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What should you do if you have an accident at work?

Naturally, you should firstly seek medical attention to make sure you are okay!  At the end of the day, nothing is more important than your wellbeing.  Once you are sure you are fine you should report your accident to your manager or supervisor and make sure that a record is properly kept of your accident by your employer.

All employers are legally required to keep an accident book.  It is necessary to record all accidents in this book and it is good practice to even record near misses in the workplace.  For example, if you trip over something that shouldn’t have been there but don’t fall and hit the ground or injure yourself, you should still report this so that action be taken in order to prevent such incidents happening again.
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A lot of people who ask this question have received what is known as a pre-medical offer. This is an offer received in respect of your injuries prior to you obtaining a medical report.  But what does that mean?

In the claims process you will be asked to attend a medical appointment once liability for your claim is admitted, so that a legal medical report can be compiled.  This is arguably the most important part of your claim because it is enables your claim to be properly valued by your expert injury lawyer.  You medical report will diagnose your injuries and provide a prognosis (how long your injuries will last for) and from this your claim can be valued.  Generally, the more severe your injury and the longer it lasts, the more your claim is worth.

So a pre-medical offer is an offer received prior to you getting a medical report.  Is this a good or a bad thing?
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