It was reported in the ‘Daily Mail Online‘ today that a rogue personal injury referral agency has duped £150,000 out of law firms nationwide. The scam involved the referral agency inventing accidents such as car crashes and trip/slip claims and referring them onto as many as 19 law firms from their base in a luxury flat in the city centre of Manchester. The referral agency would get as much as £600 per claim that they sold on. Investigators believe many more law firms fell foul of the tricksters, but were simply too embarrassed to come forward.

The dishonestly reaches even higher levels as it seems one of the group was a former member of the General Medical Council. This meant he had inside knowledge into the personal injury system, and so knew how to dupe it. It even seems that he was able to create doctors notes to back up their invented cases. The group, known as North West Claims, would also forge passports and national insurance numbers in order to support their invented accidents. Only when the law firms attempted to contact the accident victims would they realise it was a scam.

The group were only uncovered by Police when the Border Agency raided the luxury flat in an attempt to combat illegal immigration.  Irfan Manzoor pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and is now starting a 30 month jail sentence and has been banned from being a company director for 5 years. He had many accomplices who are also beginning lengthy jail sentences.
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It is an unfortunate statistic that road traffic accidents are on the increase. This is one of the reasons, why for road traffic accidents that happened after 30^th April 2010 and are worth between a certain range of values, a new system has been put in place making the system more stream-lined, simpler, and quicker. The system sets out that within 15 business days of the other side receiving the circumstances of your claim in a document known as a Claim Notification Form, you should have an answer regarding liability – i.e. whether they admit or deny fault. This means that the angst and frustration of not knowing what is going on with your claim is taken away.  At The Injury Lawyers we have a policy of updating our clients every 2 weeks – this means that you always stay in the loop, so to speak.

Injuries and Treatment

Many clients that come to us after a road accident are suffering with whiplash. This can be a painful and frustrating condition which many people can overlook as it is not so clear to see as a broken bone or a laceration. At The Injury Lawyers we always treat whiplash with the seriousness it deserves as we know what a destructive effect it can have on people’s lives.  When a client approaches The Injury Lawyers we can usually arrange for treatment for injuries such as whiplash right from the start – this treatment may include physiotherapy, chiropractic, or osteopathic treatment; the cost of which is either payable by the other side upon succeeding with your claim, or by insurance if you lose. This means that you would not have to wait on an NHS waiting list whilst suffering with the pain and inconvenience of the whiplash.
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Product liability may seem like legal jargon and too complex a term to bother to understand. It is however quite simple in its meaning – it simply means a product which through no fault of your own has caused you harm.

Product liability claiming can be fairly complex as there is often a point of confusion as to whether the retailer and/or the manufacturer is at fault. If it is the manufacturer they can sometimes be difficult to locate – that is why it is advisable to seek the advice of a specialist personal injury lawyer with experience in this area to advise you.

Faulty Products:
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OK – so I’ve been doing this for a while, and I know exactly how it works. So it should come as little surprise to me when I ask accident victims what they understand of the No Win No Fee system before I move forward to explaining it.

Yet I do still find myself slightly surprised to learn that most people still think there is a deduction from your compensation for a winning claim with any firm. This probably stems from the term No Win No Fee itself; it tells you there is no fee for a lost claim, but it tells you nothing about what happens if it wins?

The common questions:

Q: “What percentage of my claim do you take?”

Q: “How much is it to claim?”
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After being involved in a road traffic accident you may be unsure as to whose fault it was; it may be a case that both you and the other driver are partially at fault, or immediately after the crash the other driver may try and pass the blame onto you when it was very obviously their fault.  It is true in some road traffic accident cases the person at fault is sometimes difficult to ascertain and sometimes fault can be split by way of a ratio; such as 70/30.

This being said however, in certain types of road traffic accidents, it is extremely easy to see who is at fault – rear end shunts being one of these. A rear end shunt is basically a term used in the legal world to describe a vehicle hitting the back of another vehicle. In these types of situations the car doing ‘the hitting’ so to speak is usually the car at fault.  Therefore, in situations such as rear end shunts where you are injured, it is highly likely that you may have a personal injury claim for compensation.

Many clients that approach The Injury Lawyers commonly report having whiplash as a result. Whiplash can be a frustrating and painful condition which can have a destructive effect on your working, domestic and/or social life; as such we take whiplash extremely seriously at The Injury Lawyers.  Through our relationship with our private medical partners we are able to arrange private treatment for our clients from the outset of the case; this treatment may include physiotherapy, osteopathic and/or chiropractic treatment. This means that our clients will not have to wait on the sometimes lengthy waiting lists of the NHS. This side of our service, for some clients, can be as important as the compensation. Any treatment we arrange would be payable by the other side if you win your claim, or by insurance if you lose.
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I can hear many of you out there when you see personal injury advertisements on the televisions saying – ‘claiming for compensation is easier said than done’. Well, if you end up making a bad decision and instructing the wrong law firm where you have to always chase them for information or for things to be done, then that may be the case.

However, if you chose the right solicitor you may get an all together different experience. At The Injury Lawyers we like to give our clients the most hassle free experience we possibly can – we feel that you have already been through the trauma of an accident, so you shouldn’t have any further unnecessary hassle or bother. Much of the hassle and frustration can stem from not knowing what is going on with your claim and feeling out of control. Well at The Injury Lawyers we update our clients every 2 weeks whether something has happened on the claim or not – this keeps you in the know and so reduces any worry or uncertainty.

When you first approach a law firm with a claim, a solicitor will ask you the accident circumstances in order to assess whether there is a claim and it has good prospects of succeeding – we do not want to waste your time or give you false hope on a claim which will not succeed. If the claim is then taken on and you agree to instruct the solicitor, a Letter of Claim will be produced – this is the first document the other side will receive regarding your claim. The letter will set out the circumstances of your claim as well as request any documents we need in order to assess the case.
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The Oxford Mail has reported that a self-employed builder has been awarded over one million pounds in compensation having suffered a horrific injury whilst working on a building site.  It is said that Dean Winstone sustained spinal injuries having tripped and fallen from scaffolding whilst doing up someone’s home back in 2007.  Mr Winston is now paraplegic and requires the use of a wheelchair fulltime.  Mr Winston was in hospital for over a month initially, and has been there back and forth for nearly two years.  Sadly for Mr Winstone he will never be able to work again.

Mr Winstone was awarded £1.25million in compensation this week by a judge in the High Court in London.  This is to help put Mr Winstone back in the position he would have been in had the accident not have occurred.  In other words he was compensated for his terrible spinal injuries and his future loss of earnings that have resulted from him not being able to work again because of the nature of the injuries he suffered. 

In fact, the compensation also takes into account the fact that Mr Winstone will need further medical treatment in the future.  So part of this £1.25million is to help him pay for those future medical costs.  This was necessary because the medical experts that have aided Mr Winstone’s recovery have noted that he is likely to need a greater amount of help in the future owing to the worsening of his condition as he gets older.
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Where you have been involved in an accident and sustained a personal injury through no fault of your own it is likely that you will be entitled to compensation.  This is because you will have been put out and should be placed back in the position you would have been in had the accident not have occurred. 

It is not uncommon following an accident that the other side’s insurers may contact you to offer you this compensation.  In fact, the thought of receiving compensation so soon after your accident will no doubt seem particularly appealing to most. 

But just stop and think for a second – if you ever receive an offer of compensation from the other side’s insurers, ask yourself: why they are offering you compensation?  Are they really doing it out of the kindness of their hearts? Or maybe they are doing it because they feel they owe you some kind of duty? Or actually is it because they know you have a legitimate claim for compensation and know that if they can get you to agree to their compensation package without you seeking proper legal advice, they will be able to settle your claim for much less than it’s true value and actually save themselves a whole heap of money.  If you agree to their compensation, that is it! You can no longer go back and ask for more – it is a final settlement.
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If you really do your homework about which lawyer you want to represent you for your claim for compensation, you may end up locking yourself in a small room and screaming for a little while after discovering there are literally HUNDREDS of us out there!

So – Who on earth do you choose to represent you for your claim?

Well, here’s a little advice about what you should and shouldn’t look for in an Injury Lawyer that should get you the best service and the maximum payout. So, if you’ve finished screaming, take a breather and digest this advice:
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When we think about compensation and road traffic accidents, I can hazard I guess that car accidents will be the first thing that comes to mind. Of course, many of the accidents on the roads do involve both parties being cars; but there are also many other accidents on the road which may also entitle the victim to compensation.

The title of this blog being bus accidents means you can probably guess what type of accidents I will be discussing – YES,  its bus accidents.

If you have been involved in a road accident whilst on a bus which has caused you injury as a result, you have a high chance of having a claim for personal injury. This is because if the accident was due to the fault of the bus driver you may have a claim against the bus company who are vicariously liable for the driver’s actions. This means that the bus company can take responsibility for his actions. If on the other hand the cause of the accident was another road user, then you may have a claim for personal injury against them. In summary, in either scenario you may have a claim.
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