Industrial Vibration White Finger claims
Work accidents can come in all shapes and sizes – you may have fallen from a height, suffered a laceration on your finger due to a lack of protective gloves, or simply tripped in an area where there were no warning signs notifying you of a hazard.
The focus of this blog however is on a certain type of industrial disease known as Vibration White Finger also known as Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome due to the increased awareness of the variety of symptoms a sufferer can experience.
A sufferer may not just get the ‘white finger‘ so to speak, they may also suffer from cold sensations and/or tingling in the fingers, numbness in the fingers, or even a general aching feeling extending throughout the fingers and hands and further up the arms. In more extreme cases sufferers have reported a complete loss of feeling in their finger(s) which may extend up the hand and further up the arm. It’s important to note that different people will experience different symptoms with an increased or decreased severity.
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Completing a personal injury claim may be seen as two-pronged. On the one hand you have your claim for your injury compensation to which any good injury lawyer would advise you an approximate value. On the other hand you have you losses. Now, you may wonder – ‘what am I talking about’, and think that your claim was just for compensation. Well, succeeding in a personal injury claim is meant to put you in the position you would have been in had you never have suffered the accident. Therefore, if we did not include in that claim any loss of earnings you had suffered, or all the travel costs you had incurred as a result of the accident, you would still be worse off.
Therefore, any financial losses you incur as a result of the accident will be compiled in a document known as a Schedule of Loss. This document will not contain a valuation for your injury compensation because, as I said, it can be seen as two-pronged; so the compensation part is claimed separately.
Below I have listed some of the more common items of loss which you may see on a Schedule of Loss:
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Accidents at your Place of Employment
Having an accident at work can be a traumatic event. Whether you have a love for your work and relish the idea of going in everyday, or whether you dislike your work to the point where you dread it – I can hazard a guess that no-one anticipates having an accident that was not their fault.
A first point to note – I say first as it can be the first point a client mentions when they report a potential claim against their employer to us – is that an employer is not allowed to treat you any differently due to you placing a claim against them. At The Injury Lawyers we know and appreciate how mentally challenging it can be to begin a claim against your employer – but that is why we are here to act on your behalf. Employers should have insurance policies in place to cover them for these types of scenarios and many employers would be happy to compensate an employee who has had an accident which was the fault of the employer.
In beginning a claim against your employer you should seek out a specialist personal injury lawyer from whom you can gain advice – this should be done as soon as possible while the events are fresh in your mind. Many law firms like The Injury Lawyers will give free claim assessments so there is nothing to lose by simply trying and finding out some information.
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Personal Injury Claims Advice – When Should I Claim?
The clocks moving forward (ugh, an hour gone! But hurray for longer daylight hours!) got me thinking about how fast time moves. It only feels like yesterday since the clocks were being put back in preparation for Christmas. Christmas only feels like two minutes ago! It’s true; as you get older, time flies faster.
This, amongst several other reasons, is why a claim for compensation needs to be pursued sooner rather than later. There are strict time limits for people to claim; you’ve probably heard of the line “have you had an accident in the last three years?” It’s because, in most cases, you only have three years from the date of an accident to bring a claim for compensation. If you miss this vital deadline, your claim could become statute barred – meaning you cannot continue with a claim or make a claim at all.
You may think three years is a long time; and you may then think you should wait a little while to mull things over. It’s always advisable to have a think about things before going ahead with your claim, but realistically, you should launch your claim as soon as possible.
Why?
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As Spring is now upon us it seems a good time to assess the state of our public highways and the possible hazards which they may pose.
After a harsh winter of snow and frost many of our public highways and roads have been left in a terrible state. It is the action of the freezing and expanding of the ice between cracks on the roads and pavements that causes these increased tripping hazards in the springtime.
In saying the above, it is advisable to get the advice of a specialist personal injury solicitor in dealing with trip claims; especially where they involve the local council as the potential defendant. At The Injury Lawyers we do not like giving false hope and we like to be as honest as possible with our blog readers – so we advise that council claims can be difficult claims to deal with. This being said however, it should not put you off the idea of bringing a potential claim, but simply make you place your claim with a firm who has experience in dealing with these types of cases.
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Rogue Referral Agency Cons £150,000 Out Of Personal Injury Law Firms
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 30th 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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Road Traffic Accidents – Rear End Shunts
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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