It seems that many more people are becoming aware of their rights when it comes to claiming for a personal injury.  This may be due to the increased amount of advertisements on television and radio heightening awareness for people who have had an accident that was not their fault.

With the above in consideration, many clients still come to us entirely unsure and unconfident in the fact they have a valid personal injury claim for compensation.

Claims for personal injury can stem from all sorts of different accidents and types of personal injury; I have listed some of these below:
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You may see many personal injury referral agents or law firms advertising personal injury claims stemming from road traffic accidents, and so you are probably aware that if you suffer from a road traffic accident arising either driving in a car or being driven that you may have a claim for compensation.  However, what you may not have realised is that if you have been a passenger on a bus or coach and suffered a personal injury, you may also have a claim for compensation.

The personal injury as mentioned above could have happened in any number of ways whilst being a passenger on a bus or coach. Firstly, and maybe most obviously, is that the bus or coach may have been in a general road traffic accident. This may be due to fault on the bus driver’s part or on another motorist, adverse weather conditions, or a mechanical fault with either the bus or another vehicle. A second reason could be that you have fallen in the gangway of a bus; this could be due to the bus jerking suddenly to a stop, due to tripping over on an item negligently left in the path, or due to a spillage negligently left uncleaned.

If you have had an accident on a bus or coach due to any of the reasons above then you may have a claim for compensation. It must be of note that the above list is not exhaustive and if you have any accident which was not your fault then you may have a claim.
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BBC News has reported that a police sergeant has been awarded nearly £400,000 in compensation having suffered serious injuries in a motorcycle accident.  It is said that Mr Steve Ball, who was on duty at the time, was involved in a head-on collision with another motorbike back in 2006.  He spent nearly two weeks in hospital having had to have surgery after losing the use of the right side of his body.  Despite his operations, Mr Ball still suffers from the effects of the accident, that is, he is still in a lot of pain and has restricted movement.  In fact, Mr Ball has had to retire early due to the severity of his injuries.

It just goes to show that your day can be totally different from how you imagined it would be.  The negligence of another motorcyclist has jeopardised Mr Ball’s career and life.  It will simply never be the same again.  If you have similarly had a life-changing experience as a result of the negligence of another person then you are more than likely due compensation to help place you back in the position you would have been had you not have been injured.  That said, even if your injuries are not as bad as Mr Ball’s you may still be entitled to make a claim for compensation; though the amount of compensation you receive will likely be significantly less.  Simply put, if you have been involved in an accident through no fault of your own and as a result you have been injured, no matter how serious, you have a potential claim.  The key thing is that you have been injured; you cannot make a claim if you have no injury. This means that if you have been injured and you may be somewhat to blame, you may still have a claim for compensation.  It is therefore best to get in touch with a professional injury lawyer with years and years of experience in dealing with these sorts of claims who can advise you as to whether you potentially can win compensation.

At The Injury Lawyers we do our utmost to make sure you receive the proper advice that you deserve, and should you have a claim, we will do all we can for you to make sure that you get the maximum compensation you deserve.  In fact, we go further than most other law firms and make sure that you always receive 100% of this compensation.  We always make it clear that we will never take any of your compensation away from you, and put this in writing in the agreement; it is all yours.

Road traffic accidents can happen anywhere on our roads at any time. We put our trust in others on the road to drive safely; thus keeping other road users safe. However, as I was reminded on my way to work this morning – this is not always the case. On the M1 today (Thursday 9^th March 2011) at around junction 29, a lorry had crashed through the central reservation colliding with a number of cars in the process. As a consequence five people were taken to hospital; two of which with serious injuries.

The above incident serves to make us all the more aware of the dangers of driving on the motorway.

Many people can love motorway driving due to the ease and the increased speed you can get to places. However, on the flip-side, many people can dread motorway driving as it is a type of driving which requires increased concentration, due to the high speeds involved, and even a heightened experience of driving in order to become more confident within the motorway environment.
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The term ‘Product Liability’ within a personal injury context means a product which has caused you harm through no fault of your own. As consumers we put our trust in the products we buy, the retailers who stock the product, and the manufacturers that make the product. I can hazard a guess that most of us would not anticipate that a product we purchase could cause us harm, and on the most part they don’t; however, for a number of people this is not the case.

Faulty Products

Products which end up on the shelves of retailers usually go through a number of safety checks to ensure they are safe for the public use. However, as we have seen from many of our clients, these checks may not be thorough enough, or an item may have missed the usual checks. If you have suffered an injury due to a faulty product then you may have a claim for compensation. It may be the case that the faulty product is a chair which when sat on collapsed, or a hot water bottle which burst causing burns to you.  The product may also be a food item which was contaminated with something and caused you illness and/or injury.
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What is No Win No Fee? What does it mean? Is it true that it does exactly what it says on the tin? I know it’s a common term nowadays, but do any of you understand what it actually involves?

There are actually multiple answers to this question – but realistically, it all comes down to which lawyer you choose to represent you.

What Happens if You Lose?

If your compensation claim fails to succeed, under a No Win No Fee, you should not be liable for any of your lawyer’s fees. The reason I say should is because there are lawyers out there who are prepared to be sneaky and may try and get something out of you.
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We all use equipment at work – ranging from the trusty pen in the office, to a pneumatic drill on a building site. With any work equipment that is potentially dangerous, there are health and safety rules and regulations that you and your employer need to abide by in order to prevent an accident at work occurring.

If you are injured due to work equipment provided to you by your employer, you may have a claim for compensation.

There are several areas this covers –

• The provision of suitable work equipment where necessary
• The regular inspection and maintenance of work equipment you use – which ranges from handled tools to factory machinery
• The replacement of any outdated or overly used equipment
• Training in how to use work equipment safely

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The answer is YES!

At The Injury Lawyers we are passionate about getting our clients the best possible amounts of compensation. This is why issues such as Third Party Capture are a topic of great concern to us. We therefore feel the need to inform our blog readers of our concern.

Many clients come to us with a claim and report some disturbing news that they have been approached  by the defendants insurers for a potential personal injury claim. They report that they have either received an offer for settlement by the insurers or received an offer of a medical examination so they can value any potential claim you may have and make you an offer thereafter. This is a process that is commonly known as Third Party Capture. It is a process whereby the insurers of the potential defendants of a personal injury claim try to gain a settlement before the claimant obtains their own advice from an independent personal injury solicitor and instructs them to proceed with that claim.

If the insurers succeed in their task and the victim accepts the offer made to them, this offer may be accepted on a full and final basis, thus stopping any further claim proceeding. The claimant, therefore in accepting the claim without gaining the advice from an independent solicitor, are in serious danger of under settling their claim, and could be accepting an offer which is grossly less than what their claim is actually worth.
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Now I can hazard a guess that many of us can see that the roads are getting busier and busier. This can be seen through the amount of traffic jams we sit in either going to and from work, going to the shops, or doing the school runs. We can also see that new roads and by-passes are being built to handle this increase in traffic.

With this obvious increase in traffic comes the inevitable increase in road traffic accidents. At The Injury Lawyers we have many clients that come to us after a road traffic accident, asking us whether they have a claim. These road traffic accidents can range from a head on collision to a car pulling out of a junction on a claimant, or an incident of drink driving. Most clients on approaching us and telling us the accident circumstances ask whether they have a claim. With many types of road traffic accident this can be a more complex task of judging who was at fault in the eyes of the law. At The Injury Lawyers if we think your claim has a 51% chance of success or more we will usually take on the claim. There are some road traffic accidents however where it is less complex to judge whether there is a potential claim – namely rear- end shunts.

Rear – end shunts is a term commonly used by lawyers and refers to a situation when a vehicle drives into the back of another vehicle. In this situation, on assessing the claim, we would say that the person who has been driven into definitely has a claim for compensation (unless there are extenuating circumstances), and we would definitely take your claim on. This is due to the fact that the other driver is clearly at fault in the vast majority of circumstances.
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If you have suffered a personal injury having been involved in an accident that was not your fault, it may well be the case that you are entitled to compensation.  After all, you did not deserve your injuries and it may be that because of your accident and the injuries that resulted, you have incurred extra expenditure that you should not be liable for.  So yes, in most cases where your injuries were sustained through no fault of your own you will be entitled to compensation and you can go about obtaining this compensation by contacting a lawyer who can guide you through the process.  Despite more and more people being aware that they are able to make a claim for compensation, some refrain from doing so because they are under the impression that the whole process of getting that compensation will be laborious and simply something that they cannot be bothered with.  The aim of this blog is to show you that making a claim for compensation is far simpler nowadays and can be over in a matter of months.

The Pre-Action Protocol for Personal Injury claims has made the process of obtaining compensation a great deal more straightforward.  Because of this, you are able to get hold of the compensation you may deserve faster.  What this Protocol has done is set out a series of steps that are to be taken by your solicitor and the other side when dealing with you claim.  For instance the first thing your lawyer will do for you is take all your accident details.  This will allow him/her to produce what is known as your Letter of Claim.  This sets out what your accident involved, the injuries you have suffered, and the details of any other losses (for example, a loss of earnings) that you may have also suffered.  This is then sent to the other side who have 21 days to acknowledge this letter and either deal with your claim themselves, or, as in most cases, instruct their insurers or solicitors to deal with your claim.  Once the other side has acknowledged your Letter of Claim they are allowed a maximum period of three months in which to investigate your claim.  This is not to say that the whole process of sending your Letter of Claim out and the period for investigations will take nearly four months, but instead to say that this is the maximum time it should take.  Your claim may be settled in a month or two months if everything goes well.

At The Injury Lawyers we are well aware that you want your claim to be dealt with as fast as possible and you want to be updated on any progress that is made.  That is why we promise to contact you every two weeks to ensure that you are always up-to-date.  We will also make sure we contact the other side on a regular basis to ensure that they are progressing their investigations of your claim.  The Injury Lawyers understand your anxieties and concerns and therefore aim to deal with your claim in the quickest time possible, and at the same time make sure you get the maximum compensation you deserve.