It has been reported in recent news that three young men have been beaten up by a gang of youths whilst training for a charity walk raising funds for Cancer Research UK. Gareth Cottrell, Fraser Cottrell and their friend John Fitzpatrick were training for the 125 mile walk they planed to do to try and raise £1,000.00 for their chosen charity.

The three men were out walking a four mile circuit in Stalybridge near Manchester when a group of ten youths, who were drinking and fishing, started shouted abuse at the three walkers and started pelting stones at them. The three walkers tried to hastily walk away from the gang when they were followed and a violent attack started. Reportedly, Gareth saw a man of around 40 years of age approach, Gareth hoped that the man would put a stop to the attack but instead the man joined in and slashed Gareth’s face with a key. Fraser and John were left badly bruised from being repeatedly kicked and punched in the face and body.

The hate–filled attack left the walkers feeling depressed that a good deed could result in such violence.
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We at The Injury Lawyers write numerous blogs daily, covering an array of stories we find related to personal injury, and of course providing you with the useful information you need when asking the key questions about personal injury claims. As a daily writer, I come across some very unusual stories in the press. And this is another example of an out of the ordinary case of potential negligence that, as a male, is a very concerning to read…

According to sources from The Independent (source), an investigation is underway after a police officer accidentally discharged a Taser weapon in to a man’s groin! How this has happened, I don’t know! The 50,000 volt weapon narrowly missed 46 year old Peter Cox’s genitals after the officer appeared to have inadvertently fired the weapon whilst lowering it. A shocking story – with absolutely no pun intended at all!

Mr Cox has since sought legal advice (and rightly so) after he was pulled over by the officer on suspicion of driving the BMW he was in without insurance. Mr Cox, as any law abiding citizen would, pulled the vehicle to the side of the road near a friend’s house after noticing he was being followed by the patrol car. The officer proceeded to exit the police vehicle and aim the weapon towards him. The officer reportedly pointed the weapon at him for just a few seconds before lowering it and discharging the weapon, hitting his groin and ankle. He subsequently fell to the ground in agony and was later treated by paramedics at the scene.
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A lot of people don’t want to call Solicitors as they feel their injuries perhaps aren’t significant or worth a lot of money, when in actual fact it’s likely they are!! Hundreds of people are missing out on thousands of pounds by putting up with their injuries and just simply accepting that “these things happen”. Well, these things shouldn’t happen and you certainly shouldn’t suffer as a result.

An amazing example of this is one woman from America took out a Law Suit against McDonalds after spilling her cup of coffee onto her lap and burning herself. She wanted McDonalds to pay for her medical bills too. When McDonalds offered her $800 she said that this was crazy considering how the coffee was “unreasonably dangerous”. Amazingly, a jury awarded her $2.9 MILLION dollars!!!!! This was appealed and a judged reduced this to $640,000. As a result of this law suit, McDonalds have reduced the temperature of their coffee sold to 60-70 degrees to ensure this is of a “safer temperature”.

I am in no way saying that this ladies injury isn’t significant but just think how much this lady was awarded for a simple spill of coffee. I have spoken to people who have suffered more extensive injuries but don’t feel they should call anyone as their not sure if a claim is there. It’s free to call most reputable Independent Law Firms to see if you are entitled to compensation, so what have you got to lose?
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The tragic story of Katie Piper is a horrific example of the cruelty and jealousy that one man went to in order to control his girlfriend. Katie Piper modeled for catalogs and also presented a number of short TV programmes, she was a young, beautiful woman who had dreams of working in the TV business.

Katie like many other young people in today’s society, enjoyed socialising on the social network Facebook, she received many emails every day from admirers. One of her admirers in particular, caught her attention, Daniel Lynch. Lynch was a Martial Arts enthusiast, aged 33, he emailed Katie regularly and Katie felt they had a lot in common; she too had been involved with some promotional work in martial arts. Lynch followed Katie’s career and decided to meet her at one of her promotional events in Reading.

Katie thought that Lynch seemed quite shy and nervous at first but sadly this all changed very quickly. At first Katie was flattered by how often Lynch contacted her, he emailed and called her all the time but soon it became quite obsessive, Katie began to feel quite stifled by all the contact and planned to end the relationship but didn’t say anything to Lynch.
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If you have an accident at work are you responsible or are your employer’s automatically responsible for failing to take “better care of you”?

This is difficult to answer with a definitive ‘yes’ or ‘no’… As every case has to be judged on its own merits and there are many aspects which can influence how successful your claim is likely to be.

The first point is to establish whether or not your employer owed you a duty of care in the circumstances. Did your accident happen in your workplace; this may be in an office or out on a site you are contracted to work on? Your van or truck may be your workplace for example? If this is the case and if you had an accident whilst in your workplace then it’s more than likely that your employer owed you a duty of care.
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Sources from the Telegraph have today confirmed the outcome of the Buncefield explosion on December 11^th 2005, labelled as the biggest European peacetime explosion. For those of you that are not familiar with this event – an explosion was caused after petrol vapour leaked from a tanker in the early hours of a Sunday morning back in 2005; an explosion that remarkably measured 2.4 on the Richter scale, and was heard over 125 miles away.

The five companies involved have each received fines equating to more than £9million; a figure that has been condemned by local MP’s and campaigners as too lenient given the scale of the disaster. The judge in the case at St Albans Crown Court, Judge Sir David Calvert-Smith, has stated ”Had the explosion happened during a working day, the loss of life may have been measured in tens or even hundreds”, according to the source. And it’s certainly a miracle – or perhaps sheer luck – that no one was seriously hurt given the scale of the explosion. In fact, the judge went on to say that the fact the incident occurred so early in the morning with no significant casualties “was little short of miraculous”. The environmental impact could reportedly remain for decades.
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Road accidents are common – they happen all the time. Normally, it’s a case of negligence – a driver not paying enough attention on the roads, and subsequently causing an unfortunate accident. But there are things drivers can do that puts themselves and other road users at risk; drink driving being the major one.

Drink driving is against the law for a very good reason – it’s a fact that alcohol impairs a person’s judgment and has a significant impact on the brain. This makes driving under the influence an obvious danger, yet people are still prepared to do it – and it does cause accidents.
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Motorcycle accident victims can end up in a seriously bad way – many, are sadly fatal. But those who do survive often do so with permanent and life altering injuries; I suppose the worst would be a coma if the victim does survive the injuries.

This story is truly remarkable, and a bit of a miracle as well. According to Sky news (source), a motorcycle accident victim “pleaded to live” just before his life support was about to be switched off by blinking and moving his eyes…

Forty-three year old Richard Rudd was left paralysed after falling in to an irreversible coma following a crash leaving him with serious life altering brain injuries. His family made the tough decision that the father of two would not want to continue living in his condition, and gave doctors permission to withdraw his treatment. But moments before the decision was to be followed through, Richard was caught on camera signalling his will to live whilst a television documentary was being filmed, covering patients with severe brain injuries.
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Summer is finally here and we are all enjoying the recent hot weather and hoping that this is going to last throughout July, August and beyond. With the 6 weeks school holidays fast approaching I’m sure many people will be looking at ways to entertain their children and one popular way in which to do this would be to hire a bouncy castle, particularly for summer birthday parties.

However due to the nature of bouncy castles there is always risk of injury and it is important that parents and guardians who are thinking of hiring these types of inflatables do properly think of the risks involved and be aware of the required level of care and supervision.
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Whenever you are seen by a medical practitioner, you should always make sure that the practitioner is aware of any drugs that you may be taking which could effect the treatment you are given. If this is not done, it could have devastating effects.

In one case reported in May 2010 by the Medical Protection Society, a 30-year old seemingly fit and healthy looking male was actually being treated with an immunosuppressive for his rheumatoid arthritis. Unrelated to this, he attended the A&E department of his local hospital with symptoms of an itchy rash and a general lack of energy.

The junior doctor who saw the patient recognised the rash as chicken pox and noted that he had not suffered with this common disease in his childhood. The doctor informed the patient of his diagnosis and advised him to stay at home and take paracetamol and use calamine lotion to reduce the itch. At no point did he check what prescription medications the patient may be taking.
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