Several High Street retailers have been ordered to pay compensation, by a High Court Judge, to customers who suffered chemical burns after purchasing their leather sofas.

It is expected the total compensation amount to be paid will be around £20 million. Around 2,000 people made claims against Argos, Homebase, Walmsleys and a clutch of other, smaller high street retailers after the goods they had bought were found to contain high doses of the chemical Dimethyl Fumarate or DMF.

Unfortunately, those who had similar problems after purchasing their “toxic sofas” from the now defunct ‘Land of Leather’ could not claim after their former insurers, Zurich, argued that Land of Leather had breached the terms of its insurance policy.
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Common accidents these; especially in industries such as construction, or jobs with a great deal of manual handling. But whether you’ve tripped on some plastic tie-wrapping in the warehouse, or the scaffolding at the building site was not secure when you walked over it and your legs in a cast now, we specialist injury lawyers are here to help you! So how does it work?

Insurance

Its more than likely that your employers have an insurance policy in place to cover their employees in case they sustain an injury at work! Usually it’s referred to as an employers liability insurance policy – and it’s there to be used in case you ever need to claim from your boss for damages! So you should feel free to claim from it if you’ve been injured in an accident that was not your fault!
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It’s a big phrase, I know! But what does it mean? Well actually it’s quite a common thing in claims for personal injury, and it’s sometimes a method insurers use to save themselves a bit of cash they payout to the client! But sometimes, it can be warranted; so here’s a little explanation of what it means

What it Means

By definition, this is when the defendant (the person or company responsible for the accident) accepts that they are responsible for an accident, but alleges that the claimant (the person injured – the people we fight for!) was partly to blame for the accident or for their injuries. Usually it is made through their insurers or solicitors.
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A young soldier, who had his leg blown off while serving in Afghanistan and had received around £200,000 in compensation for his injuries, witnessed his own Mother appear in court yesterday over fraud charges that she allegedly stole more than £10,000 of his compensation payout.

Angie Woollard, 43, was given power of attorney over her son’s compensation payout. Private Matthew Woollard, 20, of 1st Battalion the Royal Anglian Regiment, was awarded around £104,000 and £42,000 in compensation plus £45,000 from an insurance policy.

Private Matthew Woollard received his compensation payout after standing on a landmine during a patrol in Helmand Province back in May 2007 which tore off his right leg below the knee.

Magistrates bailed Angie Woollard on condition that she did not contact her son or any other witnesses. The case will resume case on June the 8th at the Crown Court.

You may be aware of this next story; an event that set the scene for a moving battle for 19 families whose children were subject to birth defects due to the poor clean up of a former steelworks site, causing toxic chemicals to affect pregnant women. Well according to sources from the BBC, the fight is finally over as the long legal battle between the families and the council has been settled successfully out of court (BBC news story).

So here’s a quick analysis – a case study if you like – of this story from the contents on the BBC article:
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And this is with no reference to a classic Soft Cell song; in fact, this story is of the 70’s-80’s tainted blood incident, leaving many with HIV and Hepatitis C through receiving ‘unclean’ blood during blood transfusion operations. And according to sources from the BBC,one man has just won a high court battle challenging the level of compensation awarded to the victims of such tragedies (source)

Thirsty six year old Andrew March has criticised the governments miss-matched payout scheme in its refusal to match higher payouts in the Republic of Ireland. In the mid 80’s nearly 5000 people were exposed to Hepatitis C from blood transfusions before the days of heat treating to kill off viruses; and more than 1200 contracted HIV as a result, and almost 2000 have died since. Many of the affected were haemophilia sufferers, who were given products to help their blood clot.

Mr March was one of the thousands who at the age of 9 contracted the virus from ‘tainted’ blood. Has been commended by the judge for his “tenacity” in brining the case, and Lord Morris of Manchester, also President of the Haemophilia Society has stated that it is an “historic decision, most warmly welcomed by the haemophilia community”.
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Remember the Toyota recalls that have plagued the news in recent months? I myself wrote an article on the subject, given the relation to the business of personal injury we at The Injury Lawyers are the experts in! Well according to sources from the BBC, Toyota is facing further recalls in the midst of news about the Lexus manufacturing halts, which are again manufacturing defects in  nature (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8626668.stm)

According to the report, the Japanese car giants have recalled more than half a million Sienna Minivans in the US over fears that the spare wheel is liable to corrosion! This latest recall of around 600,000 is said to affect models between 1998 and 2010 where the spare tyre carrier suffers corrosion, meaning in the “worst case scenario” the wheel could come detached from the vehicle.
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OK, so this is a bit of a continuation piece from my last article covering criminal injuries – for two reasons. 1. There are a couple more stories Id like to share with you on the subject, and 2. I’d like to go in to a little more detail on the mechanics of a claim for criminal injury!

If you keep up to date with the news (and TV soaps – read on to see what I mean), then you may have heard the story of 25 year old actress Charlotte Davies who has been left blinded in one eye from an assault on a night out in a club, accroding to sources from the Mirror (source). After asking a woman to leave her friend alone following an altercation, the woman speared her in the eye with a broken glass, leaving Charlotte with horrific and life altering injuries.

Charlotte, who has reportedly had minor roles in Hollyoaks and Coronation Street, says her acting dreams are in tatters following the assault in Manchester’s Living Room bar; a place popular with Premiership football stars. The bar are currently reviewing its safety regulations in light of the incident. This is a tragic assault that has left a young budding actress with a permanent disability; lets hope she can still make a success of her career in the acting limelight!
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Former drink and drug addict, Ryan St George, 42, was serving a four month jail sentence at Brixton jail back in 1997 when he took an epileptic fit and fell from his prison bunk bed banging his head on the floor. What happened next was a series of events that left St George needing constant care for the rest of his life.

Once the guards had been alerted to St George’s accident they called for an Ambulance. The Paramedics were delayed in treating St george because their Ambulance was blocked from entering the prison gates by a parked van. Prison warders then argued who should accompany St George to the hospital, further delaying treatment. One Paramedic was quoted as saying St George’s condition was, “in as bad a state as a person can be without being dead.”

Upon hearing the evidence against the Home Office, High Court judge Mr Justice Mackay, ordered that the former prisoner should receive £4.7 Million in compensation. He also told the Home Office that they must pay St George £45,000 rent for a new flat.

Criminal injuries; they differ slightly to that of the majority of accident claims. In most accident claims, the compensation is pursued and recovered from an insurance policy covering the person or the company at fault for the accident – for example the insurers of the driver responsible for a car accident, or the insurers for a company in an employer’s liability case!

So what happens if the case one of criminal assault? The assailant is unlikely to have any insurance to claim from, or adequate assets to fund a claim and foot the legal fees. The claim is therefore brought with the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority – a government body responsible for investigating and paying out to the victims of criminal attacks.

Here’s an example from sources at the Daily Mail (source), involving the story of the gentleman left blinded by a teenage girl hitting him in the face with her stilettos!
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