As most people’s time at work is limited and often very busy, it is often easy to overlook the safeguards that your employer should be putting in place to maintain your welfare at work should you have an accident. What follows in today’s blog is what you should expect from your employer.

The Health and Safety at work regulations 1999 set out many of your employer’s responsibilities to you as an employee, here are some of the ways they help make your workplace safer:

• They provide that your employer must make a risk assessment to any risks to your health and safety and to make sure that such risks are identified and removed or (at the very least) the risks should be limited in affecting the safety of employees where possible. 
• Following on from this they should make you aware of these risks and how you should deal with them by having an appropriate policy in place.
• Your employer will also appoint a suitable representative who you can approach regarding any health and safety problems who you can voice your concerns to.
• Your employers should back this up by providing written documentation about any risks to you and how these are dealt with by your employer.
• Conscientious employers should provide you with health and safety training when you start work with them and also on every occasion that new potential risks arise.   

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The Sale of Goods and Services Act 1982; ever heard of it? It’s an important piece of modern legislation, and I think it’s safe to say it’s one that affects us all! Have you ever bought a product and it hasn’t worked the way it should? Or even perhaps it hasn’t lasted for as long as it should? I know I’ve certainly been on the end of that frustrating stick – and according to a BBC report, faulty goods are costing consumers on average £78 a year; a staggering £5,000 a lifetime! (source)

So why is this the case? Well according to the report, people are too worried about returning a faulty product through nerves, embarrassment, or fear of intimidation! The Poll from the Department for Business revealed that nearly half of those questioned had at least one faulty product at home. Low value items reportedly tend to be kept, and the highest complained about item were second-hand cars.

Personally, I have no qualms about returning a faulty product – but remarkably the results of the 3000 people spread indicated that men are losing more money than women in failing to return faulty goods! Costs for men was found to be at £89 per year on average, compared to £71 a year for women. Men apparently felt more intimidated, whilst women felt more embarrassed.
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Ok, so we all get it sometimes… Someone cuts you up on a roundabout, or pulls out in front of you from a side road; and you respond with a short expletive and a bash of the horn. But when road rage turns fatal, it’s an altogether different, and tragic, story. I’ve heard of some appalling instances of road rage before, but this story really is such a tragedy:

According to one BBC report, a man from a notorious Glasgow crime family has admitted killing a man in an act of road rage terrible road rage (source).

Twenty-eight year old Paul Lyons (28) rammed Mark Fleeman’s van on the M74 in an act of drink and drugs fuelled road rage, at a time when Lyons was serving a driving ban! Tragically, Mr Freeman suffered fatal injuries after his vehicle was overturned and taken off the road during the incident, just seconds after a desperate 999 call was made to police with the operator allegedly hearing the impact.
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One of the more overlooked ways to make an injury claim stems from if you have been a victim of violent crime and sustained serious injuries. On first glance it’s easy to think that such an accident would be entirely a matter for the Police, however you are entitled to bring a claim for compensation through the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA), which is a public body set up to compensate innocent victims of crime for their injuries.  

Here’s four easy steps as to how you can claim:
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Anyone a football fan? If you support a team like I do (Hull City AFC), then you may relate to the contents of this one – The saying “roller-coaster of a ride” is probably an understatement given my teams, highs and lows in the last two to three seasons! And a heart attack at a football stadium is apparently not uncommon given the emotional pendulum we fans endure through at a match; in fact, according to sources form the BBC, European football grounds lack the essential equipment required to save the life of a person suffering form heart attack on the premises (source)! 

The report quotes that most stadiums consider having this type of equipment to be good practice (Referring to Hull’s performance again, I would like to think KC Stadium has got a few of these!)  – However, the conclusions from a recent study indicate that more than a quarter of a 187 grounds analysed did not have defibrillators on site; and many didn’t even have any emergency planning in place.
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We have all experienced food poisoning at some point in our lives but it often clears after 24 hours and we never really think much more about it. What if you experience a severe bout of food poisoning? Can you claim for it? What are the symptoms of food poisoning?

Food poisoning is caused by bacteria, toxins or viruses which have contaminated food or drink which you in turn consume.

Whilst most people will recover from symptoms within a few days, more serious strains such as salmonella can lead to hospitalisation and in worse case scenarios, death.
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What do we expect of our emergency services? Good Community rapport, assistance in an emergency, life saving efforts? These are all things that spring to mind but should we be concerned that health and safety regulations in place are going to prevent them from carrying out all of these points?

One Scottish headline to hit today’s news would lead me to say yes.

This will be a shocking and disappointing story for many of you to read but I think it is important for our blog readers to be aware of developments involving such services.
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How the personal injury pre-action protocol and pre-action disclosure provide an effective resolution to your claim

Key to helping you bring your compensation claim is the personal injury pre-action protocol which is one of The Injury Lawyers main tools in bringing your claim to an effective conclusion.  The protocol was first recommended by Lord Woolf in his access to justice report of July 1996. Essentially its aim is to ensure that both parties to the claim disclose to each other the evidence relevant to your accident so as The Injury Lawyers can consider fully whether there are prospects to take your claim on.

To put the protocol into context in the progress of your claim, The Injury Lawyers will write to the responsible party informing them that they are representing you in your claim and will request in the letter that the responsible party pass the letter to their insurance company who then have 21 days to acknowledge your claim.
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Peter Kidd’s Review of Cutting Edge: Scams, Claims and Compensation Claims, broadcast on Channel Four Thursday 25 February 2010.

The latest in a long line of instalments in Channel Four’s often controversial “Cutting Edge” Series of claims saw the programme tackle the role of Personal Injury Lawyers. The programme centred on Steve Ireland a personal injury solicitor in Liverpool and his attitude towards the process of making a personal injury claim. 

The programme’s portrayal was unfortunately bias in that confirmed many of the untrue clichés regarding the Personal Injury profession. For example one of the case studies was of a child who had fractured his toe whilst playing football at school in an uneven grate. Although the narrator did not specifically state this was a spurious claim, with its accent on the fact that the child claimant was looking to spend his money on a car and new football boots it was clear that the programme was showing that potential claimants were simply interested in bringing a claim to make a quick thousand pounds – making it clear what its makers were trying to say.
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Yes, we saw the program; and of course I couldn’t stop myself from writing about it! For those of you that don’t know what I’m talking about, the title of this article is from a recent Channel 4 television program that takes a look at both sides of the business in claiming for compensation; the innocent victims, and those alleged to be at fault for their accidents…

www.channel4.com/scams-claims-and-compensation-games

And some of the contents of the program were certainly true! Unfortunately we personal injury lawyers do on occasion get a bad rep for the work we do. But it doesn’t half make us feel good when we get a top result for a victim of an accident that wasn’t their fault!

But to discuss some of the issues in the program:
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