A teenager has been sent to prison for 6 months following an attack on firefighters. Greig Deans was one of a gang of teenagers who were involved in launching fireworks at the emergency services as they responded to an emergency call out on bonfire night last year. Allegedly, Deans, now 16, threw a firework at an emergency crew who were called to deal with an illegal bonfire in Aberdeen. He was sentenced to six months in rehabilitation in a young offender’s institute with the Aberdeen Sheriff Court indicating that his detention was necessary as a deterrent to others.
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In order for a victim to successfully pursue a claim for compensation the injured victim must prove that the other party (known as the Defendant) was not only negligent (i.e. at fault for the accident) but also that the negligent party by his or her negligence caused the victims injuries and other losses sustained ( we call this ‘causation’).
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If you are injured by a foreign driver and foreign vehicle then you might be worried about how to make a claim if the vehicle is covered by a foreign insurer. Well, fear not! Fortunately the Green Card system operates to try and compensate drivers involved in accidents who are in just such a situation.

The Green Card system was set up in 1953 and covers 44 member countries. Its objectives are twofold:

1)      To facilitate movement of vehicles across state borders by the use of an internationally accepted document which proves the existence of insurance (the Green Card or International Insurance Card)

2)      To ensure that victims of accidents involving foreign motor vehicles are not disadvantaged.
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So, you want to know if a passenger in a stolen car can claim compensation for injuries following a car accident? Not sure why you would want to know this? I’ll presume you are just interested in the area of law or may be you know someone you shouldn’t, lets just call him Fred…So Fred thought it was a good idea at the time to jump into a car with a mate who had just stolen it and go on a joy ride….. he runs it off the road and the car is rolled into a field, poor Fred is injured as a result…. What can Fred do?
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A big decision is on the horizon in terms of bringing personal injury claims. This week the Ministry of Justice is expected to reveal whether it will reverse a landmark judgement that currently prevents people who have suffered illness related to asbestos to sue for compensation.

If the decision is overturned it will mean as many as 90,000 people a year who have been diagnosed with pleural plaques may be able to make a claim. Currently the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council has decided against adding the condition to the approved list of “compensatable disablement” schemes.
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Often, where a dependent of a deceased visits a solicitor to discuss a potential claim for damages, they may ask about claiming damages for the grief and stress they have suffered following the death. Shock or grief alone is not sufficient to make a claim. However, that is not to say that a claim cannot be considered where actual recognised psychiatric injury has been suffered.

 Psychiatric injury can be difficult to prove and in order to bring a claim the claimant must have:

1)      Suffered a recognised psychiatric illness.

2)      Brought the action within one of the recognised categories for a claim
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Drunken pedestrians who are involved in accidents are usually found partially responsible for the accident and usually have there compensation reduced accordingly. However, every case is dealt with differently and how much the drunken pedestrian is held at fault depends on the specific circumstances surrounding the accident. The court will have to look at how at fault the driver is for the accident and also how intoxicated the drunken pedestrian was and how this affected his or her injuries.

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So you are attempting to cross the road without using the crossing made for you because you don’t want to walk the distance to the crossing! Your waiting in the middle of the road as the traffic is coming thick and fast when all of a sudden BANG, right out of nowhere a bike having overtaken a few cars by pelting down the middle of the road crashes right into you.

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The Highway Code states that a cyclist should wear certain things when cycling, those being:

* A helmet which is the correct size and is fastened correctly

* Appropriate clothing for cycling ( so no baggy trousers that could get caught in the chain)

* Florescent clothing which is appropriate for the time of day and weather conditions ( so that other road users can still see you no matter the weather!)

Although the highway code has set this advice for cyclists, there is no requirement by law to actually wear the items.
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A helicopter crash in the North Sea could have been prevented after experts investigating the crash revealed that an earlier problem with the aircraft’s gearbox was not correctly identified.

According to the BBC website, a metal chip was found in the gear box of the Super Puma aircraft a week prior to the incident and engineers did institute extra checks. However, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) state that if the importance of the chip had been identified correctly then the module which failed could have been taken out of service. The experts indicate that a full review of the design and operating life of parts on the machine should be instigated.
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