Personal Injury News - Page 6 of 6 - The Compensation Experts

If you have recently suffered an arm injury, one of the first things that may have come into your mind after seeking medical advice is whether or not you are able to make a claim for compensation, primarily if the injury was the fault of someone else.

From a legal point of view, an arm injury can be present anywhere in the arm itself; from the upper arm to the forearm, wrist or elbow. If this is the case, you may be able to claim back thousands of pounds in compensation. In the most severe cases, the impact of the injury may prevent you from carrying out everyday activities, both in your personal or working life, which may stop you from earning an income. For those it affects in this way, it will increase your chances of claiming back any money that has been lost.

In order to claim for an injury, you need to prove that the accident was caused as a result of negligence from another person or organisation, which put your safety at risk. If on the other hand, the injury was caused yourself and there is no-one else to blame, then it’s usually impossible to claim any compensation.

If a third party, such as a workplace is to blame and you are now suffering from any of the following injuries, there is a high chance you can make a claim by getting in touch with a professional solicitor who could look into your case on your behalf. The most common injuries for claims include:

Burns
Muscle tears
Tendonitis or sprains
Broken bones
The loss of limbs

Time limits

Be aware that there is typically a time limit for negligence claims to be made, which includes any court proceedings that need to be issued. However, if you sought medical advice and received your diagnosis of any of the injuries mentioned above quickly, it would be wise to make that claim as soon as the accident occurs to stand you in a better position.

Making the claim

As part of your compensation claim, you will need to have some form of supporting evidence to prove you were at no fault and was a result of the third party’s negligence. It will help avoid any long-term complications which may arise, such as if the third party denies responsibility. Getting hold of your medical records will act as hard evidence, as the notes were written by a medical professional who witnessed the extent of the injury as soon as the incident occurred. You should also try and get hold of any CCTV footage, contact details of witnesses, photographs of the scene and the injury, with immediate effect. The more evidence you can gather on your accident, the stronger your injuries claim will be when put to solicitors. You could also put together a timeline of events within a folder, so those in charge of your case are more aware of what happened and can provide you with an accurate figure on how much compensation you could receive.

Knowing what to do after a workplace injury can help you to reduce the stress and confusion of what comes next. Workplace injuries are unfortunately common, and if you have become involved with one that affects your health, then you may be entitled to make a work accident compensation claim.

With any injury at work, there are a clear set of steps that you need to take to ensure that your recovery is more rapid. There is a clear ladder of succession when it comes to who to turn to, and by following these steps you make your chances of making a successful injury at work claim more likely.

Speak To Colleagues

Your first step after an injury at work is to ensure that you have received the correct medical attention. Your first step should be to inform your colleagues of the accident and seek out the designated first aider on the premises. This will be an essential stage when it comes to your recovery. The sooner that you receive medical help, the better.

Speaking to your colleagues will also make them aware of the circumstances of your injury and reduce the chances of the same thing happening to them. This will also help form the foundation of your injury at work claim.

Report the Incident to Management

Speaking to your manager will be the next step. If your injury is serious, then they have a legal obligation to inform the Health and Safety Executive. In many companies, failing to report the accident can be a dismissible offence, so make sure that you do so. At this point, focus more on ensuring that the accident isn’t repeated, and do not discuss the notion of blame. Fault is a difficult element of an injury at work claim, and by raising the subject now, you may end up making it harder to move forward. However, you need to ensure that your accident has been recorded in the accident report book. It may also be useful to take any photos of the environment where the accident occurred, as well as any injuries that you have received.

Medical Professionals

If you are considering making a work accident compensation claim, then you will need to compile evidence. Keep any records of visits to your GP or the hospital. These will be essential if you decide to make a grievance. You should also consider keeping a diary of your symptoms as well, as this will help both your legal team and your doctor. Bear in mind that if you only visit your doctor once, then your payment will be affected. An injury at work claim is decided by the effects of the injury, and the more severe it is, the higher your compensation will be. If you have issues with pain or quality of life, then take the time to visit your GP.

Being involved in a work-related injury will always take you by surprise. Managing and coping in both the long and short-term will be far easier if you follow these guidelines. Speak to a legal professional who has experience with injury at work cases, and you could be receiving monetary compensation that will make your recovery much more manageable.

Injuries and accidents can strike at any time. Knowing the best ways to recover can have a drastic effect on the amount of time that it takes to get back to full health. There are some simple steps that you can take that will help you to not only speed up your recovery time but also make it easier to get injury compensation if someone else was the cause of your injury. If you have been injured at work or in your personal time, then here are the best actions that you can take that can help you recover and regain your pre-injury quality of life.

Be Patient

It can take time to recover from an injury. The time that it is likely to take will depend on the severity of the injury. Your doctor will have given you some estimation on recovery time, and you should try to stick to those guidelines as much as possible. Trying to rush your recovery can lead to complications, and may even make your injury worse. Take time to heal, and use that time productively. If you are considering personal injury claims, then you should use your healing time to gather as much information about the causes of your injury as possible.

Light Exercise

Your doctor will have advised you about the need to keep moving. If your injury does not affect mobility then something as simple as a daily brisk walk can be highly beneficial and could help to reduce the time it takes to recover. If mobility is an issue after your injury, then speak to your doctor about the best ways to keep your fitness levels acceptable. Never try and over-exercise. You might think that pushing your muscles to pre-injury levels will speed up your recovery, but it’s more likely to cause additional damage.

Eat Well

Eating healthily is always a good idea, but when you’re recovering from an injury, it becomes essential. Eating the right foods can speed up the time it takes to regain your health. Ideally, you want to focus on protein-rich foods, as well as fruits that are high in Vitamin C. Speak to your doctor and they will be able to provide you with a list of the best foods to include in your diet. Eating the right food can help your body to rebuild while eating the wrong food types can result in a much slower recovery time.

Legal Advice

If your injury was the fault of someone else, then you should use your recovery period to look at personal injury claims. Look for a solicitor that has experience with injury compensation, as there may be medical terms that can be confusing for those legal experts who have never undertaken any form of a medical claim. If your injury has caused you a massive drop in the quality of your life, then making an injury claim could help you pay for any changes to your life or home that may be the result of your injury.

Recovering from an injury will take time and patience. Take your time to recover, and look for practical ways to speed up your recovery. If you suffer from financial concerns due to your injury, then an injury compensation payment could help to alleviate your worries.

Everyone reacts differently when it comes to a change in their ability to hear. The emotional response can lead to anger and vulnerability. Knowing your rights if you suffer from any form of hearing loss can help you when it comes to making a case for hearing loss compensation.

There are practical steps that you should take that will not only help you understand the causes of what’s happening with your hearing but also let you know how likely your case is for hearing loss claims. The earlier that you address your hearing loss, the easier the problems can be tackled, and knowing your rights will be the key to living with your hearing issues.

Medical Treatment

Your first step once you have identified an issue with your hearing should be to seek professional treatment. Take a hearing test, and make sure that it is in person. There are a variety of online hearing tests available, but these are unreliable and should only be used to clarify that you have an issue. Professional medical treatment will make any hearing loss claims easier to resolve.

Workplace Hearing Loss

There are some work roles that are more vulnerable to the risks of hearing loss. These roles are often consistently loud work environments, and include:

Sound engineers
Mining
Shipyards
Construction

However, nightclub workers and other roles that tend to take place in environments that are loud can cause hearing damage. If your workplace has affected your hearing, then you will have three years to make your hearing loss claim.

Date of Knowledge

This is a term that covers most medical compensation claims. The Date of Knowledge will usually be three years after the date that you were exposed to the noise that caused your hearing loss, although there are factors that may be taken into account if you have taken longer than three years to make your hearing loss claims. Date of Knowledge can also be counted as the date on which you discover that you have a hearing impairment.

Employer Liability

All employers have a duty of care, and that covers the volume of noise that workers are exposed to. Health and Safety legislation sets clear guidelines and rules for noise volume under the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005. This piece of legislation was designed to protect the hearing health of employees. If your employer has not conducted a thorough assessment of noise volume in your workplace then you will be able to make a claim for hearing loss compensation. The measures that employers must take in loud work environments must include:

The installation of sound barriers
The use of materials that will absorb sound
Shorter work time exposure to loud working environments
The provision of protective equipment for those employees that work consistently or intermittently in loud

If your employer has not adopted these measure, then you may be entitled to apply for hearing loss compensation.

There are clear legal rights that are in place to protect the hearing of employees. If you feel that you have suffered from hearing loss as a result of workplace flaws, then you should contact a legal team as quickly as possible. The quicker that you take action, the easier hearing loss claims will be. Hearing loss can be stressful, and any financial compensation that you receive could help to pay medical expenses or remove the pressures caused by your hearing issues.

Accidents can happen at any time and anywhere. How you react in the aftermath of an accident will have an impact on your recovery. Knowing the right steps to take in the immediate and long-term moments that follow any injury will determine your overall recovery time, and can also have an effect on any accident compensation claims you may be entitled to.

Having an awareness of the right steps to take will make it far easier to take those actions should the worst happen. If you’re not sure what steps you ought to take after an accident, then this guide will provide the answers.

Get Medical Help

This is by far the most important step that you need to take. The seriousness of your injury will dictate the remainder of the actions that you take, but no matter how serious your injury is, make sure that you get looked at by a medical professional. Some symptoms of your injury may not be apparent, and shock alone can have some negative consequences.

If you are involved in a serious incident, then call 999. This will mean that both the police and the paramedics will be immediately involved in the next steps.

Police Awareness

The authorities will want to know the details of how the accident occurred. If there are any arrests to be made, this is where they may happen, although medical attention is always going to be the priority. The police will launch their investigation if there is the potential for fault on anyone involved. Drunk driving accidents or injuries in the workplace may need to be investigated.

Gathering Information

A police report will be filed, and if you’re looking to claim any accident compensation claims, then you will need a copy of this at some point. In the immediate aftermath of an accident or injury, it can be difficult to focus on the essentials.

Try to make sure that you accumulate as much information about your accident as possible. Make sure that you take note of the circumstances of the accident, the names and contact details of those involved, and any other information that you feel is relevant to your case. If you have a working camera on your phone take photos of your injuries and of the scene of the accident.

Contact Your Insurance Company

If your injury is covered by any of your existing insurance policies, now is the time to contact them. This is where the information that you gathered will be of use. You may also want to contact an accident claim expert if you believe that you may be entitled to some form of compensation. Accident claims can be very straightforward, and you may find that any accident compensation UK that you receive can help to aid you through your recovery. Compensation can help to pay for any short or long-term consequences of your accident.

Accidents vary in severity, but even minor injuries can have a negative impact on your life. Make certain that you follow these steps should you be involved in any kind of accident, and both your recovery time and your potential for making accident compensation claims will be improved.

Failing to follow these guidelines could result in ongoing medical issues or the loss of any potential compensation that you may have otherwise received.

We count on it so much that it public transport accidents often fly under the radar. But they really shouldn’t, thanks in part to the number of people who use public transport regularly.

Every day, thousands of people in the UK use one form or another of public transport. They trust it for any number of reasons, either to:

commute to work;
visit family and friends;
do the weekly shopping, and/or;
perhaps just to leave the car behind and go for a drink.

Millions upon Billions of public transport journeys

Last year in the UK, we made 5.2 billion passenger journeys on buses and 240 million journeys on light rail systems. The breakup of national transport networks settles into fragments of private ownership. But the use of the railways has doubled since privatisation. Moreover, most judge it, by and large, to be a safe and effective way of getting around.

Although safety, in general, is a paramount element in supplying transport services, accidents do still happen. Fatalities are thankfully rare, but buses commonly feature in accidents. Although they might not make front-page news, they can still result in back, neck or other serious injuries.

Railway safety also has its share of injuries, albeit mostly minor in nature. For the last five years of Government ready statistics, there have been at least:

6,000 annual minor injuries for train passengers.
Between 287 and 377 annual major injuries for passengers, plus;
There were 586 major injuries for all kinds of people on the rails in 2018-19 alone.

RTAs versus Public Transport Accidents

In the event of a personal injury resulting from a road traffic accident, liability gets tricky. Which is why it’s always advisable to contact a personal injury lawyer as soon after the incident as possible. The responsibility could lie with:

the driver;
the firm providing the service (in essence, the transport company);
another road user or;
the council who are responsible for road layouts and traffic lights.

We usually think of public transport accident injuries resulting from collisions, such as bus accidents. But other non-collision type injuries are more common than many would think. Slipping on wet floors of moving buses and trains is worryingly common, too. They can result in:

bruises;
fractures;
head injuries;
damage to personal belongings and;
the potential loss of earnings during a period of recovery.

Public transport accident: A Case Study

A case study of a passenger accident claim involves a man suffering an injury in a car crash. The cause of the crash itself, however, was another driver of the car in which he was travelling. Accordingly, the claimant suffers severe whiplash and is unable to work for three months while stuck in recovery.

As it turns out, the other driver has driver’s insurance. So we supply the relevant evidence to make a compensation claim (which includes police and medical reports). Accordingly, the driver’s insurance company acknowledges liability. And, as a result, the client receives almost £7,000 in damages.

Altering your life

These injuries are painful and debilitating to those unfortunate enough to fall victim to them. Medical treatments for public transport injuries may become necessary. Moreover, when you’re involved in an accident, it can significantly alter the course of your life. Be it the fault of a bus driver or whomever, any form of public transport has a duty of care to avoid accidents on public fares.

Say if your personal injury claim becomes a reality. In turn, a bus, train or tram accident can wreak havoc on you professionally. Therefore, you can claim for any and all loss of earnings when you:

Miss work;
Must alter your work schedule because of any injuries, or;
Need to change the work responsibilities you have as a result of the accidents. For instance, you work in a job where you’re on your feet and physically interactive. Subsequently, you need to switch to a desk job because the loss of mobility demands it.

What to do next?

Where you sustain injuries from avoidable circumstances, it’s imperative to seek justice. Moreover, the pursuit of a public transport accident claim can develop our ability as a society to do better.

Because through learning from these events, transport bodies can make necessary changes. In addition, these changes can mitigate the risk of such injuries happening again to someone else.

Your lawyer will build your case using relevant evidence to support your claim. For example:

Your medical records detailing your injuries and prognosis.
Reports from the police and other emergency services who respond.
Statements from any witnesses who see or hear your accident.
In addition, they might use photos or film footage of the accident site.

The time limit factor of a public transport accident

You can’t afford to dawdle, either, when it comes to public transport accidents and compensation claims. In truth, you have a three-year time limit from the date of the accident to file a claim.

Nevertheless, the sooner you act, the better your claim will turn out. Taking notes and getting your recollections, witnesses and specific relevant details down helps your case, too. With this now on the radar of your solicitor, we can help turn your injurious malady into a financial melody.

Contact us today if you feel that you need compensation for a public transport accident. Whether it causes an injury or does otherwise, we’re here to help. We use firms authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and are registered in England and Wales.

Justice Secretary Liz Truss promises car insurance premiums will fall as part of a Government crackdown on compensation culture. The Justice Secretary has out a consultation paper outlining plans to put a cap on compensation awards, or even ban whiplash claims altogether.

Whiplash claims are on the increase, with one made every minute in the UK. This has led to fears that a ‘cash for crash’ culture is developing. In essence, the government wants to counter claims that the UK is the ‘whiplash capital of the world’ amongst nations.

Road traffic accident claims have nearly tripled since 2006, rising to 770,000 in 2015. The average payout per claim in 2015 was £1,850.

Reasons for the whiplash claims crackdown

George Osborne made note of similar plans last year, before stepping down in the wake of:

the Brexit result and;
David Cameron’s resignation as PM.

The Justice Secretary’s proposals go further than Osborne’s. Accordingly, they will include a cap on the payments for more serious whiplash injuries. Claims will now:

top out at £1,100 for injuries that take a year to recover from, and;
£3,500 for injuries of longer duration.

Ms Truss also plans to implement Osborne’s plans to raise the threshold.

The Tories, in essence, don’t want small claims court to fill up with for personal injuries from £1,000 to £5,000. However, the consequence may well be that victims of genuine injury cannot seek redress. In effect, victims will be unable to afford the legal help they need to do so.

In a bid to tackle so-called ‘compensation culture’, we here at The Compensation Experts wonder. Is the Government removing the right of genuine claimants to seek justice and compensation from negligent drivers? All in order to just save car insurers money?

Need to beat the whiplash claims crackdown with an expert solicitor?

If you need to make a road traffic accident claim for personal injury, please contact us today to discuss your no win, no fee claim.

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