The Claims Process

September 30th, 2010

Many people can be confused by the injury claims process; it can be confusing and in some cases slightly daunting. You may feel that it is a heavy undertaking and is perhaps not worth the effort and stress. This assumption couldn’t be more wrong; with highly professional and skilled lawyers, pursuing injury claims is an almost stress free process, handled fully by the lawyers to get you the compensation that you deserve.

The first step you must take is to collect details of your injury; where and when it happened and details of any witnesses that were present. You must also note if and how the injury has affected your daily life. This process may take some time, but it can help your case immeasurably.

Next, you will meet with your lawyer to discuss whether you have a case. If you do, then they will begin pursuing the case with a letter to the defendant, outlining the injuries suffered and how their negligence resulted in said injuries. The defendant will have a certain period of time to investigate your claims and decide whether they wish to contest them. After this time, they will have to contact your lawyer and give their decision. In most cases they will decide to accept liability and settle out of court. If they do not wish to do so, or if they cannot agree on a settlement fee, it is then up to you, the claimant, to decide whether you wish to pursue the case to court.

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No Win No Fee Solicitors

September 29th, 2010

Since the legal aid scheme was scrapped in the year 2000, no win no fee claims have become the most common method of recovering injury or illness compensation. This method relieves a lot of the stress and strain from making an injury compensation claim; with no win no fee solicitors working hard on the claimants behalf to recover compensation at no cost to them.

The general premise of a no win no fee claim (officially known as the ‘Conditional Fee Arrangement’) is that when a claim is made, regardless of its success, the person pursuing the claim never has to pay out any money. This system works by allowing the solicitor to recover their fee from the defendant’s insurance cover; therefore no amount is taken from the claimant’s compensation to pay for these costs, allowing them to recover 100% of their compensation.

If a claim is unsuccessful, the claimant is technically liable to pay the defendant’s costs (known as an ‘adverse cost order’). However, the claimant is usually protected against this by having their solicitor purchase an ‘After the Event Insurance’ or ATE; the cost of this purchase is reclaimed from the defendants if the claim is successful.  An alternative to ATE insurance is ‘Legal Expenses Insurance’ (LEI), which is sometimes referred to as ‘Before the Event’ Insurance (BTE); this type of insurance is usually already held by the client, perhaps as part of home contents insurance or car insurance, and covers legal expenses as well as costs for pursuing injury claims.

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Leading Injury Lawyers

September 28th, 2010

When you’ve had the misfortune of being the victim of a personal injury, everyday life can become difficult and hard to deal with. In these difficult times, you will want to find the best injury lawyers that you can. Leading injury lawyers have been a group of top level personal injury solicitors for over 10 years. Our knowledge and experience will prove invaluable to you in reclaiming the compensation you deserve.

To claim, you simply need to contact us by completing the simple form on our homepage and you could recover compensation for injuries such as:

  • Medical negligence
  • Product liability
  • Slips, trips and falls
  • Road accidents
  • Work accidents

The amount that you will receive depends on the type and severity of the injury, with approximate compensation awards as follows:

  • Brain Damage up to £235,000
  • Minor Head Injuries up to £7425
  • Blindness up to £155,250
  • Minor Eye Injuries up to £5100
  • Asbestos Injuries up to £74,300
  • Food Poisoning up to £30,500
  • Neck Injuries up to £86,500
  • Whiplash £750 – £14,500
  • Back Injuries up to £98,500
  • Broken Arms £3800 – £34,850
  • Wrist Injuries £2000 – £34,850
  • Hand Injuries £500 – £36,125
  • Leg Injuries up to £79,000
  • Knee Injuries up to £56,000
  • Ankle Injuries up to £40,750
  • Foot Injuries up to £63,625
  • Toe Injuries up to £11,200
  • Face Injuries up to £21,350
  • Teeth Injuries up to £6600

If you’ve had the misfortune of suffering from an injury or illness within the last 3 years, these compensation payments could make a huge difference to your life.

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Work Is Where The Safety Is

September 26th, 2010

When people go to work they expect to be able to do their job in a clean, safe environment. Responsibility for maintaining this environment at work falls squarely on the shoulders of the owner of the workplace and their appointed health and safety officer. If and when accidents at work happen, which they inevitably will, and it isn’t the fault of the person who was hurt, then the blame must be with the owner of the workplace for not maintaining a safe environment.

In this case, work injury claims are necessary as it is only fair that the employee who was affected seeks compensation for the injuries that they sustained while at work. If someone worked in a factory and hurt themselves using a machine that was faulty or not very well maintained then they should be able to hire work accident lawyers to try and reach a settlement for what happened to them.

Work accidents are an extremely common type of claim with thousands claiming compensation for a work related injury every year. It’s sometimes difficult to go ahead with your claim because of your loyalty to your employer, who may also be a friend or acquaintance to you. But if you are unable to work because of your injuries, you still have the bills to pay and other financial commitments to remember. For this reason people shouldn’t hesitate to claim the compensation that they deserve for an injury that clearly wasn’t their fault.

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Something That’ll Crash Your Party

September 25th, 2010

Road traffic accidents are never pleasant, especially when it’s you or someone you know involved in one. But what actually happens when people make car accident claims to try and get the compensation for the injuries that they sustained?

The first thing that car accident lawyers do is to get an engineer to assess the damage to all the vehicles involved in the accident. This will help them to prove who is responsible for the accident and it also ensures the insurance company pays out the right amount of money depending how much damage was caused.

The next thing that will happen is that the people involved in the accident will have to fill out several forms which relate to everything that may have caused the accident. These forms are extremely long and time consuming and ask questions about everything surrounding the case, from the time of day, to the speed you were driving at and everything in between. Everyone who was injured in the accident will also have to be examined by a doctor and that information will also be used in the traffic accident claims process.

After all of that information has been gathered the solicitors will argue who was responsible if neither driver admits liability still. The solicitors will then try and come to a settlement figure that will be paid to the person making the claim. If they can’t agree a figure, the case could eventually end up in court where a settlement will eventually be reached.

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You Don’t Always Get What You Pay For

September 24th, 2010

Sometimes people get a nasty surprise when they open up their ready meal before they cook it or when they give their child a brand new toy. The worrying thing is that it’s actually quite a common occurrence and we hear stories about glass in food or a sharp edge on a toy far more often than we would probably like to.

But as consumers we all have the right to certain things when buying anything which should have been tested before being sold to us. If we are paying a price for a certain product then we should all legally expect to receive a high standard in terms of what we have purchased. There are many things that a consumer can use to uphold their rights, like making a complaint to trading standards if they feel they have been the victim of any wrongdoing.

But sometimes cases are more serious than that, like if someone gets injured by product because of a manufacturing fault. In this circumstance, the person who was injured could begin to make some product liability claims towards the manufacturer. Product liability is a self-explanatory term, if someone is hurt by something that they have bought, then the company who made the product is liable.

Large companies should have no excuses about the standards of the products that they sell. If they sell them at an unacceptable standard then they should expect some sort of reaction from the consumer, who has clearly been poorly treated.

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Don’t Work Too Hard

September 23rd, 2010

All workplaces have a thorough set of health and safety guidelines that they must obey for the welfare of all the employees that work there. By appointing a health and safety officer who should enforce these guidelines strictly, companies should keep the accidents that happen in their workplace to an absolute minimum.

Of course there is no way to eradicate accidents at work altogether, and they still happen everyday all over the country. Sometimes these work accidents are the fault of the employee and they simply have to learn from their mistake and accept that they could have prevented it and learn from the experience. But sometimes the accidents at work aren’t the fault of the employee who got injured and in this circumstance that person could make a claim for compensation.

Employees who are injured in this way can take action against their employers and would need to hire work accident lawyers to deal with their claim. Work injury claims can only really be successful if the employee who got injured can prove that what happened was not their fault. It also helps the claim if the person who was hurt can show that the injury could have been prevented by better practice or improved guidelines.

Sometimes, employees are worried about making a claim against their employers and they believe that they could lose their job if they do. That shouldn’t be the case and the employee should pursue compensation for their injury if it was not their fault.

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Driving You Mad

September 22nd, 2010

A car accident is something that none of us want to experience. This can be a terrifying thing to have to deal with when it happens, due to the fact that you may have been injured, lost income or had your personal property damaged. If you are not at fault for an accident like this then your solicitor may be able to recover the losses for you.

Even after the accident has happened, the ordeal that the unlucky person has to go through isn’t over as they then have to spend a long time on the phone to their car insurance company. That can prove to be an extremely lengthy and frustrating process in itself, especially if neither side accepts responsibility for the accident.

At the same time as sorting out the car insurance, people who were injured in an accident that wasn’t their fault should also think about claiming compensation for the injuries they suffered. To begin a claim you would need to hire car accident lawyers who deal with traffic accident claims. They would be able to make sure that you get the amount of compensation you deserve based on the injuries that you sustained in the accident.

Car accident claims can take quite a while to resolve themselves, especially if the driver on the other side doesn’t immediately accept liability for the accident. But it is important to remember that the claim will eventually be resolved and you will get the compensation that you need.

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Not Getting What You Bargained For

September 21st, 2010

Product liability is the name given to a compensation claim where someone has been affected by a faulty product that has been sold to them. There are a variety of faults that a product could have that could cause an injury. It could be something in a food that shouldn’t be there or it could be as simple as a faulty part.

We’ve all read stories in the papers about products that have been sold to people that were clearly unsafe and could cause serious injury. An example of this would be a soft toy aimed at small children that has loose stitching on the outside and something sharp on the inside which could potentially hurt the child.

The increase in product liability claims in recent years can only be considered as being a good thing in terms of protection for us and it can also be seen as another tool that can be used by the consumer to maintain their rights. Often consumers feel like they don’t really have much in terms of rights after they’ve handed over their money for something, but this isn’t the case.

In recent times many consumers probably didn’t even realise that they could make a claim for compensation based on a faulty product. But just like any other personal injury case, if you were affected by something that wasn’t your fault, then you have a feasible claim for compensation. Regardless of the situation that rule remains constant with all claims.

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Your Life In Their Hands

September 20th, 2010

When we go into hospital, we expect to be given the best possible care. People are often at their most vulnerable when they go into hospital to have an operation. To the patient and their loved ones, going into hospital is a distressing and emotional time because of this. Doctors do an amazing job and have peoples lives in their hands everyday, but they are human too and could make a mistake.

An injury that a patient sustains while in hospital as a result of a mistake is a clear example of medical negligence. We all know that no one is perfect, including doctors and surgeons, and the effects of having a medical mistake happen to you are often much worse than any other mistake that could happen. People who experience such issues while at the hospital or doctor’s surgery would be able to make medical negligence claims to seek the compensation they deserve for the injury that they have sustained.

Depending on how bad the injury is, the fee paid as part of the compensation claim can vary greatly. The smallest slip of the hand when operating on a patient could result in some extremely painful injuries and the most extreme discomfort to the patient. While doctors are the heroes of our society and save millions of people every year, they too will be able to accept responsibility for any mistakes that they make, especially if the person affected and the people they love suffer for a long time afterwards.

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