Accident Claims

You never really know when personal injury might strike and you certainly cannot predict where from. A case in the news this week outlines the dangers associated with owning an aggressive pet. Dog bites constitute personal injury and in many cases it is possible to hold someone responsible for the injury.

A woman from Oldham was this week ordered to pay £1,200 to a 10-year-old girl as personal injury compensation because she failed to prevent her dog from biting her. Lynn Bell’s Staffordshire bull terrier-bull mastiff cross escaped into the street when she was completing some household chores. In doing so it came face to face with the 10-year-old girl and a smaller 4-year- old girl.

Before Bell could get to the dog and restrain it, the 10-year-old girl suffered dog bites to her arms. Since the incident, the dog has been staying at kennels where it has been described as aggressive. The personal injury compensation paid to the girl aims to cover the distress she suffered as well as the physical discomfort.

Along with the damages, Bell will have to undertake 100 hours of unpaid work and the dog itself will be destroyed because it could not be controlled sufficiently.

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Medical negligence is covered by personal injury law and those who suffer as a result of it have every right to speak to a legal team about claiming for compensation. It is important that people are able to rely on those entrusted with their care. People who are treated with negligence in a medical environment and suffer as a result are able to take the matter further.

A good example of this situation is provided by the recent case of a 12-year-old girl who was born in 1999. Danielle Marshall was born healthy but premature and during her time at the Special Care Baby Unit of Lister Hospital in Hertfordshire she suffered a collapsed lung which in turn damaged her brain leaving her with cerebral palsy.

It was found that staff at the hospital failed to respond quickly enough in Danielle’s case. The East and North Herts NHS Trust have apologised and Danielle will now receive almost £3million in compensation up front. The total compensation awarded to Danielle may rise to in excess of £7million as a result of annual payments covering care and other costs for the rest of her life.

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The idea that people should be held responsible for the actions is one that holds a lot of weight with a lot of people. This is what personal injury compensation is all about. It is about helping the victims of accidents to deal with the consequences they have suffered at the hands of someone else.

A good example of personal injury compensation in action is the case of Rebecca Smith who was hit by a police car when she was out in Nottingham in 2005. Smith was just 17 years-old at the time and she suffered bad head injuries as a result of the accident. The police car was said to be en route to an emergency in the city.

Initially, Smith was found to be 75% responsible for the incident, but she successfully appealed against this decision. The Appeal Court found the driver of the car two-thirds to blame for the incident and Rebecca Smith is now in line to receive compensation based on this finding.

Lord Justice Ward, the judge overseeing the case, claimed that he believed the driver ought to have seen Miss Smith and the accident could have been avoided if he had exercised greater awareness at the time.

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You cannot always expect the world to do right by you. In fact, more often than not you will find that you have to work at something in order for it to come out in your favour. This is certainly the case where work accidents are concerned. When you are injured at work, things do not miraculously arrange themselves such that you are reimbursed properly for the pain, discomfort and inconvenience you have suffered.

That is just not how it works. Instead, you have to put in a little bit of work. However, that work is something that your legal team can take on if you get in touch with a team of professional injury lawyers. All you need to do is recognise that you may have even a small case and you can speak to someone about taking matters further.

Then your legal team will work on preparing your case so that you are properly compensated for an accident that was not your fault, but the consequences of which you nevertheless had to suffer. Taking matters into your own hands in the only thing to do in this situation.

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There is little doubt that it is unfortunate to suffer an accident at work. The workplace is a surprisingly hazardous place and countless accidents occur at work year after year. This is why organisations generally have procedures in place to make sure that all accidents are recorded and to ensure that changes are made to look after their workforce a little better.

However, not all accidents can be blamed on mere misfortune. Sometimes they go a little further than that. They highlight an area where your employer is actually failing to look after your interests properly. Suffering an accident of this kind means that you can actually make a claim for personal injury compensation.

Many people cite the fact that they want their employer to put the proper changes into effect when they make a claim. Claiming for compensation is certainly a way to make sure that your employer takes note of their responsibility and pledges to improve things to prevent any other members of staff from suffering an injury like yours. This demonstrates the wider positives of making a claim when you are hurt in the workplace.

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