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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It is only natural that some employers should face more compensation claims than others. This is largely because some jobs are significantly more dangerous and involve more hazards than others. Although employees in these positions do expect to face more demanding and at times more hazardous situations, that does not necessarily mean that they cannot claim for compensation when they suffer an injury.

This sort of situation is highlighted by the recent news pertaining to the number of personal injury claims that the police have faced over the last few years. It has been revealed that the police have paid out a total of £12million in compensation since 2006 for a whole host of different injuries.

This may seem like a very high figure and there is little doubt that the police will be taking steps to try and reduce the number of personal injury claims it comes up against in the future, but it just goes to show that you do have somewhere to turn when you suffer an injury even though your place of work necessarily entails some exposure to risks and hazards.

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It is sometimes the case that an employer can be held responsible for an injury to one of its staff because they have not given them sufficient training. This is a particularly dangerous matter when the employee in question has been asked to use any form of heavy machinery.

A good example of a personal injury claim that falls under this category is the recent case of a maintenance fitter from Nottinghamshire who suffered an injury whilst operating an excavator on the M1 motorway. The man was using the excavator to fill in for its usual operator when it hit an overhead bridge, catapulting him through the window and giving him injuries that left him in a coma for two weeks.

The man then spent a further five months in rehabilitation before he was able to return to work. After an investigation by the HSE, it was discovered that the employee in question has not received the right level of training from his employer.

In cases such as this, employers ought to expect injured members of staff to make personal injury claims to compensate them.

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