Personal Injury FAQs

This depends on whether you can prove that the Supermarket was negligent. The Occupiers' Liability Act 1957 places a duty on the owners of the Supermarket to take reasonable care to see that shoppers, or indeed any other visitor in the store, is reasonably safe.

To prove negligence you have to show that your slip was caused by an obvious danger. If you can establish this, then it will be for the Supermarket owners to show that, even though the accident happened, they did have a reasonable system in place for keeping the store safe. This may include the store having a cleaning rota for regular cleaning of all areas of the store, as well as a 'clean as you go' policy applying to all members of the stores staff.

In the event that you are successful in proving negligence, you will be able to recover compensation for your personal injury, together with any out of pocket expenses which you incur as a result of the accident or subsequent medical treatment. If you need to have unpaid time off work then you will be able to recover those losses.

Many people think that a delay in diagnosis and/or treatment in itself attracts compensation. This is not always so. In order to claim compensation, you have to prove negligence and that the negligence caused an actual injury or made an existing one significantly worse. If there is no injury, or worsening of an existing injury and/or no losses or expenses, then there's nothing to compensate for, even if negligence has occurred.

You need to show that the week's delay in treatment was negligent and meant you were worse off than you would have been for an earlier diagnosis, or perhaps you had to have more extensive surgery. Thankfully, you seem to be in the same position as you would have been had the break been found earlier and would not seem to be any worse for the delay. You could say that you had to have extra recovery time because your surgery was late and you may have to have extra time off work, which might mean a loss of earnings. You could also say you had an extra week of pain before surgery. However, any compensation for that is likely to be small and it would probably not be economic to make a legal claim. You could try using the hospital's complaints procedure to bring this to their attention.

Thankfully the powers that be have foreseen this problem a long time ago and put in place an agency called the Motor Insurance Bureau. This agency was established to handle and where appropriate compensate any victims of accidents involving any uninsured or indeed any untraced drivers.

The Motor Insurance Bureau (MIB) operates two schemes of compensation such being the Uninsured Drivers Scheme and the Untraced Driver's Scheme. Unfortunately I do not have the space here to outline in detail these two schemes , but would recommend you have a look at the MIB website, such being http://www.mib.org.uk.

As mentioned above there are not surprisingly strict guidelines to comply with in order to qualify under either of these schemes. Failure to comply with these may easily result in any application being refused.

The effect of these schemes are to allow you to claim as if the driver of the car was in fact insured irrespective of whether it transpires the driver of the car in question was either not insured or turns out to be untraceable , for example if they were driving a stolen car or gave false details at the scene.

The rules are different to each scheme and as such I would recommend that should such an unfortunate accident take place then you should ensure that you report the accident to the Police as soon as possible, seek medical assistance if relevant and then go and discuss the accident with Solicitors who can advise as to the scheme and help complete the MIBs claim form and lodge the claim as quickly as possible.

Alternatively utilising the website above you can of course deal with the MIB direct but please pay close attention to the scheme and its rules as there are many pitfalls to avoid!

A little known fact is that many people have already paid for legal assistance without realising, and in some cases have access to as much as £50,000 to cover their legal fees.

This can be through a legal expense policy as part of your car insurance, household insurance policy, union membership or part of your credit card protection payments. Therefore, having done so, you have access (dependent on the type of policy) to legal expenses to help fund a personal injury claim, employment dispute, contract dispute and so on .

In the absence of any such policy, by virtue of the Access to Justice Act 1999, members of the public can still have access to legal advice/ representation by way of the much publicised “no win no fee” schemes otherwise known as Conditional Fee Agreements . Briefly, this means that they allow legal representation in such cases as personal injury claims, where a solicitor can act and defer payment of any fees until the conclusion of the claim, when they are recovered as part of any successful claim from the 'other side'.

There are several ways to obtain and fund legal advice for personal injury claims. The best course of action, should you need to, is to call into your local solicitor along with any legal expense policies you may have and discuss your requirements further.

The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority known as the CICA pay compensation to eligible applicants who have been the victim of a violent crime. You may be eligible to apply as you appear to have been injured seriously enough to qualify for at least the minimum award available under the Scheme (currently £1000). To qualify at least one of your injuries would still have to be significantly troubling you 6 weeks after the accident and you would need to have sought medical attention at least a couple of times in that period. The CICA also say that unless there are good reasons, you should also have reported the incident personally to the police within 48 hours if possible after it happened. You must however submit your application without delay as any applications made after the 2 year anniversary of the incident causing the injury will not normally be considered. The scheme pays out compensation up to a cap of £500,000, plus some loss of earnings, depending upon the seriousness of the injuries sustained and whether you were unable to work as a result.
It can be helpful to instruct a solicitor to assist you as there can be certain complex restrictions affecting your application.

Yes. You can make an initial complaint through the NHS's Standard Complaints Procedure. Every hospital operates this and it can be a good way of obtaining useful information about what might have gone wrong (or not) with your treatment in an informal way at no cost to yourself. The information obtained can also help a solicitor to advise on a potential claim .

The Complaints Procedure cannot be used where you have already started a claim and have instructed a solicitor. Your complaint has to be made within 6 months from the date something went wrong, or from the date you first realised it had, which could be later, but no later than 12 months from the date of the incident. The hospital can consider late claims at it's discretion if there is a good reason for this.

Complaints are most often made in writing and you should keep your letter of complaint as much to the point as you can. You do not need to write in technical or legal language. The hospital should acknowledge and respond to your letter within certain time limits and sometimes might suggest a meeting in order to respond. PALS and ICAS (see below) can help you. The procedure does not lead to an award of compensation.

Crucially, remember that you only have 3 years from the date of injury to make a legal claim. If this date passes, you may lose your right to do so.

Patient Advisory Liaison Service (PALS) – see individual hospitals
Independent Complaints Advocacy Service – 0845 650 0088
http://nhs.uk Making a complaint

You may well be able to recover damages through the English Court system. If your holiday was a package holiday, then, you would be able to make a claim under the Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tour Regulations 1992. The Regulations would allow you to pursue a claim for compensation against the Tour Operator, who is liable to a customer for proper performance of obligations under the contract which you make when you book the holiday. This applies to obligations which the Tour Operator themselves may have failed to meet as well obligations upon other suppliers of services within the package, such as the owners of the Hotel. In this case, if the floor was slippery and there were no warning signs, then, it is probable that would amount to negligence for which the Tour Operator would be liable. Any claim could include damages for pain and suffering and loss of amenity and also for any financial loss sustained and loss of enjoyment of the holiday.

Your child is an “innocent” passenger for the purposes of any potential claim against both the driver of the vehicle in which he was travelling and the responsible third party driver.

You can commence a claim immediately against either party, acting as your child's 'Litigation Friend', in order to do this, I suggest you seek legal advice from a solicitor who will recommend sending a letter of claim to the responsible parties.

The deadline under the Limitation Act 1980 for making a claim in a personal injury case is usually 3 years from the accident date. However, in the case of children, the 3 year period does not commence until the child attains majority at the age of 18. Therefore they have until their 21st birthday to commence Court proceedings.

Assuming that you wish to deal with this matter quickly and to assist your child in receiving treatment and assessment for their injuries, together with payment for care and assistance, travelling expenses to the GP, hospital and medical experts and other associated out of pocket expenses incurred as a direct result of the accident, I would suggest that you seek legal advice and commence a claim immediately.

Court approval by way of a Child Settlement Hearing is usually required once settlement has been agreed between the parties in a case. The Court will wish to see evidence from medical experts, along with testimony from yourself and possibly your child. This is a relatively simple procedure and usually results in the damages awarded being held in Court Funds on trust for your child, until they reach the age of 18.

All employers owe their employees a duty to look after their safety whilst in the workplace. If that duty is breached and you suffer loss as a result, you will be entitled to claim compensation. You would be able to recover General Damages, which are paid as compensation for your injury and the pain and suffering that you have endured. You may also be able to claim Special Damages, which are paid as compensation for actual financial loss. This can include a claim for loss of earnings, the costs of care, travel costs to hospital and the cost of any private medical treatment. If you wish to make a claim, you should seek advice from a solicitor as soon as possible as there are strict time limits on taking legal action. Any court proceedings would normally have to be issued within three years of your accident.

If the accident occurred due to the other driver's negligent driving, you would be entitled to claim compensation through the Courts. You would be likely to succeed in obtaining a Judgement against the other driver, i.e. an award of damages in respect of your personal injury and other losses. The ultimate problem may be that the other driver has no money to pay the Judgement and therefore suing him or her will not be worthwhile. The Motor Insurer's Bureau was set up to help people injured in road accidents who would otherwise have difficulty in obtaining the compensation to which they are entitled. All of the motor insurance companies are members of the Bureau. A claim can be made in respect of personal injury caused by either an uninsured driver or an untraced driver (hit-and-run incident) and also in respect of damage to property where the other driver is known but is uninsured. You would have to pay the first £300.00 of all property damage yourself, rather like an 'excess'. Claims made to the Motor Insurer's Bureau for personal injury must be made within three years of the date of the accident and claims for property damage must be made within nine months of the accident.

As you were injured in the accident you can claim compensation. How much you are offered will mainly depend upon the opinion of the medical expert we instruct to examine you. The expert will give an opinion as to how much of your suffering has been and is being caused by the accident. We strongly advise against accepting any offer made directly to you by the other driver's insurers. It is usually much less than the claim is worth however pleasant their representative may seem.

Damage to the vehicle along with other out of pocket expenses such as lost earnings can also be claimed. Unfortunately, the other driver's insurers have 3 months and 21 days from receiving a claim to decide whether they will accept liability for the accident so if the car is unroadworthy, you should make alternative arrangements in the interim for repairs. If you obtain a hire car on credit or borrow money for repairs get the best credit rate available to you or you risk being unable to recover all your outlay despite the fact the accident was not your fault.

If you were not given the other driver's insurers details, we have a system that enables us to trace a drivers insurer but we need their registration number to do so.

I advise you to make an appointment to discuss funding the case and whether we can offer a No Win No Fee Agreement.

The majority of roads, pavements and footpaths are “adopted” by Local Authorities who have a duty of care under the Highways Act 1980, to maintain these at the public expense so they are not dangerous to vehicular or pedestrian traffic.

The Act does not say how poor the state of repair has to be before the LA is in breach of duty. For a claim to succeed, the trip has to be approximately 1 inch, but this is not a rule of law. It depends on many factors, such as; the type and volume of traffic expected to use the highway, the standard of maintenance appropriate for the road or pavement, the reasonable state of repair that could be expected on the road or pavement and whether the LA gave any warnings of the disrepair.

To prove the state of disrepair it is important to take photographs of the scene straight after the accident. Take clear, close up photographs of the defect and put a ruler in the photograph to show the height or depth. If you have tripped in a depression, record the depth of the trip, the name of the person who took the photograph and the date on which the photographs were taken.

The LA will have a defence to your claim if it can show that it implemented a reasonable system to periodically inspect and repair the highway, but this will not become apparent until the LA check their records for the place where you suffered your accident.

If the Local Authority does not accept your claim, the Court will determine whether any system of inspection implemented was satisfactory or if the defect was bad enough for the Local Authority to be held liable.

Yes. Under the Limitation Act 1980, an injured party must normally issue legal proceedings at court against the party responsible within 3 years of the injury being caused. Any court proceedings issued after that time would normally not be allowed to proceed. However, if the injured party is under 18 years of age when the injury is caused (a minor), that party has until their 21st birthday within which to issue legal proceedings at court i.e. 3 years from the date they reach their majority. A minor can bring court proceedings before they reach the age of 18 through a “Litigation Friend” – someone who is over the age of 18, usually a parent. Best advice is always to investigate a personal injury claim as soon as possible after the accident has occurred

There is an organisation called the Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB) which deals with cases such as these and aims to provide accident victims with compensation if the other party is either unidentified or uninsured.
Your son should be able to submit a claim to the MIB to obtain compensation for his injuries and other losses, such as loss of earnings.
The MIB will assess the claim in a similar way to any insurance company representing a driver. They will consider who was at fault and then consider whether to pay compensation and if so, what amount of compensation is appropriate.

Almost certainly, yes. It is an employers duty to their employee to look after their safety whilst in the workplace. If that duty is breached and you suffer loss as a result, you will be entitled to claim compensation for your personal injuries, losses and other inconvenience.