An "innocent third party car claim" is how some motor insurers describe what you have if one of their customers has crashed into your vehicle and it’s not your fault. In other words, the motor insurers in question are the third-party insurers, not your own motor insurers. Their customer was to blame for the accident. The third-party insurers’ offer to you is that you should let them take care of you and your vehicle in sorting things out. This help from the other driver's insurer can include: But couldn't you deal through your own insurers? If you have comprehensive motor insurance, one of your options is to deal with a claim for damage to your car through your own motor insurers. This can be an involved process. You may have to pay an excess on the policy. If your motor insurance comes up for renewal before the claim arising from the accident is sorted out, your insurance premium may go up (though you should be refunded any extra amounts you have had to pay for Continue Reading
What all can you claim for with a personal injury claim?
The style of lettering you use for words can have life and death consequences. Research by the AgeLab at Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has noted how car dashboard interfaces, if designed correctly, should minimise the amount of time the driver has to spend looking at them. The longer you take to work out what's on the screen, the less time you're looking at the road. Some typefaces are rigid and uniform. Their letters and numbers can look highly similar to each other. But other typefaces have much more open spacing and varied letter shapes. These latter fonts can shave precious milliseconds off the time drivers spend looking away from the road. Getting this form of visual communication right is important because the consequences for vehicle travellers' safety could be serious. With personal injury claims, one thing you need to get right in order to avoid potentially serious consequences is the valuation of the claim. With personal injury claims, Continue Reading
Bereavement Damages – Scots Law Used As A Benchmark For Reform
The Radio 4 consumer programme “You and Yours”, for 14 January 2016 (yes, more than 10 years ago), included a section on bereavement damages. It highlighted the fact that, although they say “you can’t put a price on a life”, in fact, we do it all the time. Decisions made about which treatments and drugs are going to be available on the NHS are one example. Another is the way we deal with compensation when someone dies as a result of negligence. NOTE: This article is an updated version of one which was originally published on this website on 25 January 2016. At that time, there seemed a real prospect that the law on fatal claims in England and Wales would be amended and brought into line with Scots law's 'more favourable' approach to bereavement damages. Shockingly, however, that has still not happened, despite more than a further decade having gone by. Scotland as a benchmark for law reform in England and Wales. As at January 2016, one MP – a former personal injury Continue Reading
Don’t let your personal injury claim get thagomized (by getting a move on now)
Do you know what a thagomizer is? The thagomizer is an arrangement of 4 to 10 spikes on the tails of dinosaurs such as the Stegosaurus. The pointy bits provided a defensive weapon against predators. Stegosaurus was a herbivore. With a toothless beak and small teeth, it was not designed to eat flesh. Legendary cartoonist, Gary Larson, coined the term ‘thagomizer’ in his 1982 image of a caveman giving a PowerPoint presentation to colleagues and telling them it was so-called “after the late Thag Simmons”. Poor Thag. ‘Thagomizer’ has come to be adopted as an informal anatomical term. It’s used on the Stegosaurus display at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C.. Clearly, Stegosaurus had a mighty sting in the tail, if required. Personal injury claims can have a sting in the tail too, if you don’t watch out. The cruel defence is one of ‘delay’. Wait too long and your claim will become unenforceable and lost forever. As we have discussed elsewhere, the Continue Reading
Help with recovery from injury as part of your personal injury claim
We have acted for clients who have had more than one personal injury claim through our firm at different times. We’ve even had one client who had three ongoing personal injury claims at the same time. But we always say to clients that you would never "go into business" making personal injury claims because the return you get in terms of compensation never makes up for the pain and suffering and general hassle that is associated with every personal injury claim for compensation. Recovering your health is much more important than any compensation you might receive. It is much better to make more of a physical and mental recovery from your injuries and get less compensation than it is to make less of a recovery and get (perhaps) somewhat more compensation. Given the importance in this equation of rehabilitation and making as good a recovery as possible, what help can we give you and can others give you in maximising your health improvements following an accident and Continue Reading
Personal Injury Claims in Scotland | Start Here
Our blog shares clear, practical guidance on personal injury claims in Scotland — including fault, compensation, timescales, and dealing with insurers. Many of the articles answer questions we’re regularly asked by people who are unsure whether to claim, are dealing directly with insurers, or want to understand their rights before deciding what to do next. Start here: key guides Popular questions Common situations Back to the main blog page Editor’s note: This guide stays at the top of the list of blog posts to help new readers find key information. Continue Reading
Why it is key that it is no problem to see your PI solicitor in person (if you want to see them in person!)
If you have had an accident and you live in Moray, it should be easy to have a face-to-face meeting with your solicitor, if you wish. (i.e. It's key that you won’t have any difficulty having a face-to-face meeting with your solicitor if you want to meet with them face-to-face). Since the Pandemic of the early 2020s, as well as the possibility of exchanging information with your solicitor by letter or email or having a ‘meeting’ with them by telephone, there are many available options which do not require you to the physical presence of your solicitor – e.g. online video platforms. such as Zoom or Teams. Is it crucial to meet with your solicitor face-to-face? It's probably not crucial. However, we know from experience that even meeting via online video does not give us all the verbal and non-verbal cues which we get if we are in the personal presence of the person to whom we are speaking. An in-person meeting is probably always better because there is less chance of Continue Reading
When English insurers refuse to apply Scots Law to a Scottish personal injury claim
Rugby League and Rugby Union have common origins. There are many similarities between the two codes. Both kinds of rugby use an oval ball and play on a rectangular pitch with H-shaped goals. Each plays two halves of 40 minutes. Passes must always go backwards. Tackling is a crucial element in each. But there are significant differences as well. There are 15 players in a Rugby Union team and 13 players in a Rugby League team. There are no lineouts in Rugby League. If a ruck or maul develops in Rugby Union there is a material chance that possession will change hands whereas in Rugby League possession is generally retained by the team which previously had possession – up to the point of the ‘sixth tackle’ when possession will automatically change hands according to the rules of Rugby League. There are some who say that Rugby Union is played at a slower pace - with more stoppages - whereas Rugby League maintains a generally higher pace of play, with higher ball-in-play Continue Reading
E-Scooter and E-Bike Accidents in Scotland – Your rights to claim for injury
Have you tried out or do you own an e-Bike or e-Scooter? The streets of some parts of Scotland have been transformed by the surge in popularity of e-bikes and e-scooters. While these devices offer a convenient and often eco-friendly mode of transport, their rapid adoption has created a complex legal landscape for those involved in accidents. Misinformation about the legal position of riders is widespread and this article aims to clarify the current legal position in Scotland for potential victims of accidents involving e-bikes, e-scooters, and their variants. We will include a discussion of the factors affecting the viability of a personal injury claim where one of these vehicles is involved. Understanding the legal standing of the vehicle involved is the first crucial step in assessing the viability of a claim. The law differentiates significantly between various types of electrically powered personal transport. The Different Classes of Electric Personal Continue Reading
When an insurer denies liability without showing reasonable justification
Sometimes an insurer or loss adjuster's behaviour is so unacceptable – and they will not apparently listen to any reasoning – that the only way you can have a chance of getting their attention is to call them out publicly for their behaviour. This article is about a situation we have encountered with insurers and loss adjusters where they will not give us sufficient information in relation to a claim – in which they are denying liability - to enable us to advise our client whether or not the denial of liability is reasonable. We investigate many potential claims where the evidence the opponent produces shows that the claim's chances of success are poor. It is to be expected that not all personal injury compensation claims can be successful. No solicitor will mind that, provided the opponent provides the solicitor with sufficient evidence for the solicitor to be able to understand the denial of liability and explain it to you, as the injured client. In cases which involve Continue Reading
When an insurer refuses to pay all your solicitor’s outlays in a personal injury claim
Personal injury claims in Scotland are set up in such a way that, if liability for the accident and injuries is admitted, in most cases it will then be possible to go on to negotiate a settlement of the claim without the need for court action. The rules of the Scottish Compulsory Pre-action Protocol provide a way to calculate the fee which will be due to the solicitor based on the amount of compensation that is agreed. The rules also provide that the insurer will meet "all reasonable outlays". The sorts of “outlays” that are envisaged include: the cost of medical reports; police accident reports; and professional photographs taken to show the extent of any residual scarring stop In most cases, calculation of the fee and recovery of the outlays related to an agreed amount of compensation is a formality. But sometimes an insurer will object to a particular outlay for some reason and in this article we will discuss an experience we had recently where insurers offered only a Continue Reading
Prove Breach of Duty But Lose Your Claim – When Can That Happen?
When Andrew Kay was 2 years old, he contracted meningitis. It is a dangerous medical condition, causing inflammation of membranes in the central nervous system, and affecting the brain. On 28 November 1975, Andrew was admitted to Seafield Children’s Hospital in Ayr, seriously ill. As part of his treatment, he received an injection of penicillin. The problem was that, by mistake, he was given a massive overdose of penicillin – receiving about 30 (thirty) times the correct dose. In such a quantity, the penicillin was toxic and it caused Andrew to suffer convulsions. He later developed paralysis down one side of his body, though it was short-lived. Andrew recovered from his life-threatening illness, but he was left profoundly deaf. He also had significant learning difficulties. A claim for compensation From 1978, Andrew’s Dad, partly conducting the case himself, made a compensation claim on behalf of his son, raising an action in the Court of Session. Before the judge (in 1984), the Continue Reading
