MPs consider the effect of whiplash claims on motor insurance premiums The UK Parliament’s Cross-Party Transport Select Committee published its report “Cost of Motor Insurance: Whiplash” on 31 July 2013. The Westminster Government’s perception is that there is an increasing number of whiplash personal injury claims following road traffic accidents – some of which are invented by the supposed victims and, even where genuinely-based, the extent of the injury is often exaggerated. In the Government’s eyes, this is pushing up the cost of motor insurance. The Government has described the UK as “the whiplash capital of the world”. The Select Committee considered these issues as part of its remit. What is Whiplash and Why is it Problematic? The definition for whiplash used by the Committee was: “The neck pain which occurs after the soft tissue in the spine has been stretched and strained when the body is thrown in a sudden, forceful jerk.” This is a typical result of the Continue Reading
Work Slipping Accidents in Ice and Snow: Why Employers Must Carefully Assess Options to Reduce Risks
A recent Scottish court decision has potentially wide implications for you if you are an employer who requires your employees to work remotely in wintry conditions. It illustrates why it is important that employers keep up to date with advances in equipment technology which might make work safer, especially if the equipment is available relatively cheaply. Kennedy -v- Cordia (Services) - The Facts of the Case The injured person, Tracey Kennedy, was employed by Cordia Services as a home carer. One night in December 2010, together with a colleague, she had to visit a terminally-ill, housebound person in Crookston, Glasgow. At the time, Scotland was experiencing an extended period of wintry weather. There was snow and ice on the ground. As she walked down a path towards the house, she slipped and fell, breaking her wrist. She was wearing suede boots with a ridged sole. The boots were her own, not provided by her employer. The Legal Basis of the Claim The claim was based on Continue Reading
Bicycle and Motorcycle Accidents Reduction – Thanks to the Weather
Statistics published by the Department for Transport on 01 August 2013 reveal that the number of motorcycle and bicycle accidents on Great Britain’s roads has dropped since last year – something that can probably be attributed to the weather. The Quarterly Provisional Estimates record how many road accidents occur in the four quarters of each year. Experts can then analyse year-on-year trends, helping us to understand what effect the weather has on the safety of our roads. The most recent data makes for interesting reading because it shows the amount of motorcycle and bicycle accidents in the first quarter of 2013 (January to March) has decreased significantly from the same period in 2012. The number of pedal cycle casualties fell by 23% compared to the same period in 2012 while the number of motorcyclist casualties dropped by 27%. So what was the reason for the reduction in the number of accidents? The overall UK average temperature during the first three months of 2013 Continue Reading
Legal Aid for Personal Injury Claims in Scotland
These days, much of the focus is on “no win – no fee” arrangements but, in Scotland, civil legal aid is still available for personal injury claims. At Moray Claims / Grigor & Young about 50% of our personal injury caseload is covered by some form of legal aid. The First Stage of Your Claim – Advice & Assistance The initial stages of a claim can be covered by legal advice and assistance, a form of legal aid which allows work to be done in investigating the claim, including obtaining medical evidence, negotiating with the opponent and settling the claim if possible. The Scottish Legal Aid Board’s website has a calculator which allows you to check your likely eligibility for legal advice and assistance. Some people qualify fully, some not at all and, in the middle, some qualify but with the need to pay a financial contribution. Despite this, at Moray Claims / Grigor & Young, we never require payment of any advice and assistance contribution to be made. Your Continue Reading
Am I Likely To Lose My Job If I Claim For An Injury At Work?
The answer, in a word, is “no” – you are not likely to lose your job if you make a claim. If you have been injured in an accident in the course of your employment due to the fault of your employer, you might be worried that making a personal injury claim could lead to you getting the sack. Quite apart from the stresses and strains caused by your injury itself, the thought that you might lose your livelihood as well can be a strong off-putting factor in relation to making a compensation claim. Your concern might be either that your employment will be terminated as the direct result of making your claim or that the “atmosphere” it will create with your employers will be so bad that it will only be a matter of time before you will feel forced to resign because you will not be able to stand the pressure you are under. What is your employer’s duty to you? Employers have to take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure the safety of their employees at work. This includes Continue Reading
Golf Ball Injuries: A Fair Way To Treat Golf Clubs?
In Scotland, there are more than 550 golf courses and Moray has 9 of them. I’m a (sadly, very inactive) member of Moray Golf Club (Lossiemouth), which has two fantastic links courses. An appeal decision of the Court of Session from March 2013 has health and safety implications for golfers and golf clubs all over Scotland. The Facts of the Case The case of Phee –v- Gordon concerned an inexperienced golfer (Mr Phee) who sued Niddry Castle Golf Club in West Lothian and a member of the golf club (Mr Gordon) as the result Mr Phee losing his left eye after being struck by a golf ball from a wayward tee shot hit by Mr Gordon. Arguments that Mr Phee was partly to blame for his injury were rejected by the court. However, the appeal was successful in that Mr Gordon convinced the court that the blame which had been apportioned as 30% to the golf club and 70% to Mr Gordon following the initial hearing of evidence should be reversed – and more - on appeal. In other words, though the Continue Reading
Not Wearing A Seatbelt: How It Can Affect Your Personal Injury Claim
General issues about contributory negligence in PI cases In many personal injury claims, though it’s clear that the accident was the fault of someone else – which means the claim should succeed - there can be arguments about whether you as the injured person should share some of the blame for the accident. This is what is referred to as contributory negligence. It is often possible to counter arguments for contributory negligence, meaning that your claim succeeds in full. It is up to the other side to prove contributory negligence applies in the circumstances rather than being up to you to prove that you did take proper care for your own safety. If contributory negligence applies, your compensation will be reduced. In our experience, across the personal injury accident spectrum, reduction rates most often tend to be in the 10% to 25% range. In other words, for example, if contributory negligence is 25% then you lose one quarter of your damages. Why the level of Continue Reading
A Personal Injury Claim is not a “Small Claim” in Scotland
In Scotland, a “small claim” is a type of Sheriff Court procedure which applies to claims with a value of up to and including £3,000. What Sorts of Claims are Small Claims? There are three kinds of claim which can be raised under small claims procedure and they are as follows: A claim for payment of money A claim for delivery or recovery of moveable property A claim for implement of an obligation Claims for payment of money are, in our experience, the most common type of small claims action by far. Examples of claims for payment of money include: Compensation for damage caused by faulty workmanship Expenses incurred in repairing damage caused to a vehicle in a road traffic accident Money owed in terms of a loan Goods ordered and paid for but not supplied Unpaid bills Personal Injury Claims are not Small Claims Note that personal injury claims are not small claims under any circumstances. They are exempted from the small claim definition. Personal injury actions in the Continue Reading
Failure to Wear a Cycle Helmet: Can You Still Claim for Injury?
If you are involved in a road traffic accident while riding a bicycle, are you still eligible to make a claim for compensation if the accident was not your fault but you were not wearing a cycle helmet at the time? The answer is very likely ‘yes, you can still claim successfully'. The issue which arises is contributory negligence. No Legal Requirement to Wear a Cycle Helmet Unlike seatbelts in cars, there is no legal obligation to wear a cycle helmet. In theory, this would not prevent a finding of contributory negligence in any event. With seatbelt cases, the introduction of the legal requirement in the 1980s did not affect the various, fixed levels of contributory negligence that had been developed by the courts during the 1970s (and which still apply today). However, there do not seem to be any reported decisions of the courts to date in which a cyclist has had his or her compensation reduced for contributory negligence due to failure to wear a cycle helmet. The English Continue Reading
Accidents at Work: Now More Difficult to Win (But Still Winnable)
I have blogged previously about the proposed changes in the law relating to Employers’ Liability and it has now come to pass in the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013. In broad terms, this is good news for employers and, especially, their insurers and bad news for employees. It was the law that breach of regulations under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 could give rise to civil liability. Goodbye to Strict Liability In some cases, this meant that there could be strict liability of employers – in other words, liability without needing to show any fault or lack of care on the part of the employer. The case that came to be the classic modern example of this involved a postman who was injured when the front forks of the bicycle he was riding – and which his employers provided to him - collapsed without warning. It was established that the cause of the equipment failure was a hidden defect. The employers had not been negligent. There was probably nothing they could Continue Reading
How soon should you contact a solicitor after an accident?
You should get in touch with a solicitor as soon as possible. If you have been seriously injured, you may not be fit enough to contact a lawyer yourself for months after the accident. In those circumstances, it can be acceptable for a friend or relative to make the first contact. Most solicitors will do home or hospital visits, if that will help get things under way. Or they can get the basic details from the friend or relative, which will allow a start to be made. Ultimately, it will have to be you, the injured person, who gives the instructions to your solicitor but that is not necessarily essential in the first place. It's never too early to call your solicitor ... Years ago, the Law Society of Scotland ran a marketing campaign with the strapline: “It’s never too soon to call your solicitor … but it could be too late.” This may have been dropped because of the appearance of popular alternatives such as “It’s never too soon to call your solicitor … a b*@!*?@!”. Continue Reading
Bus Passenger Accidents While Getting Onto A Bus And How To Avoid Them
I commute most days to work by bus and am lucky that the most serious ‘accidents’ I have had to date have both affected my clothes only. Knee Slicers and Sticky Chocolate Seating Leg-room is not always great, depending on where you sit on the bus. I once managed to make a neat straight cut through the knee of one trouser leg on the horizontal metal strip on the back of the seat in front of me. More embarrassing was sitting down on a seat which someone had smeared with chocolate sauce. I only realised when I had difficulty standing up to get off at my stop. I’ve learned from that experience to wear jeans on the bus and change into a suit once I get to the office. Bus Timetabling Problems Buses and coaches usually operate according to timetables. Bus drivers have to do their best to keep things running on time. This is a difficult job when there are so many variables. These include things like: how much traffic there is on the road; how many passengers want picked Continue Reading