Sylvester Stallone’s big break as a movie star came with the 1976 film, Rocky. However, his own story is as inspirational as that of the boxer he played on screen. Stallone had a troubled upbringing, spending a lot of time in foster care. In his 20s, at one point, he was so hard up that he had to sell his dog. He wrote the first draft of Rocky after watching a boxing match in which an unknown and unfancied fighter lasted a full 15 rounds against world champion, Muhammad Ali. Film studios were very interested in the script but not with Stallone in the starring role. Nevertheless, he held out. Even when one studio offered him $325,000 for the script alone - at that time, the highest amount ever offered for a script – he did not waver. In the end, he got his wish. The purchase price for the script was only $35,000 (and the movie was reduced to a low budget production) but Stallone got the lead role. Rocky was a massive hit, winning an Oscar for best picture - and Continue Reading
Articles from our blog on the Claims Process
Below are articles from our blog which relate to the topic of the Claims Process.
Please also see our main page on the Claims Process
When you need to get copies of your Medical Records (Pitfalls to avoid)
“Can he really play?” “Heavens, no! He never played a note in his life” That’s the caption accompanying what is reckoned to be one of the most copied advertisements in history. The headline? "They Laughed When I Sat Down At The Piano - But When I Started to Play!" This 1927 newspaper masterpiece by John Caples has become a prime example of how to sell to people by tapping into their emotional desires through storytelling. The long-form advertisement was to promote a (free) book entitled “Music Lessons in Your Own Home”. Even the legendary comedian, Bob Monkhouse, copied the format for one of his best gags: “When I first said I wanted to be a comedian, everybody laughed. They're not laughing now.” Copying others’ style can apply whether you are writing an advertisement or a joke. Copying can also apply to medical records – and that’s what we’re looking at in this article. We’ll consider three questions relating to medical records in personal injury Continue Reading
Why First Consultation Free is not good enough for personal injury claims (and what is better for you)
Is one font better for your memory than another? Can the design of the typeface used to put information into a readable form make a difference to how well you will recall that information later? Research on this issue at RMIT University in Melbourne concluded that most of the fonts we see every day are similar. Their familiarity means we often glance over the words they form and no memory trace is created. On the other hand, at the other end of the spectrum, if typography is too different from the norm, the brain does not process it well and, again, we don’t retain the information. Is there a way to overcome this balancing act between over-familiarity and unreadableness? RMIT has developed the font, Sans Forgetica, which could be the answer. They say it lies at a sweet spot where, although the appearance of the font forms something of a barrier to the learning process, overall it helps the learning process rather than hindering it. They have proved this via a mixed lab Continue Reading
Can insurers change their mind about settling your claim (if liability is admitted)?
Some say The Blue Nile are the greatest ever Scottish band. Though they only ever released 4 albums - between 1984 and 2004 - they maintained a consistently high standard throughout. Their music has a spare, cinematic quality which blends perfectly with Paul Buchanan’s soulful and world-weary voice. The Blue Nile’s 1989 release, Hats, has topped some polls to find the best Scottish album of all time. I listened to that album a lot when it came out - I was a student then - and I still listen to it often even now. The fact is, they almost never got a recording contract at all and took an unusual route to achieve that end. Around 1983, a top-of-the-range Glasgow-based hi-fi company called Linn Products found that their equipment’s sales prospects were boosted if they used music from the band’s demo tape when demonstrating Linn’s music systems to potential customers. When Linn discovered The Blue Nile were unsigned, they decided they would sort them with a record deal by Continue Reading
3 ways to maximise the power and benefit of important evidence
Memory scientist, Julia Shaw, gave a talk at TEDx London in July 2018 about reporting harassment and discrimination in the workplace. Dr Shaw is an honorary research associate at University College London in the Psychology and Language Sciences department. Women, people of colour and people who identify themselves openly as part of the LGBT community are most at risk of harassment and discrimination in the workplace. Some studies have shown that as much as 98% of affected persons will never report this type of mistreatment to their employers. One barrier to speaking up is the fear that it will be held against us and affect our future prospects in the job. Another is the fact that, often, your memory is the only evidence you have of what happened. Will that be enough to be believed? Dr Shaw has researched – in courtrooms as well as laboratories - how humans process memory of important and emotionally-charged events. The interview process is important. By “interview”, Continue Reading
Knee injury compensation claims
Dr Carl Wunderlich, who died in 1877, is famous for his measurement of average healthy body temperature of 37°C. (98.6°F). Using a thermometer reputedly a foot in length - and needing 20 minutes to register the temperature – he tested around 25,000 patients and took over 1 million readings. He was at the forefront of medical science for his time but his “normal body temperature” of 37°C has gradually been seen as an oversimplification of reality. In fact, normal temperature is actually a range because no two human bodies are the same. In addition, we all react differently to external factors and disease. Body temperature can also vary according to: how much we’ve eaten; our stress levels; hormones; and different levels of exercise. Something – normal body temperature - that, at a glance, seems simple turns out to be much more complicated. And this is also the case with the human knee. On the face of it, the knee simply joins the top of the leg with the bottom of the leg. Continue Reading
Can you make a personal injury claim if you definitely don’t want to go to court?
Tilley hats might be the best in the world. They’ve been called “legendary” and “iconic”. Tilley hats float and, if lost or stolen, can be replaced for half their full purchase price. Should the hat wear out due to normal wear and tear, poor workmanship or faulty material, it will be repaired or replaced free of charge. Tilley hats are guaranteed for life. In 2013, a Guardian reader reported that, when the fabric of their hat split after 17 years, Tilley still honoured the lifetime guarantee and replaced it. They’re expensive hats but the various risk-reversal elements clearly help keep them desirable purchases. A guarantee can make a big difference to how likely we are to choose a product or service. In the context of personal injury compensation claims, not everyone wants to have their day in court. On the other hand, in another article on this website, we’ve considered the pros and cons for those who want a guarantee that their personal injury claim’s outcome will be Continue Reading
When can you claim for the loss in value of a repaired car?
Where there is a personal injury claim arising out of a road traffic accident, there is often a claim for damage to a car as well. As we have discussed elsewhere, claims for damage to vehicles will be valued on the basis of the lower of: the cost of repairs; and the net pre-accident value of the vehicle (in other words, the pre-accident value of the vehicle, less any scrap value). Another way of putting it is to say that, if the cost of repairing your vehicle will be “too high” relative to its value, the maximum you will get for it will be its net pre-accident value. What if your car was very new when it was damaged? In that case, while it may be economical to repair the vehicle, you might well feel that your repaired vehicle - even if it has been very well repaired – has lost value compared to what it would have been worth for resale if it had not been in an accident at all. It’s an interesting question: whether the owner of a car which is damaged in a road traffic Continue Reading
How does your solicitor negotiate your personal injury claim with the insurers?
We got some questions from a client about the general issues which arise when you're negotiating a personal injury claim with an insurance company. An article seemed like a good way to bring these answers to a wider audience. (Note that we have also based a podcast on these same questions - go here if you would prefer to listen rather than read). We're talking about the stage in a claim where liability has been admitted and it's about maximising the settlement figure with the insurers. The hope is that it will be possible to agree a figure by negotiation but, in the background, there's always the possibility that you might need to raise a court action to achieve a reasonable level of compensation. What tactics and strategies apply here? Do we have to show our hand first rather than let the insurer make an initial offer? This is generally the way it is done. Claims in Scotland are most often negotiated according to a pre-action protocol - basically, an agreement between Continue Reading
When you should get help from an Advocate with your personal injury claim
In November 2017, Formula One world champion racing driver, Lewis Hamilton, had a damage limitation issue to deal with. The so-called "Paradise Papers" had suggested that he was avoiding tax on his £16.5 million private jet and that he managed his image rights through a Maltese company. In an attempt to generate some goodwill for himself, he went onto social media and tweeted: “Guys, to support kids living in poverty I've donated a pair of my PUMA shoes to @SmallStepsDocs and signed them.” The Small Steps Project is a UK charity which helps children and communities who live on municipal rubbish dumps – in various parts of the world – get themselves out of poverty by providing them with emergency aid, including food and shoes. The generosity of this gesture (a pair of shoes), in fundraising terms, seemed limited. Indeed, one "Alternative Sports Awards" review of 2017 gave it the prize for "Worst Attempted PR Save". We don't know how much assistance Lewis Hamilton Continue Reading
What do we mean by Full Compensation for Personal Injury?
My all-time favourite cartoon characters are probably Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin is a young boy of about 6 years of age. To everyone else in the stories, Hobbes is Calvin's stuffed toy tiger. But, to Calvin, Hobbes is his walking, talking best friend – caught by means of a tiger trap baited with a tuna sandwich - who shares all his adventures. Many of these involve stressing out his long-suffering parents. Calvin is precocious in some ways but naive in others. The father of the creator of Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson, was a lawyer. In the cartoon, Calvin's Dad is also a lawyer. I don't have a son called Calvin but we did call one of our cats 'Hobbes'. One comic strip has Calvin sitting, surrounded by what appear to be pots of glue and plaster. He is holding out a baby tooth that has just come out of his mouth. "Mom says the tooth fairy might give me 50 cents for this tooth," he tells Hobbes. "Wow!" replies Hobbes. "So I got an idea," continues Calvin. "I Continue Reading
Compensation for Multiple Injuries (How it’s calculated)
On 24 July 2017, the Boston Globe newspaper reported something which it appears came as a surprise to many people. Some had suspected the truth they exposed in their article, but not many. The subject was pedestrian crossings at busy road intersections. If you needed to cross the road, for example, in downtown Boston, you would press the “walk” button and wait patiently for the lights to change. Your assumption was that you set in motion an electronic process which reduced the time you would have to wait to get your opportunity to cross. As it turned out, however, this was an illusion. The buttons had been disabled. Pedestrians always had to wait a predetermined amount of time within the cycle of the lights. A spokesperson on behalf of the city of Boston explained that downtown was too congested with pedestrians and cars to allow any single person to influence the traffic lights’ cycle. This did not surprise everyone: one resident, who had suspected the buttons were Continue Reading