Traditionally, age brings with it wisdom – and the respect of others. But what if you’re 84 years old and you’re accused of telling lies "in court"? It's one thing to exaggerate, for example, medical symptoms caused by an accident - but to invent them? Here's an anonymised true story of a case we dealt with and how a scenario of that nature played out in practice. Our client was injured after she fell into an excavation that had been made by a national utilities company. It was right outside her garden gate. There were no warning signs in place. Our client had a registered sight impairment. She opened her gate, minding her own business, took one step and suddenly down she went. After her accident, the utilities company covered the trench with hard plastic matting so it was impossible for pedestrians to fall in. If they had done that before the accident, it could not have happened. We alleged that the utilities company had been negligent and that had caused our Continue Reading
Compensation Culture
Some people say there is a Compensation Culture in the UK (e.g. the Westminster Government). Others - e.g. personal injury lawyers (such as ourselves and the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) of which we are members) - disagree. The weight of evidence is in favour of there NOT being a Compensation Culture. These articles on our website discuss Compensation Culture issues in some respect.
Why fraudulent personal injury claims are not more likely to appear in Scotland than elsewhere
“Idiot insurance scammer fails miserably with fake ‘ice on floor’ fall”. That was one description of 57-year-old New Jersey man Alexander Goldinsky’s apparent attempt to stage a “slipping on ice cubes” accident in his work canteen. The incident – which happened sometime in the second half of 2018 - was captured on CCTV. Allegedly, he then filed a false insurance claim for the ambulance service and treatment he received at a local hospital for his "injuries" and the outcome was that he faced a criminal prosecution for fabricating the claim. Clearly, the USA is not Scotland but did you know that... ...within the UK, Scottish personal injury claimants are most likely to put forward exaggerated or fraudulent claims? This view has been expressed in the legal press by solicitors whose job it is represent the interests of insurers in defending personal injury compensation claims. Reforms to the law in England and Wales have meant that, in some claims where the injured person has Continue Reading
How Social Media Surveillance Can Undermine Your Personal Injury Claim
There are those who predicted that the years from 2010 to 2020 would become known as the "transparency" decade, in which no one would be able to "live a lie". It is perhaps not turning out to be as clear-cut as it might have seemed then, especially when we are having such issues with fake news and the apparent smokescreens created by certain people and organisations in positions of power. It is hard to remember that there was once a time when you did not always know what your friends were up to. A time long ago when, in order to hear their news, you would need to phone them or arrange to meet them face-to-face. Since Facebook began in 2004 and Twitter in 2006, there has been an explosion in the use of social media. On the internet, something like 1400 blog posts are produced every minute. Dozens of hours of video are uploaded per minute. And tens of thousands of images are shared every minute. Facebook data from May 2016 indicated that there were 36.45 million users in the Continue Reading
5 Reasons Why People In Moray Decide To Claim For Personal Injury
Our Personal Injury solicitors, Marie and Peter, have been handling claims on behalf of people in Moray for quite a few years now. Of the clients we have helped, probably none relished the prospect of making a compensation claim. Many had some sort of “objection” or problem in their minds, which they had to overcome before deciding to go ahead. The cynical “Compensation Culture” view is that it’s all about getting money. It has to be partly about money because that’s how the law of personal injury works but, in our experience, it’s not the whole story by any means. We’ve collected comments from injured people we have helped in Moray and this article sets out some of the most common motivating factors behind their claims. As you will see, some of the themes overlap a bit. Here are 5 reasons why people in Moray decide to claim for personal injury losses. You incur significant loss of earnings If you’ve been injured and have to take time off work in order to recover, you may not Continue Reading
Compensation Culture: Does Your Personal Injury Claim Make You Part Of It?
Fear of furthering a perceived Compensation Culture is deterring people from making Personal Injury claims. We recently took on a claim for a man who had finally reached the decision, more than two years after his accident at work, to go ahead with a compensation claim for his injuries and other losses. Here’s what he told us: “I have a concern over the "bandwagon" of what might be considered modern-day "compensation culture" and how that might seem - on the face of it - to be getting exploited for less-than-deserving cases. And that was maybe a wee bit of my issue in relation to starting this process.” So is there a Compensation Culture and what do we mean by the term, anyway? A difficult thing to define In some contexts, the term “Compensation Culture” is shorthand for the desire of one person to sue a second person where the first person suffered due to something which could have been avoided if the second person (or organisation) had done things Continue Reading
2 Ways Exaggeration of Injuries Can Damage Your Personal Injury Claim
Exaggerating your symptoms from injuries can damage your chances of claiming compensation Serious injuries can lead to permanent restrictions in things like your ability to work, to care for yourself and others close to you, or enjoy your hobbies. If that is what you claim following an accident, you need to realise it’s likely that all aspects of your life will end up under the microscope. Exaggeration of injuries can damage your personal injury claim. How will you be found out? Your life: nothing hidden You will be shadowed and put under video surveillance. Private investigators will stake out your home. You could be filmed in your garden, getting into and out of your car or doing the shopping. A prime time for observation is when you have to go and see any medical expert appointed by the insurers: they know exactly where you will be and at what times on that particular day. Surveillance cameras may be hand held, mounted in vehicles or in holdalls carried by Continue Reading
School Accidents: Three Sides To Every Story
The hysteria that goes along with the so-called “Compensation Culture” is generally nowhere more misplaced than in relation to accidents to children at school. Parents who instruct solicitors to pursue claims for damages for injuries to their children sustained in school will usually only experience disappointment. That’s not say that these claims can never succeed but “health and safety gone mad” tends to crop up a lot in this context. The standard of care expected of a school is that of the reasonable parent. Castle View School in Canvey Island, Essex, has reportedly banned triangular flapjacks after a student was struck in the face by one at break time. Canteen staff have been instructed that in future they must cut flapjacks into squares or rectangles. A spokesman for the school said: "I can confirm that the texture and shape of the flapjacks were reviewed following an isolated accident last week." A spokesman for the Health and Safety Executive said, pointedly: "We Continue Reading