What do you do if you’re sailing and your mast breaks? In the 2013 Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, in which small sailing vessels travel from Gran Canaria to the Carribbean, that happened to one of the participating boats. Pollux, from France, with her 2-man crew was only 140 miles from her final destination of St. Lucia, when she was dismasted in a heavy squall. The crew did not panic. Applying the concept of ‘jury-rigging’ – a term used to describe the actions of makeshift running repairs made with only the tools and materials on board – they rigged a windsurfing sail as a temporary replacement on their remaining “half mast”. It helped that the final stretch was downwind and, in the end, they lost remarkably little time because of the mishap. A few adaptations and they still achieved the desired result – getting “home”. But without the enforced adaptations they would not have made it to their destination. In valuing personal injury claims in Scotland, it can sometimes Continue Reading
Maximising the value of your personal injury claim
Without resorting to "dodgy" tactics, there is no point in leaving money on the table if you have to make a personal injury compensation claim.
The law looks at personal injury claims through a financial lens and you need to know and understand the rules of the game so you can maximise the value of your personal injury claim.
These articles will help you identify the issues specific to your claim and what you need to consider.
Deciding how best to respond to a Minute of Tender in practice
Tea drinking is a national pastime in Nepal. They have all sorts of teas - sweet, butter, hot, cold, black, white. The ritual with tea is that, when offered tea, you decline it and your host insists that you have some. No matter how much you say no, they still insist that you have it. So you drink it. In other words, it's a situation with drink consumption where "no" means "yes". With personal injury court actions, as the claimant, if your opponent offers you settlement via a Minute of Tender, you want to say "no" (because you always want them to make you a better offer). Unfortunately, you might find that however much you say "no", depending on the level of offer, your legal adviser may have to insist that you say "yes" and accept it. It's one of the situations that can happen with Minutes of Tender. You think your personal injury claim’s worth £20,000 but you’ve got a formal offer (Minute of Tender) in your court action to settle at £10,000. Should you accept the Continue Reading
Should you accept the insurers’ first offer?
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
22 Injury Questions To Answer So You Maximise The Value Of Your Claim
If you have been injured in an accident and are making a claim for compensation, your solicitor needs as much information as possible about your injuries and their consequences so that the full extent of your claim is understood and you can be properly compensated. Most solicitors specialising in personal injury work will have a system of questionnaires or standardised questions to make sure, as far as possible, that no issues are left unexplored. We hope that, by highlighting the following matters, it will help you to understand the sort of issues which could be crucial in your particular circumstances. The injury questions to answer so you maximise the value of your claim will be different in each case. It is unlikely that all of the questions will be relevant to you, but many of them will be. We hope that at least one or two of them might make you think about things you had not considered before now. Injury questions Do you still have any pain or discomfort or have Continue Reading
Maximising Your Personal Injury Claim’s Value
North Street, Elgin, Moray Your personal injury claim is primarily about money. It’s true that other aims are possible - and often more important than just the compensation. One example is maximising your level of recovery from injuries through rehabilitation provided as part of your claim. Another possible driver is “trying to make a point” so the negligent party takes notice and changes their practice for the future, reducing the chances someone else will be injured in the way you were. It's all about money But personal injury claims are really about financial compensation. The law tries to put you, as the injured person, back in the position you would have been if the accident had not happened – so far as that is possible in money terms. Given the emphasis on money, the aim is to maximise your damages. What are the main factors which have a bearing on how much money you receive (if any) at the end of your claim? Factor 1: Whether your claim succeeds at Continue Reading