A personal injury claim arising from an incident which took place in a Lossiemouth pizza takeaway has provided a good example of how a criminal conviction can be used in a personal injury claim to pave the way for the claim to succeed. This is a procedural decision from the All-Scotland Personal Injury Court in Edinburgh. In this article we will consider three aspects of how a criminal conviction helps with a personal injury claim. Firstly, we will look at the law in relation to the use of criminal convictions in civil proceedings such as personal injury claims. Secondly, we will see how the reference to a criminal conviction in the Lossiemouth case helped the claimant establish that compensation should be payable to him. Finally, we will look at the question of whether it is ever possible for a person who is blamed for an accident/injury to argue their way out of it even if there is a criminal conviction against them. Continue Reading
Negligence Articles
Negligence is an important concept in relation to personal injury claims in the UK in general and Scotland in particular. These articles, listed below, explain about how negligence is defined and how it is worked out in practice - so as to determine whether or not your personal injury claim will be successful.
How can you tell if someone has been negligent?
July 1999 was a momentous month for Scottish golf. The British Open returned to Carnoustie for the first time since 1975. More importantly, Paul Lawrie became the first Scottish winner since 1985 (and is still the most recent Scottish winner of a major). However, that championship will also be remembered for all the ‘wrong’ reasons French golfer, Jean van de Velde, snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, throwing away a 3-shot advantage on the final hole. At the 18th, a par 4, he could have taken 6 shots and still won - but he took 7, in fact holing a decent putt just to get himself into the playoff which he eventually lost. His play on the final hole is true ‘car crash’ television as he seemed to regress to beginner standard in dealing with the rough, a bunker and a water hazard. One author has classified van de Velde's problem as one of 'overthinking' In his book “The Art of Thinking Clearly”, Rolf Dobelli explains that skills involve an element of instinct and feeling. Continue Reading
Slip On Ice At Work Case Clarifies Law On Workplace Personal Injury Claims
Imagine you're employed as a home carer in Scotland. Your work requires you to go out at all times of day and in all kinds of weather to provide personal care to the elderly, vulnerable and terminally-ill. One night in winter, with snow and ice lying on the ground, you slip and fall as you make your way to one of your client's homes. You break your wrist. The flat boots you were wearing had ridged soles but their grip was not enough to keep you upright. It turns out that crampon-like shoe attachments were available at reasonable cost and they would probably have prevented your fall if your employer had given you them to use. In other words, you can argue that your employer failed to take proper care for your safety, by failing to provide adequate personal protective equipment, so you have a right to claim compensation from them for your injuries and other losses. On the other hand, periodic sub-zero temperatures are a fact of life in northern Europe, aren't they? Anyone who goes Continue Reading
Prove Negligence 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
Slip / Trip Accidents And Why The Location Matters
If you have ever fallen over, you’ll know that embarrassment is often the overwhelming feeling, at first. After a trip or slip in a public place - such as a busy supermarket, shopping centre or street – we will tend to pick ourselves up quickly and make as fast an exit as possible, even if we are hobbling on our way. An accident of this type may be a pure accident – no one’s fault but your own – such as a trip while you are walking and updating your Facebook status at the same time. Even a momentary distraction can be enough to cause a fall. On the other hand, if your fall is due to someone else’s negligence (such as the occupier of land or a local authority), you may be able to make a claim for compensation for personal injury. This article considers slip / trip accidents and why the location matters when applying the law to the circumstances and deciding whether any personal injury claim is likely to succeed. Common accident claim locations For there to be the possibility of a 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
Insurers Not Getting In Touch After An RTA (Why That Might Be)
How long does it take for Insurers to get in touch after a road traffic accident? That’s a question we received recently in the following terms: “I was involved in an RTA two months ago. I have not heard from the insurance company yet. How long does it take for them to get in touch? The accident was not my fault.” A significant collision - with lots of post-accident worries It turns out this accident involved a rear end shunt at a junction. The vehicle was pushed right off the road by the impact. The injured driver who contacted us had been knocked unconscious as a result of the crash. He spent two nights in hospital, was off work for several weeks and lost wages. An incorrect assumption He had been driving his works van and thought that his employers’ motor insurers would take care of his claim for his injuries and his financial losses, including his loss of earnings. This was a classic situation where you, as the accident victim, have suffered injury through no Continue Reading
Poor Hospital Care Is Not Necessarily Medical Negligence
It’s always a worry if you have to have hospital treatment. You’ll be concerned about the procedure or operation, any anaesthetic and the recovery period. The practicalities of your stay in hospital will also be on your mind, such as sharing a ward with others and the quality of the food. You’re unlikely to think about the risk of being injured due to medical negligence during your stay because health service staff are dedicated professionals working hard to deliver the best possible care. Their jobs require them to deal with deadlines and to keep within strict budgets. Sometimes, they have to exercise judgement in making decisions, weighing up competing risks. And medical science is not an exact science. Unfortunately. things don't always work out for the best. You need to understand that, if things go wrong and outcome of your treatment is not as you would wish, just because you have experienced poor standards of care, that does not necessarily mean you have Continue Reading
Fatal Accident Claims in Scotland: Increased Compensation levels
Claims by three members of the family of a man who died as the result of a road traffic accident in Glasgow have been awarded damages totalling £106,500. Lady Wise, in the Court of Session, decided that the award of compensation in a previous similar case had been too low. She set the damages level for each claimant by applying an uplift of approximately 50% on the awards in the previous case. Pedestrian crossing accident Gavin Currie was 25 years old when he was knocked down on a zebra crossing on 28 December 2011. He died in hospital 2 days later. The Court described Gavin as a “fine young man with good employment prospects and a happy and settled family life”. He came from a close-knit family. Only value of claim disputed Liability for the accident was not in dispute but there was disagreement about the level of compensation to be paid to each of his parents and to his brother, Euan, by the insurers of the negligent driver. Tension between Judge and Jury damages Continue Reading
When Do You Need A Personal Injury Solicitor In Scotland (rather than elsewhere in the UK)?
Accidents do not take any notice of national boundaries. An accident can happen whether you are in Dallas, Moray, or Dallas, Texas. If you have been injured in an accident and need to make a claim for compensation, we recommend that you contact a solicitor with proven specialist knowledge in personal injury claims. We also suggest that you should deal with a solicitor who is local to you, if possible. For accidents which have happened in Scotland, does it matter whether your solicitor is in Scotland? It does matter and we will explain why. When a local-to-you solicitor can be a bad idea Where you suffer injury in a road traffic accident in Scotland, you might be on holiday or on business at the time. You may have your home in another part of the UK. It can be tempting in that situation to consult a solicitor close to where you live, once you are sufficiently recovered, because it is the most convenient option. The solicitor you consult will be reluctant to turn down the Continue Reading
When your business insurers refuse to indemnify you
Businesses require to have Employers’ Liability insurance by law. This is so if an employee gets injured at work due to the employer’s breach of duty there is a guaranteed fund available to meet any claim. Public liability insurance covers organisations and businesses against negligence and breaches of duty which cause injury and loss to people other than their employees. This type of insurance is not compulsory by law but it is crucial to have in practice because even a single claim can be enough to bankrupt a business. Public liability claim against a small trade business We have come across a recent example of a public liability insurer refusing to cover a business for a claim against the business for fire damage to a house in Moray caused by probable negligence on the part of one of the employees of the business. This scenario gives rise to a valid claim against the business on the basis of vicarious liability. Alleged negligence leads to under-floor fire at domestic 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 golf ball Continue Reading