If you do any amount of cycling, you will probably have had a near miss or two. Cyclists are vulnerable road users and the risk is always there of an accident or collision with a car, lorry or even another cyclist. Moray has a few designated cycle paths, notably the tracks between Elgin and RAF Lossiemouth and between Forres and Findhorn. However, on numerous minor roads in Moray, the national speed limit is combined with narrow carriageways and restricted visibility. Add to this the ever-increasing volume of traffic on our roads and you can see why an increasing number of cyclists are falling victim to injury as the result of a bicycle accident in Moray. If you are a cyclist unlucky enough to be injured in an accident, you may choose to make a personal injury claim so you can receive compensation for your injuries and other losses. It is likely that your bike will be damaged, possibly beyond economic repair, and you will want any compensation to include an element to pay Continue Reading
What is Moray Claims blog about?
Hello. My name is Peter Brash. What’s my line? I work in Elgin, Moray. That’s approximately half way between Aberdeen and Inverness in the beautiful North East of Scotland beside the shimmering Moray Firth. I’m head of the Personal Injury Department at Grigor & Young, Solicitors. Moray Claims is a trading name of Grigor & Young. We also have an office in Forres. Together with my solicitor colleague, Marie Morrison, we have over 40 years’ experience in dealing with personal injury claims for injured people in a wide range of circumstances. I am accredited by the Law Society of Scotland as a Specialist in Personal Injury Law. My colleague, Marie Morrison, and I are both members of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) and Accredited by APIL as Senior Litigators. The Elgin branch of Grigor & Young has corporate accreditation from APIL. So what is Moray Claims blog about? In posting to this blog, I’m airing informal opinions about legal matters – generally Continue Reading
Your Personal Injury Claim: How Long Will It Take?
It is extremely difficult to say how long a personal injury claim will take but the factors involved are not all within the control of the other party or their insurers, despite what some people think. “I know they will probably try to drag it out for years,” is a comment we often hear from people considering making a compensation claim for injuries suffered in an accident. "They" refers to the person or organisation responsible for paying the compensation that is due – which is usually, but not always, an insurance company. Your personal injury solicitor will constantly be keeping an eye on what is the next step required in relation to your claim. At any given time, your solicitor should be able to give a best estimate of how much longer it will all take. Factors which could have an effect on the length of your claim Some things which will affect how quickly your claim can proceed to a conclusion are: How complex the case is; The severity of your Continue Reading
Will I Have To Go To Court If I Make A Personal Injury Claim?
Many people worry that, if they pursue legal action, they will have to endure the stress and hassle of a court hearing (known as a ‘Proof’, in Scotland). We get this question time and again: "Will I have to go to court if I make a personal injury claim?" Solicitors and other legal professionals are more used to the court setting, of course, though it is not stress-free for them either. We understand that the prospect of having to go through court proceedings is daunting, perhaps to the point that it may put you off the idea of making a claim entirely. Most claims settle "out of court" It is important not to get too hung up on the idea that your claim will have to “go to court”. The main reason for this is that, in the vast majority of cases, claims are settled out of court – either because it is never necessary to raise a court action at all or because the claim settles after a court action is raised but before the Proof. The parties on each side of the claim will Continue Reading
Slip and fall? I bet that won’t look good on the dancefloor …
Dancefloors can be dangerous places. The combination of spilt drink, variable lighting and alcohol consumption means that falls can easily happen. Broken wrists are the most popular injury in our experience but leg injuries are also common. Claims based on occupiers' liability If you have been injured in this sort of situation, following a slip and fall, it may be possible to make a claim based on Occupiers’ Liability. The occupier – basically whoever has control of the premises – has to take reasonable care to see to it that people are not injured due to the state of the premises – which includes wet floors. Wet surfaces are not necessarily slippery? Unbelievable as it may seem, the courts have actually said that it is not self-evident that a wet surface is “slippery”. If liability for an accident is denied it can be necessary to get an engineer to carry out a slip-resistance test on the surface in question to provide a scientific measure of whether the floor poses a low, Continue Reading