Peter is established in registering companies both home in the UK, and abroad. He is well placed to offer unbiased advise in the business of registering a company with years of experiance behind him.

• Before you start planning any PR efforts make sure that your product or service is ready. Ensure that your product is primed for public consumption. Bring it out, make sure it works and that it does something that people will care about. Because PR drives customer demand, you will miss out on important sales or even drive your customers away and to your competitors if they do come to you and your products are not ready.
• You must get to know your market. A successful PR thrust is based on reaching the right audience with a message that is appropriate and meaningful to them. If you are not familiar with your target audience as well as the publications that they read, chances are, implementing the rest of your PR actions will be completely useless. There would be no point of trying to get your story printed in a financial paper when your audience primarily reads the regular dailies.
• You should learn all about the media to more effectively target your efforts. When you define your audience you will also have to know their reading habits (what publications do they read), the radio programmes that they listen to, the TV programmes that they watch as well as the websites that they visit. Take the time to familiarise yourself with the media outlets that you plan to target. You will need to get a good idea of that type of stories that you will need to present to optimise your chance of coverage.
• The most integral part of your PR campaign is your message so make sure that it is clear, concise and brief. If you cannot sum up your message in a few sentences then it is too complicated and editors won’t probably read it.

Peter is established in registering companies both home in the UK, and abroad. He is well placed to offer unbiased advise in the business of registering a company with years of experiance behind him.

The Purpose of Compensation for Negligence

If you are involved in a car accident and you make a claim for whiplash compensation, English law states that you are only entitled to receive compensation that will put you back in the same position as you were in if you had not had the accident. The law is very clear that you should not be put in a better position than you were before the accident.

Difficulties in Assessing the Amount of Whiplash Compensation

Whilst it is easy to assess some aspects of a claim for compensation, such as lost earnings due to injury, or the cost of repairs to your car, it is not so easy to compenste you for your injuries. If the purpose of compensation is to put you back into the same position you were in before the accident, how can this be achieved with your pain and suffering? The pain cannot be made to completely disappear in some circumstances. In cases of injury, the only solution is to try and ensure you make a full recover, and if not, to put a figure on how much the pain is worth to you in monetary terms. Therefore, if you suffer a whiplash injury, you can claim for the cost of any private medical treatment which will help to improve your pain and suffering, and you can also claim a sum of compensation for the pain you experienced until you made a full recovery, or if you fail to do so how much that ongoing pain is worth.

It is accepted that this is not an easy task, but over the years the courts awarded fairly standard amounts for similar types of injuries. This then enabled the Judicial Studies Board to review all of these cases and prepare a book which puts a value on the various different types of injuries sustained, from whiplash injuries, to broken arms and even more serious claims. For more information on valuing a claim see here : Amounts of Whiplash Compensation.

Claiming Compensation for Non Injury Losses and Expenses

In addition to claiming compensation for injuries, you can also claim compensation for other losses and expenses which were caused by the accident. These are more straightforward to quantify, normally by receipts or invoices, or in the case of lost earnings, wage slips from employers. These expenses and losses can include:

• Lost earnings due to time away from work
• Repairs to your vehicle
• Additional travel expenses incurred (eg travelling to doctor appointments etc)
• Private medical treatment (eg physiotherapy or chiropractic)
• Any medication purchased

Whilst it is not always easy to quantify a claim for compensation, over the years there has been sufficient case law which enables the courts to achieve the purpose of compensation: to put the person claiming compensation back in the position they would have been in had the accident not happened.

For further guidance please go to our site and read more about whiplash claims

Nick Jervis is a solicitor (non practising) who worked in private practice for 14 years specialising in personal injury claims. Nick wrote a book on claims against the Motor Insurers Bureau and lectured extensively to other personal injury solicitors.

Key Features to look for in your first email marketing solution
Key functionality that any solution and supplier should offer should includes:
1) UK support via telephone & email
If the support is based abroad you may have to wait several hours for a response. By the time the response has arrived you have gone home and it will be a couple of days till the issue is resolved.
2) Multiple users supported
This is essential if you want multiple members of your marketing department to access the solution.
3) Approval process
If the solution has no approval workflow then it will only be a matter of time before your campaign is delivered incorrectly.
4) Test & Seed list functionality
The ability to test your email to a single or set of seed addresses will save you time and ensure there are no issues with your campaign.
5) Multiple lists
You will require more than a single list if you are going to be sending more than a single newsletter. Check to see if the solution offers this capability.
6) Deduplication of email addresses
This should be automatic and prevent you from bombarding customers with multiple copies of your email.
7) Store data other than email addresses
You will want to store information such as names, purchase history, content preferences and more to use when personalizing and segmenting your campaigns.
8) Appending data
As you collect more data offline you will want to add it to your lists. There should be an option in the solution to add this information to the solution without having to create a new list.
9) Unsubscribe management
This should entail the ability to add a link to your email that takes your recipient to a confirmation page stating they have unsubscribed. This should also flag the record in the solution to  automatically ensure they are not sent to again. Advanced solutions give you two types of unsubscribe – global and list unsubscribe. A ‘global unsubscribe’ will unsubscribe the recipient from all lists while ‘list unsubscribe’ will simply flag the record as unsubscribed from a single list.
10) Exclude lists
There will be times when you need to exclude certain customers. There might be people who have already taken you up on the offer, or addresses that have bounced. Therefore there should be an option to exclude a list of addresses you have uploaded.
11) Bounce Management
Receiving bounced messages into an email account and removing these is a very time consuming process. Make sure your solution collects the bounces and gives you the opportunity to view a report of these showing why they have bounced that can be downloaded.
12) Resending of soft bounces
This will ensure that emails that did not get delivered because of a temporary problem such as the receiving email server was offline, will get automatically redelivered.
13) Scheduling of campaigns
The ability to schedule emails for delivery will enable you to setup and queue emails well in advance.
14) Delivery speed & Scalability
If you are sending high volumes of emails (50,000 – Several Million at a time) ensure the solution is capable by asking for a pilot campaign.
15) MIME format
Around 5% of your list cannot read HTML emails. Ensure the solution can automatically deliver a plain text alternative. This is referred to as MIME format.
16) White listing
Your supplier should take an active role in ensuring your emails will get delivered by ‘white listing’ your IP address with major ISP’s.
17) Personalisation
This at the most basic level should be the ability to insert ‘Dear First Name’ into an email message.
18) Segmentation
The ability to send different messages to different segments will ensure that you achieve better open and clickthru rates as your messages will be more relevant.
19) A/B Split Testing
This is the ability to test and compare variables such as the subject line or content to samples of your list before delivering the best performing to the remainder of your list. This functionality will enable you to maximise your email campaign performance.
20) Reporting
As a minimum this should include:
· Statistics on total deliveries, bounces, unique opens, clickthru’s and unsubscribes
· Time stamping of opens and clickthru’s in order to report on recipients opening and clicking thru multiple times.
· Ability to download reports showing who opened, clicked, unsubscribed and which addresses bounced and why
· Breakdowns of the links in the email and how many times each one has been clicked upon.
21) Proven deployment of the solution
Many suppliers who are not specialists in email marketing will offer to design and develop a bespoke solution for you. This should be avoided at all costs. The wide range of solutions now available on the market means that there is a proven solution, at an affordable price with dedicated support and development teams available. A bespoke solution cannot be produced at a
price that provides the same level of functionality, reliability and support. In addition these suppliers will not be able to help you with issues such as white listing. These guidelines are a minimum you should look for to make running your campaigns smooth and getting good results from your campaigns.

Inhouse software solutions
This is software in the traditional sense that is installed on a server within your own IT infrastructure. Of the solutions available in the marketplace most offer a web browser interface into the software. There are also a few additional suppliers that offer PC based solutions – these do not offer the same level of functionality in terms of tracking and reporting and generally use your existing business email for delivering the emails.
Pros
· Licence fee as opposed to a cost per email like hosted ASP solutions. This can be far more cost effective if you are sending high volumes of email.
· All data is stored inhouse
· Dedicated server and IP address – you are not sharing servers with other organisations
Cons
· Cost is usually an upfront licence fee
· Requires some internal IT expertise and resources
· Some inhouse solutions need to be plugged into your existing mail servers and databases causing huge delays and slowdowns to your existing business email
What to look out for
· Look for UK telephone and email support. Many inhouse software suppliers only have a US office.
· Does the solution have its own send engine and database or does it require use of your existing systems?
· PC based solutions cannot offer the same reliability, delivery speed or reporting as a server based solution despite what their website may say
· Find out if the supplier offers any support for ‘white listing’ your IP address

Hosted ASP Solutions
The vast majority of suppliers offer a hosted solution where you login via the Internet to manage your campaigns. All of your data is stored online and the supplier’s server handles the delivery and tracking of the email campaigns.
Pros
· No software to install – access everything from your Internet browser
· Scalable pricing based upon how many emails you send
· No hardware or bandwidth requirements
Cons
· Shared server and IP address – can cause issues with deliverability if other users of that server are sending out junk
· Can be more expensive for higher volumes due to the cost per email
· Data is stored on external servers

What to look out for
· If the servers are based in the USA you might be breaking the Data Protection Act by placing personal data on these servers
· Check whether the email servers are blacklisted by Spamcop
· Find out if the solution is there own or whether they are reselling it – if they are reselling the solution this could cause delays in support issues.

Fully outsourced bureau / managed services
If you are undertaking your first email marketing exercise this can be the most appropriate way to ensure you get everything right. It can also be the best solution to organisations that do not have the appropriate skills or time to setup and manage email campaigns
Pros
· A managed service will fill skill gaps and overcome time constraints
· Suppliers are often able to provide additional advice and expertise on best practice
Cons
· Can be expensive in comparison to selfservice solutions
· There can be delays as work gets passed between client and agency for approval

What to look out for
· Find out how much experience they have had working on email campaigns
· Do they have skills in data processing, creative and a reliable technology solution to deliver and track your email campaigns?

The Maxemail Family of Email Marketing Solutions
Maxemail inHouse
A licenced software solution for inhouse deployment. There are no 'per email' costs and therefore Maxemail inHouse can save you up to 90% per annum.
Further information:
Maxemail onDemand
Maxemail onDemand is a hosted ASP solution. The solution is accessed purely from your Internet browser and enables marketers to take onboard a fully featured, scalable and robust solution with minimal upfront and ongoing costs.
Further information:
Maxemail Agency
A specialist solution for marketing agencies. Each customer can be given their own area on Maxemail for their email marketing and provided with a login to view the latest tracking reports or to authorise campaigns. The user interface can also be customised with your own logos and branding.
Further information:
Maxemail Managed
For marketers who would prefer to outsource the running of their email marketing campaigns we offer a full range of professional managed services from HTML email template design through to running viral marketing campaigns.

Sean Duffy is Marketing Manager for UK email service provider Emailcenter. Sean has been working on email campaigns within retail, travel, B2B and other industry sectors since 2001. Sean is also author of the book “Permission Email Marketing: The Strategy & Tactics of Successful Email Marketing.”

The law of negligence means that in certain situations one person owes a duty of care to another person to not cause them any harm or injury. If that person subsequently does something, or fails to do something, and that action or inaction causes injury to the other person, they are entitled to claim compnensation for the damage (the injury or the losses and expenses in a whiplash claim).

To understand the law of negligence in relation to a whiplash claim it is easiest to use a case study. If Mrs A is stationary in a queue of traffic leading onto a roundabout, she is in a car and she owes a duty of care to all other road users. Likewise, any vehicles behind Mrs A owe a duty of care not to cause harm to her. If Mr B drives up behind Mrs A and fails to stop in time, crashing into the rear of her car, he has breached this duty of care. If this breach has led to damage or injury to Mrs A, she can claim compensation for these losses from Mr B (or in reality his insurance company).

In the above example, if Mrs A subsequently experienced neck and back pain, the next step in esablishing that she could make a claim for compensation would be to prove that the injuries she sustained were caused by Mr B driving into the back of her car. In theory this is very straightforward, as if she was not injured before and was afterwards, her injuries seem to have been caused by the accident. However, medical evidence is needed to prove that the breach of duty of care did lead to the whiplash injuries to Mrs A. If on obtaining the medical notes for Mrs A it is discovered that she already had bad neck and back pain, a medical expert will have to say whether the pain now has been made worse by the car accident. Unless his evidence confirms this to be the case, Mrs A will have failed to establish that Mr B's breach of duty or care has caused her injuries, and will not be able to claim compensation.

To prove negligence to be able to make a claim for compensation for whiplash, a person must prove that another person owed them a duty of care, that they breached this duty of care, AND that this breach of the duty of care caused the first person to suffer injuries or losses. Only then will they be entitled to claim compensation.

To be able to make a claim for compensation for whiplash you first need to prove that someone else was totally or largely to blame for that accident. The law of tort says that you must prove:

• That someone owed you a duty of care (to drive carefully and not to cause damage to you or your vehicle)
• That someone has breached that duty of care (ie they drove into you)
• And that driving into you has caused damage, injury or loss (causation)

If they can prove all of these points they can make a claim for compensation. However, that claim for compensation can still be reduced in amount if the other driver can prove that you were partially responsible for the accident. If they can prove that you were 50% responsible for the accident, then your total claim for compensation would be reduced by 50%, meaning that if the total claim was initially for £10,000, it would be reduced to £5,000. Therefore, contributory negligence can have a serious impact on the total amount of your whiplash claim.

There can be a large number of causes of contributory negligence. For example, somebody driving into the back of you when you are stationary normally leads to a straightforward claim for compensation for your whiplash injury. However, if the other driver can prove that you were braking and your brake lights were not working, he may be able to reduce or completely remove his liability for compensation to you. Each case is looked at on the evidence and your solicitor will advise you on this in detail. It is your solicitor's duty to obtain evidence to support your claim and also to rebut any claim against you for contributory negligence by the other driver's solicitor.

There is one area where you will always be guilty of contributory negligence:- failing to wear a seatbelt. If you make a whiplash claim and the other driver can prove that you were not wearing a seatbelt when the accident took place, your total claim for compensation will normally be reduced by 25%. Therefore, not only should you wear a seatbelt to comply with the law and to protect yourself in the event of an accident, but it also saves you losing one quarter of your compensation if you subsequently make a claim for compensation.

Another example of contributory negligence is failing to wear a helmet on a bicycle, or failing to use a guard on machinery at work when you have been trained to do so.

You can read more about medical negligence on our website.

Nick Jervis is a solicitor (non practising) who worked in private practice for 14 years specialising in personal injury claims. On leaving legal practice Nick established 1stclaims as a means of putting innocent accident victims in touch with expert personal injury solicitors that Nick has worked with over the last 17 years. For further guidance on medical negligence, please visit our site on www.1stclaims.co.uk