http://www.articletrader.com/ Articles at ArticleTrader en-us http://www.articletrader.com/legal/personal-injury/issues-relevant-to-a-private-home-accident-injury-claim.html http://www.articletrader.com/legal/personal-injury/issues-relevant-to-a-private-home-accident-injury-claim.html Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0500
Yet this is a very real possibility. While a compensation claim certainly has the potential to sour friendships, there is no real reason why one should. Usually, the insurers of the residency where the accident occurred will pay out any compensation arising out of the injury claim, meaning there need not necessarily be any financial loss incurred by the home-owner.

Looking at these kinds of personal injury claims from an objective viewpoint is a useful exercise. If someone has suffered pain, injury and financial loss through no fault of his or her own, seeking compensation is a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

People have been doing this for thousands of years. Many eminent historians argue that the existence of a system of monetary compensation is a good indicator of a civilised society.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA) have long been trying to drive the message home that accidents in the home represent a real danger to everyone and that people should be doing more to lessen their likelihood.
They report that every year, 4,000 people are killed in accidents in the home. Further to that, hospitals report that 2.7 million people each year turn up at accident and emergency wards seeking treatments for injuries sustained in the workplace. While only a small percentage of these resulted in accident injury claims, enough of them did for the total compensation claim cost to run into millions of pounds.

A personal account
I must admit that I do, in fact, have a personal interest in this subject. Nearly ten years ago I was at a friend's school graduation party. There were around 15 of us at Ella's family home, so it was a pretty low key affair.
The celebration had been put on by my friend's parents. To mark our graduation and our burgeoning adulthood they had even laid on some beers and wine for us to drink. This was despite the fact only around half of us had reached 18 the legal drinking age.

Ella's best friend, Jenny, was there. She was of a very slight build and, at that stage, had virtually no experience of drinking alcohol. Pretty soon she was friendly, cheerful and effusive, but by no means completely drunk.

As it approached midnight, Jenny decided it was time for her to go home, so she phoned her parents to ask for a lift. What she hadn't noticed was that Ella's parents had only recently closed the sliding glass doors.

The fact that these glass doors had no markings to indicate their presence, coupled with Jenny's tipsiness meant she failed to notice them so crashed through the glass as she walked towards the phone, sustaining severe cuts to her face and arms.

Ella rushed over to and tried to stem the flow of blood with several t-shirts, while I called emergency services.

Eventually, Jenny turned out to be alright, although she did need some corrective cosmetic surgery to minimise the effect of scarring to her face.
Funding of both the her surgery and the counselling Jenny needed to help her recover from the trauma of the incident cost her parents quite a lot of money; money they didn't really have.

This was part of their motivation for making an accident injury claim.
I would be lying if I said that this didn't sour the atmosphere between the two families for a while. However, nearly a decade on Jenny and Ella are again really close. So close, in fact, that Jenny was recently bridesmaid at Ella's wedding and Ella's husband, he's none other than Jenny's big brother.
This article may be published on another website free of charge, on the condition that a link is provided from this article to our website:

http://www.youclaim.co.uk/personal-injury/contacting-personal-injury-solicitors-for-glass-injuries.htm

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John Patterson, YouClaim are the leading online personal injury compensation claim people with an excellent claim success rate. Call 0800 10 757 95 or visit http://www.youclaim.co.uk/personal-injury/contacting-personal-injury-solicitors-for-glass-injuries.htm for more details.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/automotive/cars/the-thrills-and-spills-of-long-car-journeys.html http://www.articletrader.com/automotive/cars/the-thrills-and-spills-of-long-car-journeys.html Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500
However, tantrums aren't the only thing likely to be flying around the back seats on long car journeys. Drinks, sweets and snacks provided by well-meaning parents who are simply hoping to keep their children occupied for a few minutes are all liable to get spilt and smeared horribly across the car's seats, windows and carpets.

It is easy to get distracted from driving when you realise the little darlings have just spilt Coke all over the back seat of your car. However, both your family and your car insurance company will appreciate you keeping your eyes on the road rather than that awful fizzing mess behind you. If possible, get the kids to mop up the mess with some tissues or some other absorbent (and non-essential) material.

If you are to have any hope of restoring your pride and joy - the car that is, not the children - to its pre-day-out good looks without the need to use a valeting service, then you need to go armed and prepared. Stains are best dealt with sooner rather than later so, if you have the energy after your family day out, you need to get down the shops and buy yourself some upholstery cleaner as soon as possible.

There are a lot of different brands of upholstery cleaner on the market so it is sensible to choose one which claims to help you with your particular brand of stain. Most upholstery cleaners are relatively gentle, which means that they may not work should you have the misfortune to be tackling a particularly persistent stain. However, they are ideal for treating the majority of straightforward food and drink stains (excluding anything red) so should suit your purposes perfectly.

If you are wondering why red food or drink is an exception, the reasons are complex and scientific. Whilst red wine is the most well-known example, parents often come across the same problem with red dyes which are used in children's food and sweets. If you have a red stain on your car's otherwise lovely cream upholstery, going to the pros is probably your best bet as they will have special equipment to deal with it.

However, if you are dealing with any other variety of stain, you may well be able to deal with it yourself. Before you set to work on removing the strain though, remember that you should always read the instructions on the bottle, heed any warnings on it, and test out the cleaner on a small (ideally discrete) part of the material to check that it isn't going to cause further damage.

When tackling the stain, one thing that you do have going for you is the fact that car manufacturers bear in mind spilt drinks when choosing materials for the interior. As a result, many car seats and carpets are coated with a special fabric protector which acts as a stain repellent. This means that fluids wipe up rather than soak in, and gives you a much better chance of a stain-free car seat if some or all of the offending substance was soaked up soon after it was spilt.

When you are cleaning a car seat or carpet, it is generally advisable to clean a larger area than that which the stain affects. If you only clean a very small area, you may end up with a tide mark effect that is caused by the movement of dirt when you cleaned it.

Next time you are off to enjoy a day out, remember that spillages are inevitable when you are travelling with energetic children at speed in a vehicle that jiggles and jerks around all the time. The possible consequences of such a distraction range from the not-so-serious loss of cheap motor insurance to much more serious injuries, so it is best to avoid the issue altogether.

One way to safeguard your upholstery and your car insurance rates is by stopping regularly for food and drink breaks rather than keeping provisions in the car. Alternatively, if you know that spillages may occur, it might be worth covering the seats with an old rug or throw which will catch any food and help to soak up spilt drinks.

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Duck2Water Car Insurance

Read this article at www.duck2watercarinsurance.co.uk

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/automotive/cars/why-a-sun-strip-is-as-much-tinting-as-i-can-handle.html http://www.articletrader.com/automotive/cars/why-a-sun-strip-is-as-much-tinting-as-i-can-handle.html Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500
Thankfully, it didn't have my parent's names etched into it, but it certainly wasn't a 'cool' feature. Instead it was practical and very sensible, just like most other Volvo accessories.

The sun strip shielded a driver's eyes from overhead glare almost as effectively as a sun visor, and without all the fuss of folding one out and repositioning it. And if you parked in a sunny spot, it helped keep the car a little cooler than a fully transparent window could.

If sun strips were ever fashionable, however, it was back in the 80's when our Volvo was produced. To more modern tastes, tinting just a portion of your windscreen seems a bit tame - particularly considering most of today's cars roll off the production line with light-resistant glass in every window.

There's no doubt about it: tinting, when it's done subtly, looks a lot better than plain glass. Why else, for instance, do marketing departments use darkened windows in almost every car ad you see on TV or on billboards by the side of the road? To my mind, the effect is like putting on a pair of sunglasses - and they make pretty much anyone look the business.

Besides, a moderate tint does more than just make the car look better. It also takes some of the heat and glare out of bright sunlight that would otherwise end up dazzling and discomforting whoever is at the wheel.

But given these advantages, some UK motorists are tempted to go a little too far with tinting.

The law states that a car's front windows may be no more than 30 percent tinted, and the front windscreen 25 percent. Going beyond this level has a negative effect on driver visibility, and thus heightens the risk of an injury or lost cheap car insurance rate through an accident. The backs, however, are fair game, because they aren't considered vital for visibility.

To put these figures into context: today's average car comes with an 18 to 22 percent tint on all glass as standard, which leaves you pretty much maxed-out where the front windows are concerned.

Even so, the police regularly make arrests for front windows with as much as a 75 percent tint; sometimes even greater. At this level it's more like wearing a blindfold than a pair of sunglasses. Safe driving is patently impossible.

It's tempting to imagine that the kind of criminal behind most of these cases was some pimply teen in a Vauxhall Nova, but this is actually far from the truth. Instead, boy racers (many of whom can don't have the cash to splash out on tinted glass after making their young driver car insurance payments) account for relatively few sales either in the legal or illegal tinting markets.

Today's buoyant trade in glass and tinting accessories can actually be blamed on a quite different section of the driving public: the school-run mums. Presumably, they think darkened windows will stop the kids getting quite so fidgety in the back, and stop the other mums from noticing the MacDonald's cartons and other child-related messiness strewn about the interior.

Sadly, much illegal tinting is applied without the mums realising it's illegal - and it's often done at the suggestion of some unscrupulous garage worker. Penalties for offending cars run from fines to prohibitions (which ban you from driving until the tints are removed) and can potentially ruin your cheap car insurance premiums.

Given the legislative minefield, it's perhaps better to avoid tinted windows altogether and stick to a more traditional way of getting that 'sunglasses' feeling in your front seats.

That's right - wear sunglasses.

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Author - Mike Page (Hoot Car Insurance)

Car insurance providers for UK drivers

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/health/lifestyle/could-a-runny-nose-cost-you-your-cheap-car-insurance.html http://www.articletrader.com/health/lifestyle/could-a-runny-nose-cost-you-your-cheap-car-insurance.html Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500
As the hayfever season gets underway a number of women could be risking the need to claim off their car insurance policies and all because of a sneeze. According the http://www.theaa.com, drivers who sneeze when they're travelling at 70mph can lose their vision for as much as 100 metres.

But sneezing isn't the only irritable thing that descends upon female drivers when showing off the driving skills that have credited them with cheap car insurance; there are a number of hayfever symptoms including:

* runny nose
* itchy, watery eyes
* headaches
* loss of concentration
* sore throat and tongue

The majority of these symptoms can be dealt with by using prescribed or over the counter medication; however, such treatment could put female drivers at risk of a road accident for which they may have to claim on their cheap car insurance.

A study carried out by road safety charity Brake http://www.brake.org.uk found that nearly one in six motorists admitted to taking over-the-counter drugs before getting behind the wheel. This shows that a large number of women could be putting themselves at risk from suffering injuries in a car accident because their driving has become impaired from medication.

The chief executive of Brake said, "The Government must do more to make drivers aware that their medication may make them unsafe behind the wheel. There needs to be clear warnings on all prescription and over-the-counter medicine. As we start the hayfever season drivers need to be aware that by taking what seems to be an innocent anti-allergy tablet they could be putting lives at risk. If you think your driving may be impaired as a result of taking medication then the message is simple; don't risk it."

The research, which was also carried out by the Green Flag Motoring Assistant http://www.greenflag.com, shows that a number of hayfever sufferers may have to claim on their cheap car insurance after being involved in an accident. A spokesperson for Green Flag added, "We would advise motorists on any medication to avoid driving if they feel drowsy, tired or dizzy. Many medicines, particularly those taken for hayfever and allergies, cause fatigue, and could inhibit a driver's ability to drive safely in much the same way as drinking alcohol does."

Here at CoverGirl Car Insurance Services, we spoke to several people who had been involved in near misses after taking medication for their hayfever allergies. Here is what one of them had to say:

"For as along as I can remember I've suffered from hayfever, I even had to delay my driving test for about five minutes because I had a bout of sneezes. I decided to take over-the-counter medication to reduce my hayfever symptoms but one day, when I was driving on a country road, I began feeling really tired. I found it difficult to keep my eyes open my car started drifting off the road a little. I pulled over as soon as I found a lay-by. If I hadn't, I could have easily been involved in a road accident and needed to claim on my woman car insurance."
Sarah, Hertfordshire

If you know that you're a hayfever sufferer and you take medication, why risk the danger of having an accident and claiming on your cheap car insurance? If you're planning a journey try to take medication that doesn't cause drowsiness or even ask somebody else to drive.

Last but not least, keep a box of tissues handy in your car to prevent a runny nose. You never know who might be parked by your side at the next set of traffic lights!

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CoverGirl Car Insurance
Suppliers of cheap car insurance for women

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/legal/personal-injury/one-womans-experience-of-a-manchester-solicitor.html http://www.articletrader.com/legal/personal-injury/one-womans-experience-of-a-manchester-solicitor.html Fri, 21 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500
Little did I know that I would soon suffer a terrible personal injury in a work accident that would hold up my career and prevent me from being able to fully enjoy Manchester’s immense cultural and commercial life.

During this difficult beginning there was one bedrock that would keep my faith and strength in the future: the no win, no fee Manchester solicitor who took on my accident claim and would eventually secure me compensation.

I think that when I suffered my work accident, I experienced the same series of emotions that anyone who has suffered personal injury in an accident at work goes through.

Why me? I thought. Have I done something wrong? Am I somehow to blame for this work accident? Is it morally acceptable for me to make a compensation claim? How do I find a Manchester solicitors who are right for me?

The work accident itself seemed to stem from nothing. One minute I was an up-and-coming set designer, who, young and healthy, had already worked on several high-profile theatre productions in Manchester, Edinburgh and London’s West End.

The next minute I was lying on my back staring at the ceiling with a gash in my leg and a painful, pulsating neck injury.

It was a simple accident, one that could happen to anyone. I had been on the penultimate rung of a wooden ladder (only now do I realise that the ladder was nearly as old as the theatre itself), painting a gloriously colourful vertical backdrop for a new musical, when the rung gave way leaving me to hopelessly tumble to the ground.

Being taken out of the theatre in a stretcher wearing a neck brace was one of the most frightening and bizarre experiences of my life. Several worst case scenarios went through my mind. Will I work again? Have I suffered, God forbid, a disabling spinal injury?

As it was, the work accident had caused a soft tissue neck injury. The doctors described it as being akin to a whiplash injury a person might sustain in a serious car accident.

I was devastated when I was told I was not considered fit enough to continue working on the musical production. Such jobs are hard to come by and it would have looked great on my CV.

Both my union and several of my colleagues urged me to contact a Manchester solicitor to make a work accident compensation claim.

I admit that at the time I knew practically nothing about the compensation claim process. I did not even know of a single Manchester solicitors firm, but I realised that in order to manage my neck injury and keep myself financially solvent – I had only just taken out a long-term lease on a gorgeous tenement flat – I would have to make an accident claim.

A friend who only a couple of years previously had had a traumatic experience of medical negligence recommended I make a no win, no fee claim.

For a while I hesitated. Weren’t no win, no fee claims and no win, no fee solicitors the terrible twin social evils that the media so liked to berate under the derisory banner of ‘compensation claim culture’?

But my friend who had had a positive experience in obtaining medical negligence compensation persisted.

“Do you want to sit at home feeling sorry for yourself, claiming disability benefit while you start to incur debts that spiral out of control?” He asked.

“Or do you want to do something about it? By making a no win, no fee claim you will at least be in control of your own destiny and certainly less of a burden to society. Surely your employers take out work accident claim insurance to cover themselves for situations exactly like yours.”

The argument won me over. So, not without a little trepidation I dialled the telephone number my friend had given me for his no win, no fee Manchester solicitor.

It was such a relief. Once I had given the Manchester solicitor my medical records and the photographs a colleague had taken of the work accident scene, she practically did everything for me.

Within weeks I had the compensation I needed. The settlement happened out-of-court and was really quite amiable. I don’t know what I’d been worrying about.

Five months later, after extensive patience and rehabilitation, I gained another job working on an independent theatre production in Liverpool. It may not have been as well paid as the previous job I’d had to abandon, but it was a reasonable commute from Manchester and represented the first step on the road to career recovery.

I’m still based in Manchester and am thankfully now spending more time shopping at the Trafford Centre, eating in Chinatown and going to the theatre than sitting at home wondering if I can pluck up the courage to call a Manchester solicitor.

This article may be published on another website free of charge, on the condition that a link is provided from this article to our website: http://www.youclaim.co.uk/leading-manchester-solicitors-waiting-to-help-you.htm

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YouClaim are the leading online personal injury compensation claim people with an excellent claim success rate. Call 0800 10 757 95 or visit http://www.youclaim.co.uk/leading-manchester-solicitors-waiting-to-help-you.htm for more details.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/legal/personal-injury/why-accident-statistics-could-provoke-holiday-accident-claim-increase.html http://www.articletrader.com/legal/personal-injury/why-accident-statistics-could-provoke-holiday-accident-claim-increase.html Fri, 21 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500
No matter where you go on holiday this year you will no doubt be using some kind of transport. Whether you are jetting off to explore Australia, you are hopping onboard a liner to cruise around the Caribbean, you are taking the passenger ferry or the Eurostar over to France or simply getting in the car for a trip down to Cornwall, the reality is that you could become an accident statistic.

But don’t despair, it’s not quite as dismal as it first may seem. The odds of having a holiday accident for which you have to consult a personal injury solicitor to make a compensation claim are thousands to one. The majority of travellers will come back with a sun tan, a selection of tacky souvenirs and a suitcase full of duty frees, not a serious personal injury. However, some accident statistics printed at http://www.rospa.com/ reveal some greater insight into the dangers that British holiday makers may face.

[http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/family_life/childhood/toys/1976904_bucket_and_spade.php?id=1976904 – APPROVED BY SJ (09.07.07)]

The first point to make is that it’s a good job that you have decided to take some time off from work. Not only can working for long periods without regular breaks away lead to work-related stress, you could also be at more risk of having an accident at work. During 2005/06 there were 160 fatal accidents and a staggering 28,605 personal injuries in the workplace reported to the Health and Safety Executive under RIDDOR. Likewise, there were a total of four deaths reported in schools.

Worryingly, many holiday accident claims are on the cards before holiday makers even make their destinations as the 2002 UK national estimate for accidents while travelling/touring was 480,664.

There’s bad news if you are staying close to home and either touring local attractions or doing a cross-country trip, as in 2005 271,017 people suffered personal injury in road accidents. This figure relates to all drivers in the UK, not just holiday makers, but is worth bearing in mind all the same.

Similarly, that same year, there were 5,172 casualties from train accidents, including accidents through the movement of railway vehicles and accidents on railway premises. But, despite a number of fatal crashes reported in the media of late, public transport is still the safest way to travel. So maybe taking the train on a trip to Edinburgh rather than driving from the south would not only be a less tiresome option but also a far safer one.

Even though you have more chance of being killed by lightning than you do of being involved in a plane crash, 2005 saw a total of 105 casualties and 27 deaths resulting from aviation accidents in UK airspace. The majority of these air crashes were caused by UK registered aircraft.

You should also take extra care when choosing which leisure activities to pursue when on holiday. There are so many leisure activities on offer in the UK and abroad – from surfing and sailing to hiking and mountain climbing – and although there are stringent safety measures in place with professional establishments, accidents are fairly common.

According to the Home Accident Surveillance System including the Leisure Activities Final Report 2002 Data, a total of 1,208,414 people had accidents while taking part in leisure activities in the UK just five years ago. Also, the national estimate for non-fatal water sport accidents is 21,935 for 2002. Further, RoSPA have revealed that 381 drownings were recorded during 2003. It is thought that many of these resulted in holiday accident claims.

This article may be published on another website free of charge, on the condition that a link is provided from this article to our website: http://www.youclaim.co.uk/holiday-accident-claims-foreigness.htm

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John Patterson, YouClaim are the leading online personal injury compensation claim people with an excellent claim success rate. Call 0800 10 757 95 or visit http://www.youclaim.co.uk/holiday-accident-claims-foreigness.htm for more details.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/legal/personal-injury/clinical-claim-reaps-cosmetic-rewards.html http://www.articletrader.com/legal/personal-injury/clinical-claim-reaps-cosmetic-rewards.html Fri, 21 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500
I am even more shocked when a beautiful, fresh-faced woman in her late-twenties beckons my attention and asks if I am ‘the reporter’.

After sitting down and chatting with her, I soon understand why Diana no longer bears any perceptible traces of the horrific cosmetic injuries she suffered after going into a private hospital for a routine operation to remove a benign facial cyst.

She is unabashed in talking about her experience of the operation and her subsequent use of a personal injury solicitor to make a no win, no fee claim for medical negligence compensation.

Before our coffee has even cooled to a comfortable drinking temperature she has already pulled three photographs from her bag. They clearly illustrate the nature of her story.

The first shows an attractive young woman with a minor though noticeable cyst on her face, the second a tired and depressed looking woman with a shocking and distressingly festering wound. In the third photograph, the wound has healed to raw and large scar. It is about 5cm by 6cm and covers an expanse of skin below the left eye to the upper and lower parts of the cheek.

“That was when things hit rock-bottom,” she says pointing to the third photograph, “I couldn’t see a light at the end of the tunnel then. I’d been through the infection, the hope of healing, to the reality that was facing me: a life-long scar.”

I tell her that the later two photographs are a far cry from the attractive and unblemished woman I see sitting before me now. “Is that down to the medical negligence compensation?” I ask.

“Yes medical negligence compensation made it all possible. If I’d never been persuaded to contact personal injury solicitors with a view to making a medical negligence compensation claim, I never would have managed to afford corrective cosmetic surgery.”

She gestures to her face, “Medical negligence compensation made this possible. Before the operation, the cyst had been bugging me for a long time. Eventually, as I had some time off work, I bit the bullet and decided it was time to have the thing removed. My GP explained that it would be a simple procedure. It never even entered my mind that I might have to make an accident claim for medical negligence compensation.”

“What happened?” I enquire, “On what grounds was it decided you had a valid medical negligence claim?”

“I was very fortunate.” She replies. “As the medical profession have a reputation for closing ranks at the mere mention of an accident claim. There was no difficulty in proving damage. The proof was on my face for all to see. Causation was not much of a problem either. The difficulties came with showing there had been a breach of duty.

“As I said before, I was fortunate. Around the time I decided to make my medical negligence compensation claim there was a fair amount of furore relating to an endemic neglect of surgical hygiene in the hospital in which I was operated in. I’d been treated in a ward where negligent medical practices had become the norm rather than the exception.”

I find myself curious to know if the accident claim process put her under added stress.

“Not really, no. Once I decided to claim medical negligence compensation, my personal injury solicitor took control of pretty much everything. Once I’d had the independent medical assessments, I took a back seat. I was basically detached from the accident claim process until my personal injury solicitor contacted me with the good news. At that moment I felt satisfied – jubilant, no – but satisfied, yes. From then I knew I’d be able to get my face sorted out.”

“And since you’ve had the corrective surgery, your scars have completely healed?” I ask.

“Nearly, but not quite. To the naked and unscrupulous eye, yes. I do wear make-up, which helps cover up evidence of the scarring. The cosmetic surgeon also used methods which trick the eye into not seeing what is there. Don’t misunderstand me though – I am delighted with the outcome.”

After a while Diana and I get talking about other things. It is a relief to leave the subject of medical negligence compensation behind. She tells me how wonderful it is to have the confidence of her own face again and how she has found love with man from her new job. They are now engaged, all they have to do now is settle on a date for an autumn wedding.

As I leave the café, Diana waves to me from the window. Her youthful and attractive face makes me feel a flush of patriotic pride that we live in a UK where victims of clinical negligence can obtain financial redress in the form of medical negligence compensation.

This article may be published on another website free of charge, on the condition that a link is provided from this article to our website: http://www.youclaim.co.uk/medical-negligence-deadly-cases.htm

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John Patterson, YouClaim are the leading online personal injury compensation claim people with an excellent claim success rate. Call 0800 10 757 95 or visit http://www.youclaim.co.uk/medical-negligence-deadly-cases.htm for more details.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/legal/personal-injury/scotland-the-brave-and-work-accident-claims.html http://www.articletrader.com/legal/personal-injury/scotland-the-brave-and-work-accident-claims.html Fri, 14 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500
It does not seem fair that a country which has contributed so much to humanity, civilization and the United Kingdom should be such a hotbed for personal injury claims, particularly in the field of work accident compensation.

Yet there are explanations. It does make sense that Scotland should see so many work accident claims when for a prolonged period of years Scotland, together with Wales and the north of England, formed the centre of the UK’s mining industry.

Even today there are still Scottish mining work accident claims for work injuries such as asbestos-related illness and beat knee (bursitis) being made by people who worked in Scottish mines when they were at their peak in the 1970s and 80s.

But work accidents in Scottish mines are, of course, not a recent phenomenon. In fact they have been happening from the earliest Stone Age forays into mining right through to the hazardous days of Victorian pre and early industrial mining.

Unfortunately, for these early victims of Scottish work accidents there was no recourse to no win, no fee solicitors specialising in accidents at work.

Here are a few examples of the kind of mining work accident that was all too common in Scotland towards the end of the 19th Century.

All are taken directly from Scottish newspapers of the time:
• Fatal Accident at a Fife Colliery – An accident, which terminated fatally, occurred yesterday in one of the pits of Muircockhall Colliery, near Dunfermline. John Oswald, a miner, was working at the face, when a quantity of coal came away suddenly and fell upon him. His back was broken and he died while being taken to his house at Townhill. The deceased, who was 50 years of age, leaves a widow and grown up family. [Scotsman 1 May 1895]

• Fatal Pit Accident – Yesterday, James Stobbie, labourer, accidentally fell down one of the Dunfermline Coal Company's pits at Highholm, and was killed on the spot. The shaft is in process of sinking, and Stobbie, who was engaged in emptying the “kettles” missed his footing and fell a distance of 40 fathoms. Deceased was married and fifty years of age. [Edinburgh Courant 5 December 1884]

• Fatal Accident - James Reid, miner, was killed at the "Rossie" pit of Messrs Bowman & Co, East Wemyss, on Saturday, through one of the hutches falling from the top of the elevator at the loading bank. He only survived the accident an hour. He leaves a widow and two children. [Scotsman 18 June 1883]

• Serious Personal Injury - Yesterday morning, John Matthewson, hooker in the Rosie Pit of Messrs Bowman &, Company, missed his footing and fell in front of the hutches, several of which grazed his head and otherwise seriously injured his body. [Scotsman 2 October 1884]
It is a shame that through the cruel hand of history none of these men benefited from the advances of 20th Century medical science or the expertise of today’s no win, no fee personal injury solicitors.
Chances are that many great Scots such as Dr. David Livingstone the famous philanthropist, Robert the Bruce the valiant king and Alexander Bell, inventor of the telephone, would agree that no win, no fee work accident compensation claims are a just and necessary element of a fair and equal Scottish society.

This article may be published on another website free of charge, on the condition that a link is provided from this article to our website: http://www.youclaim.co.uk/scottish-injury/scottish-industries-and-personal-injury-claims.htm

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YouClaim are the leading online personal injury compensation claim people with an excellent claim success rate. Call 0800 10 757 95 or visit http://www.youclaim.co.uk/scottish-injury/scottish-industries-and-personal-injury-claims.htm for more details.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/legal/personal-injury/making-a-no-win-no-fee-claim-against-fate.html http://www.articletrader.com/legal/personal-injury/making-a-no-win-no-fee-claim-against-fate.html Fri, 14 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500
The piece got me thinking about embarrassing and compromising situations I've found myself in for which I'd like to be able to make no win, no fee claims for, as well as the no win, no fee claims I'd like to make for the simple but cruel misfortunes of the genetic lottery.

After ruefully ruminating on this for a while I've whittled down my no win, no fee claim grievances to a top three. I'm not under any illusions though, I've no doubt it's highly unlikely that any personal injury solicitor in the UK or anywhere else will be willing to fight my compensation claims.

No win, no fee claim no.3
I'd like to be a more impressive physical specimen. Ok there are obvious vanity issues, yes, and while I'd like to be irresistibly attractive to the fairer gender, that is not the main thing.

Primarily, what I'd like is to be blessed with supreme athletic gifts comparable to those of say a Pele or a Michael Jordan. Ideally, I'd use those to be a professional footballer, winning individual awards and team trophies from the ages of 17 to 23 before switching to the professional tennis circuit where I'd win a record number of Grand Slams then retire at the age of 35.

I think that when you factor in the lost earnings and the pain of not being at the pinnacle of my chosen sports, my no win, no fee compensation claim must be worth at least £20million.

No win, no fee claim no.2
I'd like to have been born to reign over my own private kingdom. It's not that I particularly want to rule over anyone, though I wouldn't mind ordering a few summary executions, it's more that I'd like to have the land and the power and the property, oh, and the glory.

I've no doubt I'd be a kind and benevolent ruler. In fact, people often comment on the near regal way I carry myself, so it is only an accident of nature that right now I'm not King John III and that a certain Elizabeth Windsor isn't running home dog-tired to catch the latest episode of Hollyoaks after a hard day's work being sprayed by hot oil at her local chippie.

This one is troubling me. Who do I make this no win, no fee claim for personal injury compensation against? Is the Queen liable? If you're reading this Lizzie, contact me, I'm sure there's been some mistake.

Anyway, I value this no win, no fee claim at roughly £3billion.

No win, no fee claim no.1
I want to be Superman I feel that this compensation claim actually has a pretty good chance of success compared to the first two. Surely there is some no win, no fee solicitor out there in small town USA, looking for his big break who would take my case on.

Ever since I was a small child and watched the Superman film franchise, starring the late great Christopher Reeve, I have wanted to fly through the firmament averting apocalypse after apocalypse.

I hold the producers of these films directly responsible for placing in me this unattainable desire. As a result my heart has been a desperate hub of unfulfilled longing. This has greatly reduce my capacity to enjoy life and it is only because I don't (quite) have a subnormal IQ that I haven't yet jumped off a building in the misguided belief I can fly.

For this no win, no fee claim for compensation I will accept a smaller settlement than for each of the other two. So why don't you and I settle this out of court, Warner Bros. I'll be happy with just a couple of million pounds for this one.

In conclusion
Getting back to the initial focus of this article - embarrassing no win, no fee claims such as the one made by the man who soiled his immaculate white trousers I would have made a list of embarrassing situations that, given the opportunity, I'd like to make no win, no fee claims for, only they are too numerous to list.

So I'll mention just a few, such as the time I split my shorts and pants in two while keeping goal in front of my whole high-school, or the time I walked into a wake failing to notice everyone was dressed in black and said Whose wedding is it?', or the time I got caught glutting myself on a meat pie after I'd spent three months elaborately pretending to my vegetarian girlfriend that I was also a vegetarian.

The list would just go on and on. I would love to contact a personal injury solicitors to make no win, no fee claims for them all. But I guess that if I could, we really would be living in a compensation claim culture', wouldn't we?

This article may be published on another website free of charge, on the condition that a link is provided from this article to our website: http://www.youclaim.co.uk/No-win-no-fee/no-win-no-fee-solicitors-and-importance-of-speed.htm

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YouClaim are the leading online personal injury compensation claim people with an excellent claim success rate. Call 0800 10 757 95 or visit http://www.youclaim.co.uk/No-win-no-fee/no-win-no-fee-solicitors-and-importance-of-speed.htm for more details.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/legal/personal-injury/wii-injuries-destroyed-lives-and-the-unreal-reality.html http://www.articletrader.com/legal/personal-injury/wii-injuries-destroyed-lives-and-the-unreal-reality.html Fri, 14 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500
I have, in my short and humble life, achieved a great deal. At the tender age of 14 I won an Olympic gold medal, a year later I single-handedly fought my way across Nazi-occupied Europe and assassinated Hitler, and not long after, before I had even left school, I fathered nine children, married six times and was arrested for bigamy.

I didn’t stop there, though, and before I finished my teens I’d set foot on the moon, scored a last minute World Cup winning goal and even founded my very own civilisation.

Nowadays my gargantuan adventures have had to take a bit of a back seat but in the last few months I’ve still managed to save the world from the odd alien invasion and find the time to gun down a load of drug crazed, machete wielding zombies.

All in all it’s not been a bad life. I think a lot of people would be proud of the achievements that I’ve managed to squeeze into my short years, although possibly not the bigamy bit of it. But there lies the problem. Some people would be proud at how much I’ve done, but there are some folk out there who look down on my accomplishments with scorn.

I might have scored a 40-yard volley in the dying seconds of the World Cup Final but a friend of mine once scored a hat-trick of spectacular overhead kicks to win the coveted trophy, blowing my meagre feat well and truly out of the water.

The same goes for my heroic dash to the centre of the Third Reich; a friend surpassed even my glories by assassinating the Fuhrer without being shot once, whereas I was riddled with bullets and needed pints and pints of blood to replace that which I had spurted onto German soil.

And he doesn’t let me forget it.

Of course, none of this is real, for it if were I wouldn’t be here writing this but would be up at Buckingham Palace being knighted by the Queen or sat chatting away on Parky’s sofa. Alas, instead, my amazing achievements have all been accomplished whilst sitting on my backside in front of a computer screen.

That’s right, what I’m talking about here is addiction to computer games. I wouldn’t say I’m actually ‘addicted’ but I probably have spent way too much of my life living in an artificial world, killing artificial baddies and scoring amazing artificial goals.

My friend on the other hand, the one I’ve mentioned above who seems to have surpassed all of my awesome feats, is definitely an addict. I really did think I had a bit of a problem until I met this chap but now I know for sure there are people out there who need professional help far more desperately than myself.

This was the bloke that booked three weeks off work to coincide with the launch of the Playstation 2; the lad that spent a supposedly ‘romantic’ two week holiday with his girlfriend sat on the beach continuously using his laptop to gun down gangsters on Grand Theft Auto. Needless to say, that relationship didn’t last too long.

It’s not just relationships that this guy has thrown away because of his obsession with computer games. His university degree once went the way of the ex-girlfriend when he developed an unhealthy addiction to Championship Manager, and a subsequent job similarly followed when he was unable to balance nine to five employment with the stresses and strains of overseeing Macclesfield Town’s bizarre bid for European glory.

Now he’s wangled himself a job in a video game shop and I can’t work out whether or not this is a good thing. They say you’re a happy man if your passion is also your work, so good on him, but would we say the same to an alcoholic who earns his crust as a wine taster?

Maybe what he really needs to do, instead of spending 24hrs with his particular narcotic, is move to a primitive desert community without electricity and computer technology. I guess there’s a possibility that being surrounded by computer games all day might make him overdose and change his ways, but, to be honest, I doubt it.

But whose fault is this whole pretend reality that his life seems to have become? Is it mine for not insisting we go and play football in the park instead of loading up another match on Sensible Soccer? Or is it his mum’s for not giving him a clip around the ear and insisting he get some fresh air?

Sometimes in life it’s too easy to blame others instead of taking responsibility for our own actions and, if truth be told, a 20-year-old student should realise that going to an exam is just a touch more important than guiding a computerised version of Arnie through an alien-infested wasteland that exists nowhere else but in his head and on the screen in front of him.

My mate, whose name I’m going to keep to myself, knows that it’s nobody else’s fault but his own that he threw away a stunning girlfriend and a degree from a good university because he cared more about something that didn’t exist than the people and things that did.

But he’s not trying to blame anyone for that, unlike it seems, some other computer game addicts.

I’ve heard talk of people who have attempted to make personal injury compensation claims against computer game manufacturers because of damage they’ve suffered whilst waggling joysticks or prodding gamepads.

As far as I know nobody has won such an accident claim but I imagine it’s going to happen one day. But under what circumstances would a compensation claim for computer game injuries arise?

I guess that eye injuries arising from staring at a screen for two long, blisters from repeatedly prodding buttons and neck injuries from dodging imaginary bullets are all things for which he could mount an argument for console-manufacturer liability. However, even with us living in the time of what sensationalist media dubs as the ‘compensation claim culture’, that day seems to be a long way off.

Personally, if my finger starts to get a bit sore from excessive button pressing or if my head aches a little because I’ve been staring intently at a 15-inch square of glass for the whole day, I’d figure it’s time to take a rest; I don’t need a warning on the computer game box to tell me to stop if I’m in pain.

But it seems that some people don’t know when to stop. 1990, for example, saw a US doctor diagnose a 35-year-old woman with Nintendinitis after a particularly strenuous bout of gaming left her with a painfully aching thumb. Whether she attempted to pursue a personal injury compensation claim against Nintendo is unknown but the question remains, why did she allow herself to get so into whatever game she was playing that she actually ended up needing to see a doctor?

The same goes for those computer game pioneers back in the early eighties. Fair enough, video consoles must have been an amazing discovery to a youth who had grown up knowing nothing of Playstations, X-Boxes and Wiis, but to play so much that you developed what became known as Space Invaders’ Wrist seems a tad excessive.

Nowadays it’s no different. 2006 saw the launch of the Nintendo Wii, a games console which comes with a wireless controller that gives the user the opportunity to become actively involved in the game. If you’re playing a tennis game, for example, you can actually play each stroke, jumping around your living room like a lunatic as you attempt forehands and smashes and inelegant between-the-leg lobs.

This new type of computer game has brought millions worldwide off their backsides and forced them to replace the normal finger waggling method of control with a full body workout. No doubt in the not too distant future you’ll be able to play a full football match in your lounge, complete with slide tackles and Gordon Banksesque saves.

That day might not be too far off and with it will surely come numerous personal injury compensation claims from people who’ve split their heads open on the mantelpiece and kneecapped themselves on the TV cabinet.

Nintendo have already started to see some of the problems with enabling people to play tennis and have swordfights with deformed goblins in their living room and company boss Satoru Iwata recently said, “Some people are getting a lot more excited than we’d expected. We need to better communicate to people how to deal with Wii as a new form of entertainment.”

The president’s observation came following reports that some overenthusiastic Wiiers (is that what they’re called?) hadn’t quite got to grips with wireless controllers and were launching them across the living room as they attempted to knock down on-screen skittles with a virtual bowling ball.

With video games seemingly destroying relationships, ruining jobs, injuring players and necessitating the services of personal injury solicitors, it has to be concluded that they’re evil. Either that or the human race just needs to get a grip on reality.

Anyway, I haven’t got time to discuss it anymore, I’m off to hack up some zombies and gun down some baddies. Hasta la vista, baby.

This article may be published on another website free of charge, on the condition that a link is provided from this article to our website: http://www.youclaim.co.uk/product-liability-claim-loud-toy-risk.htm.

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John Patterson, YouClaim are the leading online personal injury compensation claim people with an excellent claim success rate. Call 0800 10 757 95 or visit http://www.youclaim.co.uk/product-liability-claim-loud-toy-risk.htm for more details.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]>