Attorney And Lawyer

Everybody these days has heard of no win no fee lawyers and claims for medical negligence but I never thought I would one day be in a position where I too would have to challenge for a whiplash injury claim.

It was an ordinary sort of day when my life changed. I was a passenger in a very expensive car; we weren’t speeding and in fact were travelling in the middle lane of a busy motorway. As is the case with most accidents, this one came like a bolt from the blue. One moment we were cruising and the next we were being sidelined by a van.

The term whiplash is often bandied about as a bit of a pain in the neck, forgive the pun, but it is much more serious than that and if not treated properly, can lead to claims of medical negligence.

The pain is so intense that to even blink feels dangerous. It turns out that the van that crashed into us from the outside lane had been harried by someone behind and had tried to drive into our lane too soon in order to let the other car past. He simply had not left enough room for us and as a result, a major accident had turned my life upside down.

We have all, at one time or another, seen an accident on the other side of the road, but think, for a minute, of being in that accident. Think of the impact that it would have on you, your family and your life. Imagine sitting in a car when you are blindsided, hit from behind, or the horror of a head on collision.

The well known definition of whiplash is ‘an injury that occurs when the soft tissue in the spine is stretched and strained after the body is thrown in a sudden, forceful jerk’. This is what you should consider if you are going to make a whiplash injury claim. The normal treatment for this is complete rest so that the ligaments and muscles surrounding the cervical spine can easily recover. This is very important, but it meant that I could not go to work at a particularly important time. I obeyed the instructions as well as I could and along with painkillers I managed to continue my daily life, just. The pain however did not go away and after several visits to my doctor who I believe should have helped me more, has led me to think there may have been some medical negligence.

As winter approaches and budget cuts may mean that councils cannot treat roads properly, it is certainly a time for accidents, so do take care to avoid unnecessary injury claims!

This content was provided by Nathan Payne who has previously worked on articles for First4Lawyers – No Win No Fee lawyers.

In the UK, accident claims in the manufacturing and construction industries are becoming increasingly common. Many of the injuries arise from workers falling from heights. A point of addressing the issue of working safely at height has been made by the Health and Safety Executive, but by failing to implement effective health and safety standards, companies continue to ignore their legal obligations.

Klarius UK Limited, of Staffordshire, was fined 8000 and ordered to pay costs of 1892 this week, at Newcastle-under-Lyme Magistrates’ Court after pleading guilty to breaching Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. This states: “Where work is carried out at height, every employer shall take suitable and sufficient measures to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, any person falling a distance liable to cause personal injury.”

On the 18th of August 2009, 61-year-old Brian Derbyshire, of Cheadle, Staffordshire, was carrying out routine maintenance on a machine used to make exhaust pipes. The task required Mr Derbyshire to scale a scaffold tower before stooping down to check the machine for an oil leak. As Mr Derbyshire stood up, he somehow lost his balance and fell two metres to the ground below.

Mr Derbyshire survived the incident, however he was left with serious injuries that included a fractured vertebra – an injury that is normally associated with whiplash claims.

As with many injury claims involving falls from height, Mr Derbyshire’s injuries were sufficient to keep him off work for over six weeks. In the present case, a guardrail may have prevented Mr Derbyshire’s fall, however, a subsequent Health and Safety Executive investigation revealed that Klarius UK Limited had neglected to install a guardrail on the edge of the scaffold tower because it was feared that doing so would interfere with access to the machine.

Speaking after the court hearing, Health and Safety Executive inspector, Lynne Boulton, said: “Barry Derbyshire did nothing wrong but, as a result of this fall, he’s been left with life-changing injuries. The company had a clear lack of appreciation of risk”.

“If Klarius UK Limited had used the right equipment and ensured there were guardrails on the scaffolding, it [the accident] would never have happened.” Ms Boulton added: “Falls from height were responsible for almost 400 major injuries in the West Midlands in 2008/09, with 78 in Staffordshire alone.” Clearly, despite the efforts of the Health and Safety Executive, many companies in the UK are not fully respecting their responsibility to protect workers from falls.

This article was created by Nathan Payne, a publisher of content for First4Lawyers – No Win No Fee lawyers and medical solicitors for cases involving whiplash and other medical negligence claims etc.

Personal injury claims are based on the law of negligence, which demands that a duty of care existed between a defendant and claimant, that the duty was infringed and that the infringement caused the damage or grievance in question.

Clinical and medical negligence claims work on the same basic principles, with the exception that doctors can escape liability if they can be said to have reached the standard of a responsible body of medical opinion – in other words, if their actions conform to what is normal, they will not usually be found negligent in a court of law.

The National Health Service is often named by patients involving personal injury claims who have suffered illness or injury whilst undergoing operations in hospital; surgical errors and unclean wards etc are often quoted in such cases. Further questions over the extent to which the National Health Service can be held accountable in personal injury claims have been raised after a recent incident involving a man who stabbed his grandfather to death.

William Barnard, a 30-year-old grabbed a knife from his kitchen, left his flat and walked the short distance to the home of his grandparents, John and Mabel McGrath on the 24th July 2009. William, a paranoid schizophrenic, stabbed Mr McGrath 56 times after he opened the door to his grandson. William killed his grandfather and also injured Mrs McGrath during the attack. In June, William was committed to Rampton high security hospital.

Upon sentencing the paranoid schizophrenic, Judge Michael Stokes QC said that it was a “matter of grave concern” that the NHS had missed numerous opportunities to send William to hospital prior to the death of his grandfather.

An independent inquiry into why the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS trust failed to section William despite repeated requests by his family in the build-up to Mr McGrath’s death has now been actioned by solicitors working on behalf of William’s mother, Kath Barnard.

A specialist NHS AO team, which was tasked with ensuring that psychiatric patients remain out of hospital, was required to visit William every two weeks. However, it has emerged that the AO gave William his fortnightly injection of Depixol, an anti-psychosis drug, in December 2008 and saw him just four times in the following six-month period.

William’s family had warned NHS experts of his deteriorating condition some 30 times prior to Mr McGrath’s death. An AO medical team had even visited William on the morning of Mr McGrath’s death and despite observing blood stains on the door handle, failed to act.

Nathan Payne has previously written articles for personal injury lawyers and accident specialists for cases involving whiplash claims and no win no fee projects amongst others.

categories: personal injury, injuries, accidents, solicitors, lawyers, law