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What Are The Best Tips For A Successful Personal Injury Lawsuit?

September 25, 2011 admin No comments

Making a claim for an injury received in an accident is not nearly as hard as it used to be. Because the costs are awarded against the losing party engaging a no win no fee solicitor is an economic way of getting legal assistance which allows people with limited means to access justice when otherwise they might be inclined to lose out, both to compensation and justice.

If you’ve been the victim of an accident and you feel some-one else was at fault then there are a number of things you should do if you think you are going to need to make a claim for lost earnings, expenses, distress and to ensure that a similar misfortune doesn’t befall some-one else.

First of all, get the contact details of any witnesses. Unless the accident was a serious road accident they are unlikely to have to give up any of their time attending court, far more likely that they just have to write a statement detailing what they saw. If there was no one around or nobody stops to give you their contact details take photos. Even if it’s just a few snaps on your phone, this evidence is better than none at-all.

Call The Cops!

You should always call the police to any road traffic accident and if this was the incident you were involved in, make sure you get an incident number from the investigating officer. If you have to go to hospital make sure you get a full examination from the doctor treating you. Some injuries only show up after an interval but a doctor will know what to look out for. Again, photograph any bruises or lesions that appear on your body as a result of your accident. If you have to go to court to contest your case and your injuries have all healed photographs are compelling evidence to present to a court.

Keep Records Of Everything That Happens

Keep all of your receipts for everything that you have to pay for as a result of your injuries. If your claim is going to be successful at recouping your losses thanks to the injuries you received having a vague idea about the bills you’ve paid isn’t going to be as convincing as printed evidence for medicines and painkillers, buses and cabs if you’ve been left unable to drive, car rental if you can but your own vehicle is no longer road-worthy. You might have to take on childcare while you attend treatment and physiotherapy, again, keep the receipts.

The entire point of compensation is that you recoup the money that you lose thanks to an injury that was the responsibility of some-one else, either due to their negligence, their lack of foresight or their lack of attention. If you can’t prove how much the accident has cost you, you can’t expect to be fully compensated.

@DanCash is a features writer on the south coast of England. If you need to make a no win no fee accident claim make sure you keep as much evidence as you can and consult a reputable lawyer

 

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Changes In Legal Aid Could Affect your Right To Justice

August 1, 2011 admin No comments

Courts in the UK are coming under increasing pressure to relegate personal injury claims so that they have less relevance than criminal cases. In most instances personal injury cases have a victim and a culprit, whether through negligence, lack of training or ignorance. However, because no crime has been committed and there is very unlikely to be a prison sentence handed down, the government is proposing that legal aid is withdrawn from such cases. They see the personal injury world of the law as a victim, legitimate or otherwise, chasing money from some-one who’s fails to do their job properly in some way.

While car insurance companies are increasingly becoming drawn into this kind of case with accident victims claiming whiplash and back injuries, injuries which are very hard for doctors to identify and prove one way or another, this would appear to be the case. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to personal injury claims.

The chancellor wants to cut legal aid not only from divorce cases which are being contested but also from people who’ve been victims of medical negligence and people who wish to sue their local NHS Trust or the local authority.

The logic is easy to see; if the government pays for people to sue a hospital or council it’s effectively paying the court to sue itself and in many cases the award which the victim receives is far outstripped by the legal costs which are awarded against the guilty party. If this happens to be the hospital for example, the injured party might get a couple of hundred pounds for their distress and loss of earnings if they had to take a week or two off work but the legal teams might receive several thousands of pounds for their fees.

While this seems unfair and reasonable to stop paying for it, the reality of these circumstances is concealed. If you’re injured and you believe it’s down to a public sector employee’s negligence, if you can’t afford to sue them out of your own pocket then the costs of your medical treatment beyond the basic provision that the NHS and benefits services will have to be covered out of your own pocket. You might be entitled to statutory sick pay or disability allowance but anything beyond the basic will have to be covered out of your savings.

So you’re paying for an injury caused you by some-one else and they carry on regardless, possibly putting many more people at risk.

So, by cutting the number of cases for which legal aid is granted doesn’t just save the government money, it prevents the less well off from achieving justice when they find themselves unable to work through no fault of their own.

And personal injury cases aren’t simply about the victim getting some cash for their inconvenience. Personal injury claims can and do highlight criminal negligence and circumstances where the culprit is systematically endangering public health and even exposing them to the risk of permanent disability or death. Cutting spending on these cases will mean that people will be able to operate negligently until there is a catastrophe.

 

@DanCash is a feature writer living on the south coast. If you’re injured either at work, out on the street or you want to pursue a holiday accident claim or when receiving medical care then you should in the first instance consult a personal injury lawyer. If you want to make a compensation claim then get in touch with a reputable no-win-no-fee lawyer.

 

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Stop Making Excuses, Make Fast Food At Home Instead

July 26, 2011 admin No comments

Talk to anyone about fast food and they’ll automatically think junk food, generally that’s not going to be a mistake, cheap, fast, processed food has lovely things like nutrition replaced with transfats, carbohydrates, salt and sugar. So fast isn’t necessarily good.

But that’s just the price we have to pay for convenience foods, right? Healthy food is cooked over a long time so if you want fast food, healthy’s not an option. But is that necessarily so?

Perhaps not.

If you dial out and get food delivered or drive out to the drive thru or the walk up and queue, order, wait, drive home it could still take you twenty or thirty minutes before you get your dinner. Well, I can cook a whole dinner in thirty minutes from fresh so, not that quick is it? Just not terribly healthy. If you cook the same thing that you ordered at home it generally works out cheaper (if you shop sensibly to begin with) healthier and in the same time. You know what’s in the food, how fresh it is and where it came from and that it’s all been properly stored and handled. A butcher wouldn’t sell you a joint that was going grey but who knows how old the meat is that gets made into a burger or indeed what sort of meat it is.

Cooking at home seems pricier because when you get your cart to the checkout the cost for a week, ten days or even more is all right there in front of you. Shop smart, take advantage of deals and offers and while the bill might still be bigger than is altogether welcome but compared against a weeks worth of takeaways you’re saving money and eating well. Wandering around the shop floor gives you a work out too so it’s a win win win situation!

There are specific ways that you can enjoy food that’s healthy, home cooked and fast, first of all, plan what you’re going to eat and shop accordingly. Wandering the aisles with no clue what you want will mean getting bored, buying too much and still not having anything that you want. If you know what you’re going to cook you know what to buy, when you get it all home, cook it! You don’t have to make the whole meal but prepping all the things you’re going to want right away will mean not having to do it on the day. Roast that chicken, it’ll keep in the fridge for days and you can put it in sandwiches, wraps, curry, whatever and because it’s already cooked it just has to heat through.

Oh wait, it’s OK the US Department of Agriculture says that fast food restaurants have to put up notices advising you of the food’s calorie count and the nutritional value alongside the USDA’s recommendations for a healthy diet. True, but independent research has shown that the restaurant’s estimates, far from being average, consistently underestimate the calorific content by about a hundred. And basing the choice of what to eat on calories alone is unwise. Factoring the overall size of the meal, the protein, starch, carbs and salt should all be considerations when picking your diet.

Some things that you’d assume are healthy are in fact worse than the traditional ‘bad’ foods. Several chains offer salads that come with dressings and sauces that end up meaning you’ll be eating more fat, sodium and sugar than if you went for the burger after all. A problem that wouldn’t occur if you made the meal at home, and who hasn’t got time to throw a salad together?

@DanCash is a feature writer who loves to grab the occasional takeaway in Fulham on the way home or get a pizza delivery in Southwark but only as an occasional treat or when there really is no time to cook.

 

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If You’re Ill In Hospital, You Might Not Want To Try The Food

July 21, 2011 admin No comments

When you go to the hospital you would hope that your health would be a primary concern, notwithstanding murderous nurses and superbugs such as MRSA and E coli but it appears that if you’re ill in Cumbria you shouldn’t eat the food either. It’s not uncommon for patients’ visitors to bring their sick friends and relatives food, it started with a bag of grapes and today you’re just as likely to see pizza boxes and Tupperware as fruiterers’ brown paper bags.

People like their familiar foods, so home cooking is always popular but people also regard take-away food as a treat and getting a treat like a takeaway meal brings some cheer when you’re suffering. Those used to be the reasons but now it seems that hospital kitchens are such a health hazard that the only really safe way to eat in hospital is to have it delivered! In the worst of these cases a hospital in Cumbria managed to rack up almost 20 contraventions of environmental health directives including broken bins, damp on the walls and dirty surfaces. Despite the failings the kitchens were still awarded a three star ‘good’ rating by the Copeland borough council ‘Scores on the Doors’ inspectors.

‘Scores on the Doors’ is a scheme whereby scores are awarded to commercial and public kitchens and the award is then posted in the front of the premises so that any-one entering is able to see immediately how they performed. Despite the fact that inspectors found 19 breaches in food hygiene during two visits to the hospital kitchens Alan Davidson, estates and facilities manager at the West Cumberland Hospital said that: “All issues raised by Copeland Borough Council’s environmental health team leaders in their routine reports dated September 2010 and April 2011 have been addressed. “This will be demonstrated at the next scheduled inspection of the West Cumberland Hospital which we envisage being in September 2011.”

If you went into a hotel to stay and you found out that although the kitchen making your meals and sending up room service had scored an acceptable ‘good’ rating (not amazing but still…) the food is prepared in a kitchen which broke 19 of the Environmental Health’s guidelines for food hygiene you wouldn’t be impressed and would probably choose not to put too much weight in the ‘Scores on the Doors’ scheme ever again as well as eating out for the rest of your stay.

Now if you found yourself in hospital imaging how much less impressed you’d be. People at risk of infection and contamination are lined up in bed expecting the care and treatment that we in the First World have come to expect thanks to the tradition of Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole’s efforts in the Crimea war. And what do they get? A menu which is designed around a budget rather than nutritional requirements of the patients prepared in an area which is, by any other standard, unfit. The inspectors found out of date food, peeling paint, filthy floors and storage racks among the list of faults. @dancash is a feature writer living in the south of England. To keep his kitchen and all his crockery clean he uses a Bosch dishwasher and keeps the kitchen taps and other surfaces clean by wiping them down before and after he’s used them. Thanks to this he hasn’t seen the inside of a hospital in years!

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