A grandmother has been sued by a postman who tripped outside her front door. Now she faces damages of £68,000 in compensation and expenses.
Colin Hatch states he fell over a cracked (more…)
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It is a commonplace to suggest that Britain deals with cold weather worse than its continental neighbours. Trains don’t work, people grumble and air travel becomes a bit of a nightmare. People slide all over the place on untreated pavements and the media are delighted that they have something to fill their screens and pages. Climate change deniers are also pleased and the whole situation has something farcical about it. (more…)
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The DRD (Department of Regional Development) has revealed that it has been forced to pay out over £3.5 million in personal injury compensation in the past five years due to potholes and uneven pavements. The DRD has paid compensation for damage caused to vehicles because potholes in the road, and for personal injury compensation in Ireland.
The department also revealed that it has an outstanding 492 claims for injury compensation and damage that are yet to be resolved.
According to a spokesperson for the DRD, they repaired some 200,000 potholes and unsafe pavements in 2008, with safety being their top priority. Despite their claims, claims due to uneven road and pavement surfaces have risen sharply over the last few years, with 1,800 claims in 2008 compared to just over 1,000 claims in 2004.
SDLP MLA John Dallat expressed his concern over the amount of compensation claims that had been made and the amount of money that had been paid out:
The vast majority of these claims are a result of massive cutbacks in the roads budget.
The folly of it is that while the department is saving money from the cuts, they are then having to pay out major sums of money to people who are injured or whose cars are damaged as a result of bad roads.
We’re not talking about a pothole here and a pothole there. My understanding is that a lot of these claims are coming out because of roads with major deficiencies causing significant damage to expensive cars.
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Some people wonder whether they should file a compensation claim following an accident, such as a car accident or an accident at work. They believe that profiting from the accident isn’t just and that they should get on with their lives and put the incident behind them.
However, what about the injuries you have suffered? If you have missed work through your injuries, have suffered serious pain, have had the inconvenience of putting your life on hold and seeing a doctor then you deserve to be compensated. You also have a moral obligation to ensure that the pain you have suffered doesn’t happen to anyone else.
For example, if you suffer an accident at work and make light of the incident your employer may not take the necessary steps to ensure that your place of work is safe. This means that someone else could befall the same accident that you have suffered, possibly even hurting themselves more severely that you have done. There could even be a fatal accident at work as a result of you not making a claim for compensation against your employer, and that is something you would not want to live with.
You deserve to be compensated for accidents and you should also do your best to make sure those accidents don’t happen again.
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A man tried to make a claim for compensation for injury in Leeds after he allegedly tripped on a paving slab and smashed his knee on a BT junction box. However, it emerged in Leeds court that the man had damaged his knee after being involved in a fight.
The man’s compensation claim for £617,000 was thrown out of Leeds court and the man, twenty-four-year-old Ryan Kirk, was given a 1 year prison sentence. Luckily his sentence was suspended for 2 years
In addition to the suspended sentence, Mr Kirk has to pay the legal bills of the council, which amount to £10,832, and he has to complete 240 hours of community service.
Kerry McGill, the judge presiding over the case, stated that Kirk’s father (who knew of the fraudulent claim yet convinced his son to continue to make it) would be facing a heavy sentence if he were to be charged. Ryan Kirk however escaped a more severe penalty because of his learning difficulties, which the judge took into account.
Judge McGill commented on fraudulent compensation claims:
These claims are a blight on the public purse. They can cause all sorts of problems.
You were a stupid boy … consider yourself an extremely fortunate young man. And a word of warning to any parent who is blind to what is going on – be careful in future.
Insurance investigators found a call made by Kirk to 999 where he admitted to kicking the box after a fight. Kirk’s personal injury lawyers in Leeds then refused to represent Kirk, but he pursued the claim himself.
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Tees Valley Investigations, a private investigators, has revealed that it has been very busy lately investigating fraudulent injury claims against insurance companies. The company has been so busy of late that they have had to move to larger offices near Middlesbrough. Personal injury claims are often made by people hoping to con money out of insurance companies when the person hasn’t actually suffered any injury. This increases the insurance premiums for everyone, not to mention costs the insurance companies money and increases the premiums of the person who has been claimed against.
According Abdul Shakeel, the MD of Tees Valley Investigations, personal injury compensation fraud is one of their biggest earners. He claims that personal injury lawyers offering no win no fee injury claims services is to blame for the increase in fraud:
You have solicitors saying if you have an injury contact us and you can make a claim for compensation.
I think it is a litigious society we are living in and it is growing to epidemic levels.
It is being thrust in people’s faces.
If there is any sort of injury there is potentially a claim.
Mr Shakeel adds that when employees make personal injury claims against their employers for so called accidents at work, the effects on the firm could be disastrous, costing others their jobs.
Fraudulent claims against employers can have a devastating impact on an organisation’s ability to function as it invariably involves long-term absence, affects morale and can impact on other employees if working practices have to be altered, not to mention the financial impact on the company involved.
These so-called slips, trips and falls can also affect organisations that are subjected to suspected fraudulent personal injury claims by members of the public or clients when in or on premises they own or control.
We are saying there is a way to combat that legally and stop people who are effectively lying. Rather than give into these claims there are real tangible ways to investigate them.
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English councils have paid out more than £82 million in the last five years in compensation for injuries sustained by people tripping over on pavements. The figures came out because the Lib Dems requested the information as part of their Freedom of Information request, which over 90 separate councils in England responded to.
The highest amount of money paid out by any council in the last five years was £10.2 million, which was paid by Leeds City Council. Second place was awarded to Birmingham, who paid out £7.5 million, and then Liverpool who paid £5.5 million in compensation for pavement trips.
Tripping on pavements is very lucrative for personal injury lawyers as the average compensation payout in the last year was £11,426.
The top ten councils and their payouts for injuries caused by slips and trips on pavements is below:
Leeds City Council: £10,259,125
Birmingham City Council: £7,551,840
Liverpool City Council: £5,500,000
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council: £3,957,897
Southampton City Council: £2,994,100
Cambridgeshire County Council: £2,917,111
Bradford Metropolitan District Council: £2,594,281
Oldham Metropolitan District Council: £2,258,879
London Borough of Barnet Council: £1,791,827
Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council: £1,597,030
Norman Baker, from the Lib Dems, added:
With council and household budgets under more pressure than ever, the last thing the local taxpayer needs is to be paying massive compensation claims for injuries caused by dangerous pavements.
Although some councils are investing heavily to improve their footways, others seem content to almost ignore pedestrians entirely.
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