Personal Injury news & Compensation Claim info

THE French government has for the first time in nearly 50 years agreed to pay personal injury compensation to people affected by fallout from its nuclear tests.

The country has carried out 210 such tests since its first, exploded in the Algerian Desert in 1960, but has until now refused to pay out on personal injury claims.

It decision leaves the UK as the only nuclear power unprepared to settle personal injury claims, even though the High Court in London ruled last Friday that a group of more than 1,000 veterans has the right to sue the Ministry of Defence for compensation. However, the case is likely to take years to reach any conclusion.

Both soldiers and locals that witnessed the 1960 Saharan explosion say they were exposed to potentially deadly radiation and have suffered a variety of health problems, from aggressive cancers to minor cardio-vascular complaints. It is likely that they will now move ahead with personal injury claims.

Until now, only France had stood with the UK in denying general liability for health problems suffered by those present at nuclear tests. The US, Russia and China all have mechanisms in place for paying out personal injury claims.

PEOPLE bringing personal injury claims against US car giants General Motors and Chrysler have asked Congress to ensure that their cases won’t be forgotten and compensation can still be awarded after both companies filed for bankrupcy.

A number of consumer groups who have examined Chrysler’s bankrupcy ruling, which took place in New York at the end of May, say it absolves the new company of old responsibilities, including personal injury claims.

Now the Centre for Justice and Democracy has urged Congressional action to prevent any personal injury claims against GM being thrown out in the future.

Its executive director, Joanne Doroshow, has also called upon Chrysler to create a $300 million fund – and for GM to establish an even larger fund, because of its size – to cover an existing or future personal injury claims.

FOUR men have been found liable for causing personal injury in one of Northern Ireland’s worst bombings – the first time that personal injury legislation has been successfully brought involving a terrorist attack.

Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy, Seamus Daly and the Real IRA liable were found culpable in various ways for the Omagh bomb explosion in which 29 people and two unborn babies were killed in August 1998, and awarded personal injury damages worth £1.6m to family members who brought the action.

Delivering his verdict in the High Court in Belfast, Mr Justice Morgan said: “For many, the effects are catastrophic and their lives will never be the same.”

The plaintiffs claimed damages for personal injuries they received as a result of the bomb explosion, and also entered further claims for damages because of the death of family members, alleging that the defendants were responsible for the planning, production, planting and detonation of the bomb.

Mr Justice Morgan said that the court had only to decide if any personal compensation claim was valied, rather than determin any criminal charge. “The role of the court is to establish whether the plaintiffs have discharged the burden of demonstrating that the defendants were responsible for causing harm to the plaintiffs in the manner alleged and, if so, to determine what, if any, damages are payable in respect of the harm proved,” he added.

CUSTOMERS are being denied the right to make compensation claims that could run into millions of pounds because they are being ignored by the high street banks that sold them financial products, and receive little help from the Financial Services Authority.

A damning report on the matter has led to its author, the Financial Ombudsman Service, calling for the introduction of US-style Class action suits to deal with compensation claims.

The FOS’ annual report found that 60% of complaints it hears are being settled in favour of customers, as opposed to average figures of between 30 and 40%. It also pointed out that since consumers must first complain to their bank before going to the FOS, some genuine compensation claims are being turned down, and those claimants are not being helped by the Financial Services Authority.

The House of Lords economic affairs committee is expected this week to call on the FSA to focus “more directly” on consumers. The FOS said it investigated 40% more complaints than it expected in the year to the end of March, with cases hitting a record 127,471.

Disputes about insurance rose 84%, driven by a tripling of the number of complaints over payment-protection insurance (PPI). Credit-card complaints rose 32% to 18,590 — 76% of which were upheld. Investment complaints jumped by 111%, while complaints about mortgages rose by 11%, largely due to disputes over the handling of mortgage arrears, of which 40% were upheld.

If you believe you have a case to make a compensation claim, you must first complain to the bank that sold you the financial product, which has eight weeks to respond. If it fails to do so or rejects your complaint, you have six months to take your case to the FOS.

SHAMED R & B star Chris Brown could be facing another day in court after he was named in a personal injury claim.

Robert Rosen is suing the singer for medical costs claiming that he suffered personal injury following an incident with the singer’s bodyguard.

According to reports, Mr Rosen took a picture of Brown playing basketball in gym in Los Angeles on March 13 this year. He says that a bodyguard of Brown’s gave chase and assaulted him, causing personal injury.

Mr Rosen is taking out an action for personal injury against Brown.

PEOPLE who suffer a personal injury as a consequence of European election posters can claim, a leading solicitor has said.

There have been instances of personal injury inquiries following incidences such as election billboard posters falling down, or distracting drivers.

But Martin Hart, of Hart & Co Solicitors in Belfast, said: “Somebody confronted with this sort of scenario should adopt a scatter-gun approach, in other words sue everyone and anyone concerned with the erection of the poster. This would include the actual candidate, their party and the person or company who put it up.”

However, the personal injury sufferer and the person responsible for the poster can be the same. Northern Ireland councillor Robert Smith was putting up one for his party’s candidate Diane Dodds when it came down and left him with facial stitches.

Eileen Ewing, of Thompson Crooks Solicitors, said any personal injury claim should “consider whether the poster had been sufficiently secured to prevent it from being blown down in bad weather”.

Mr Hart added: “The case of action would be personal injury, loss and damage. Let’s say worst case scenario, somebody is hit on the head by a poster and they crack their skull – they’d obviously sue for this or whatever injury they’ve suffered.There may also be loss of earnings to be considered if they’ve had to take off work for any length of time.”

A FORMER taxi driver has made legal history by winning the right to make a compensation claim after his life was ruined by a false rape allegation.

Clive Bishop, from Somerset, was arrested in a pre-dawn raid in 2007 in front of his wife. Some months later, teenager mother Kirsty Palmer admitted that she had made up the allegation, following overwhelming evidence collected by Mr Bishop.

The cost of the case, including the impounding of his car, the strain of keeping the case secret to avoid prejudicing police action against his false accuser, and the loss of a second income because he believed he could no longer pick up single females, led Mr Bishop to initiate the compensation claim.

Palmer was jailed for 10 months and Mr Bishop was to take out a successful civil action against her to recover some of the costs from the case, which ran to thousands of pounds. However, when he made a compensation claim to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, he was refused on the grounds that he had not been a victim of physical violence.

A second compensation claim, with the help of Victim Support, was also rejected, so Mr Bishop used the  Citizen’s Advice Bureau to find a solicitor willing to make an appeal. The tribunal found in favour of his eligibility to make a compensation claim.

“I still can’t believe I’ve made legal history,” he said. “It feels like I’ve spent the last two-and-a-half years fighting to prove my innocence, time and time again.”

A BRITISH tourist is bringing a personal injury claim against an American couple following an accident at their holiday home.

Julian Bruch, from Horsham, West Sussex, says he suffered personal injury after an outdoor chair broke underneath him and he fell on the veranda of Michael and Debra Taylor’s vacation home, on the Bolivar Peninsula in Texas, in 2007.

The suit, which has been filed in Galveston County District Court, says: “As he sat down, the plastic veranda chair broke and collapsed beneath him, causing Mr Bruce to hit the deck and suffer injuries to his hip, pelvis, and back.”
The Taylors are accused of failing to take care of the chair, and “advertising the beach house for rental while knowing that its veranda chairs were in poor condition.”

Bruce alleges that the personal injury he suffered, including anxiety, pain and illness, forced him to seek medical treatment in two continents. He is seeking damages for pain and suffering, mental anguish, and losses of wages and earning capacity.

A ROCHDALE man who was exposed to asbestos when he was just 15-years-old has won a £400,000 compensation claim after he contracted terminal lung cancer.

David Smith, 56, had been working as an apprentice electrical engineer when he was exposed to the deadly substance while working for Alstom Energy. He worked for the company from 1968 to 1980, using cable ducting that was insulated with asbestos.

He decided to bring a compensation claim after he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, an incurable cancer caused by asbestos, which often kills sufferers within months.

Mr Smith, who is married with three sons and has two grandchildren, was forced to close his own street light maintenance business, which employed two people, after he become too ill to work in 2007.

Mr Smith said he brought the compensation claim in order to secure his family’s future.

He said that the compensation claim would not make him well again. “I would rather have my health and be working. I had no idea back then that what we were working with could be so dangerous.”

Joanne Candlish, from Thompson’s Solicitors, who represented Mr Smith, said the compensation claim took into account the losses caused as a result of being forced to close down the business. “It was his wish that the compensation was secured in his lifetime,” she added.

THE global financial crisis has been blamed for the rise in compensation claims made by drivers in a region of Australia.

Now car owners in the Northern Territories are to be hit with an increase in registration prices as a consequence of more compensation claims.

Motor Accidents Compensation Commissioner Ram Vemuri said: “People will be upset with losing their job and they could have an accident. When you are under a lot of stress, you can take it out on the road. And people often drink to drown their sorrows.”

The Motor Accidents Compensation Scheme is run by the government-owned Territory Insurance Office and pays compensation claims for death or injury from no-fault accidents.

Treasurer Delia Lawrie has announced a 5% rise in premiums on motor accident compensation claims.