Whiplash – It’s time to take it seriously

Let’s be clear from the outset, whiplash is a serious injury and can result in long-term damage and lessen the quality of an individual’s life if left untreated.  It has often had the reputation as the type of personal injury claim unscrupulous people use as a vehicle to defraud insurers. However, according to an independent survey of 4000 respondents conducted by the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) in 2012:

• Up to 40% of those who suffer from whiplash never claim for compensation
• In the previous 12 months whiplash claims had fallen by 24,000
• Almost 90% of claimants were diagnosed with whiplash by a medical professional
• Far from being an epidemic, only 1 in 100 individuals suffered from whiplash in the preceding 12 months of the survey being conducted
• 80% of suffers either report their symptoms accurately, or underplay them
• Just under 30% of claims were encouraged by the victim’s insurance company

What is whiplash?

Whiplash, or neck strain, is caused when a sudden, violent movement or impact causes your head to jerk forward, backwards, or sideways, beyond its normal range of movement.  The strain can take several months to heal. The muscles and tendons in the neck stretch and tear causing various symptoms such as:

• Neck pain and stiffness
• Headaches
• Pain when moving the neck
• Back pain
• Pins and needles in your arms and legs
• Dizziness
• Tiredness
• Blurred vision
• Vertigo

Police Negligence – The Courage to Complain

Can you imagine life without an entrusted, professional police force? Believe it or not, the police force as we know it today is less than 200 years old.  In 1829 the Metropolitan Police Force was established by Sir Robert Peel and today we rely on the police to keep our persons and property safe.  And most of the time they do an exemplary job.  However, like all professionals, police officers are not immune to making critical errors of judgement that can cause irreparable damage.

Recent cases

Take for example the following recent incidences:

•In January 2014 police accepted liability for a serious brain injury which caused irreversible, long-term damage to a young man who was left in a cell for 10 hours with no medical treatment after sustaining a head injury. The custody sergeant was made aware that the youth had suffered a head injury but he failed to make a record of it. The victim was classified as drunk and simply placed on half-hourly checks. The victim’s family were advised that had treatment been sought sooner he would have made a full recovery.

•In May 2014a 28 year old man settled his claim for personal injury against the Police Service of Northern Ireland. The victim was joyriding in a stolen car in Belfast seven years ago when he was shot by police and left permanently blinded in one eye. He sued the PSNI on the grounds that, “….the policeman who opened fire acted in complete defiance of the relevant regulations. The officer shot directly at the car, aiming for the upper body or head, using lethal force in a built-up residential area”.

•In July 2013a Scotland Yard marksman was found by an official inquiry to have unlawfully killed a man he shot six times. The family are still waiting for criminal charges to be brought against the officer.

Because the police are in an authoritative position, many people have no idea what steps to take if they have suffered harm due to police negligence.  Examples of wrongs endured include:

False imprisonment/Wrongful arrest

You may be entitled to compensation if the police have detained you unlawfully.  The police must have a lawful excuse for detaining you; they cannot restrict your movements for their convenience.

Assault

Police have a right to use reasonable force. However, if you are the victim of wrongful arrest, or you feel the force used against you by a police officer was excessive you may be able to claim compensation.

In July 2013, a father of one was thrown into a police cell and suffered broken fingers after being pulled over for driving too slowly.  A jury at Manchester County Court found the Greater Manchester Police guilty of unlawful detention and assault and stated there was no justification for his three hour detention.

Discrimination or harassment

The police are a public body and therefore must fulfil both the general and specific requirements under the Equality Act 2010.  The characteristics protected from discrimination under the Act are:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage and civil partnership
• Race
• Religion or belief
• Sex
• Sexual orientation

If you believe you have been harassed or discriminated against because of any of these characteristics you may be entitled to compensation.

You may also make a complaint against the police if you have been injured by a police vehicle or you believe a weapon was unlawfully used against you by a police officer.  The harm does not need to be physical, you may be entitled to compensation if you have suffered emotional or physiological trauma due to police negligence.

How to Make a Claim

The first step to making a claim is to seek legal advice.  Your lawyer will advise you on how best to proceed with a case for compensation.

To assist your case it is vital that you write down any details of the incident and ensure you obtain contact details of any witnesses to the wrongdoing.  Make sure you document any medical assistance you have received and take photos of any injuries sustained.

If you believe you have been a victim of wrongful conduct by the police visit our dedicated page, or contact us today and we will guide you through the process in complete confidence.

The State of Britain’s Construction Sites

A bit of history

In January 2011 a 31 year old Romanian man, Silviu Radulescu, suffered fatal head injuries after a 2.5 tonne lift he was standing on plunged five stories.  He had been working at the building site on John Islip Street in London for one week and had not received adequate training for the task he was assigned to.  After a five day inquest at Westminster Coroner’s Court, the jury found Mr Radulescu’s death had been unlawful and the family has demanded that his employers be prosecuted.

Jump forward to November 2013 and another labourer, Richard Laco, 31, was killed on site in north London when piles of concrete and steel came crashing down on top of him as a stairwell was being raised.  In March 2014 a 46 year old man was killed on the Docklands Light Railway site in Stratford after being struck by a piece of machinery.

These are just three examples of recent deaths in the construction industry. Although the number of deaths has fallen overall, it still remains one of the most dangerous professions to work in.

Current Health and Safety Standards

As the economy grows ever stronger and the embattled construction industry of the last six years starts to flourish again, are the health and safety standards on British construction sites up to standard?

In 2011 the Health & Safety Executive which monitors standards within all industries had its funding cut by 35%.  This caused concern among health & safety campaigners, with one calling the situation “a ticking time bomb”.  The reason for the concern is that many attribute the relatively low injury figures of 2012 and 2013 (357 and 307 respectively, per 100,000 workers) to the economic slump which had a very negative effect on the construction industry.

However, as the industry comes out of the downturn, Heather Bryant, the Health & Safety Executive’s chief inspector of construction warned that there was “definitely a risk that injuries and fatalities could increase”. A cut to the HSE’s funding now may result in an inability to monitor standards across the industry at a time when it’s most needed.

The future

The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) has stated that 182,000 new jobs will be created in the industry over the next five years. However, to avoid an increase in injuries and fatalities, it is vital that the people employed are suitably qualified and properly trained. Small to medium size businesses account for around 70% of fatalities in the industry, and around 40% of workers (rising to 90% in the London area) are self-employed and hired on a casual basis.

As the industry grows this can create a potentially dangerous situation as smaller firms are potentially more likely to cut corners with regards to health & safety and a casual worker is less likely to speak up about unsafe practices because he or she knows they can be let go at a moment’s notice.

The casual nature of employment within the industry also makes it difficult and often uneconomical to implement and deliver long-term training programs to ensure every worker is adequately trained and prepared for the work required.  Building a strong, safety-conscious work culture in such a casualised industry is also challenging, as work colleagues and foreman can change from job to job. Therefore solid, best practice knowledge and formal work-safe practices and procedures are very difficult to put in place.

While an increase in construction work is welcome and extremely good for the British economy, companies need to ensure that their health and safety strategies are firmly implemented now in order to prevent a future increase of lives lost or damaged forever due to preventable workplace injuries.

If you have suffered an injury at a construction site and you believe it was someone else’s fault, you may be entitled to compensation – for more information see our construction injury claims page. If you wish to talk further about your situation contact us on 0845 345 4444 or fill in our contact form, and our friendly advisers will discuss your situation with you.

Living with Industrial Deafness

The ability to hear sounds and share them with others is something most of us take for granted. However, in 2011 there were more than 10 million people with hearing loss in the UK and this is expected to grow to 14.5 million in 2031.

The biggest cause of hearing loss is old age.  By the age of 80 the majority of people will experience significant loss of hearing.  However, hearing loss often develops from being exposed to loud working environments over a long period of time.  This is often referred to as industrial deafness.  And it is not just manufacturing workers who are at risk. In findings released in May this year, professional musicians were found to be four times more likely to suffer hearing loss and 57% more likely to develop tinnitus than the general public.

Duty of employers

The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 requires that employers either eliminate workplace noise at the source, or where this is not reasonably practical, reduce noise to as low a level as possible.  However, many employees still suffer hearing loss when exposed to a continuous level of noise over a long period of time.

Living with the problem

So what is it like to live in a world that is partially or completely silent?  “It has definitely affected my social life”, explains former Senior Constable Mike Stephens, who suffers from partial hearing loss after participating in firearms training with the police force.  “I don’t like going out much anymore because I can hear next to nothing when I am in a crowd of people, it makes it impossible to try and hold a conversation”.

Partial loss of hearing can affect people physically, mentally, emotionally and socially and it can lead to feelings of isolation, depression and inadequacy.  Some examples of the challenges hearing loss can bring include:

• Not hearing someone talking to you, especially if your back is turned to the person speaking
• Feeling patronised when people talk loudly or slowly
• Difficulty understanding people on the telephone
• Difficulty finding employment, or having to accept positions below an individual’s level of expertise

In order to manage hearing loss and prevent further damage, prompt diagnosis is necessary, but unfortunately, the average adult delays seeking medical help for hearing loss for five to seven years.

Delaying treatment

Delays in seeking treatment are mostly caused by an individual’s denial into how their loss of hearing is affecting their day to day life.

A common treatment for managing hearing loss is having a hearing aid fitted.  Many people are reluctant to acquire hearing aids because they feel embarrassed.  As hearing aids are visible to others, often people feel that they will be treated differently, so they continue to ‘soldier on’ and manage their life around their disability.

Fact: According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) current production of hearing aids meets less than 10% of global needs

Support for the Hearing Impaired

Where can a person who struggles with hearing loss go for support?  There are many organisations available including:

•  Action on Hearing Loss
•  British Tinnitus Association
•  National Association of Deafened People

The first step to finding the right support for you is to talk to your health professional.

If you have suffered complete or partial hearing loss and you believe it was someone else’s fault, you may be entitled to compensation – for more information see our loss of hearing page.

If you wish to talk further about your situation contact us on 0845 345 4444 or fill in our contact form, and our friendly advisers will discuss your situation with you.

Food Poisoning – How to avoid it

In April 2014 a Chinese Takeaway in Leicestershire was fined £4,500 for failing to clean up its “revolting” kitchen. The owner did not clean up the kitchen after previous warnings. He stated, “No-one complained of food poisoning from my shop, so I overlooked it.”

Every year, there are around 1 million cases of food poisoning, according to the Food Standards Agency. In most cases, food-borne illnesses are short, violent and nasty, leaving the victim weak and unwell for around a week.  However, in some cases it can be very serious.  Food poisoning contributes to around 20,000 hospital admissions and 500 deaths per year in the UK.

Of course, food poisoning is not confined to situations where people eat out in cafes or restaurants. It can also occur as a result of food prepared in the home.  To avoid the unpleasantness of a food-borne illness developing from your home-cooked supper always remember:

• Wash your hands before handling food, each time you handle raw meat, fish, poultry or eggs, and after using the toilet. Use hot, soapy water.
• Use separate chopping boards for meat and vegetable preparation (it is a good idea to have different colours for each board so you remember which board is intended for which task).
• Keep raw meat away from ‘ready to eat’ foods. Food poisoning often occurs when raw chicken is placed on a refrigerator shelf above a pre-prepared pudding or salad, resulting in the juices from the chicken dripping onto the prepared food, thereby contaminating it with bacteria. Because the contaminated, pre-prepared food is not heated / cooked before serving, the bacteria are not killed off and food poisoning can result.
• Keep your fridge temperature below 5°C.
• Cook food, especially meat and leftovers, properly, and until piping hot.
• Do not risk eating food, especially animal products (seafood, eggs, meat and dairy) after the labelled ‘used by date’.

Whilst you are in control of hygiene standards in your own home, how can you protect yourself from obtaining a nasty bout of food poisoning when you are eating out? Clearly it is not practical to inspect the kitchen yourself!

The best thing you can do is check the restaurant’s Food Hygiene Rating provided by the Food Standards Agency. Simply type in the name of the establishment you plan to visit and it will return a rating from 0 to 5, based on how closely the business is meeting the requirements of food hygiene law.

You can also read reviews of the restaurant or cafe you plan to dine in before you eat there.  In today’s online world, a case of food poisoning often reaches cyber-space in the form of reviews on sites such as www.tripadvisor.co.uk.

Here are some other steps you can take to protect yourself:

Pay Attention to the Cleanliness of the Bathrooms

Good restaurants and cafes take the cleanliness of their bathroom facilities very seriously.  If the rubbish receptacle in the bathroom is full and it looks like it has not had a decent clean in a while you might wonder how clean the kitchen is.

Avoid Buffets

Think about it, the food at a buffet is very vulnerable to inconsistent temperatures, and some restaurants are quite happy to let food sit out for hours without checking it.  Also, a lot of people touch the food and utensils with their unwashed hands.  If you do eat at a buffet, choose an early sitting.

Smell your food

If you detect a funny or unpleasant odour, inform your waiting staff immediately.  The food should smell fresh.

Speak up

In England we’re notorious for complaining vehemently to one and other about the quality of food in a restaurant, but when the waiting staff ask, “how was your meal?” we say, “fine, thank you”, then carry on grumbling to each other.  However, if your food is undercooked or lukewarm, send it back for your health’s sake.

Eating in an establishment that has one of these shortcomings does not necessarily mean you will contract food poisoning, but it is better to be safe than sorry.

Even a mild case of food poisoning can be extremely unpleasant.  If you have contracted it and believe it was someone else’s fault view our dedicated page, or contact us today to discuss your rights to compensation.