Claiming compensation for a facial injury

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When our loved ones look at us, it is not our legs or arms that they recognise – it is our face. Our very perception of ourselves and the way in which other people recognise us is based upon our facial characteristics and when our names our mentioned, it is our face that people visualise rather than anything else. Without even realising, we convey our inner thoughts through our facial expressions and our face says so much about our moods and feelings.

Given the role of the face in forming our identity it is no surprise that when our faces end up permanently changed as a result of an accident or incident it can lead to unthinkable trauma. The thought that our faces may end up heavily scarred, require prosthetics or have to be surgically altered is terrifying because of the effect that it would have on the way we recognise ourselves and the way in which other people view us. Relationships could change both at home and in work due to the loss of self-esteem and self-consciousness and senses such as sight and smell could even be permanently lost.

Dealing with a facial injury is therefore difficult enough but if the injuries resulted from the deliberate malice, legal omission or negligence of another individual, it would be particularly difficult to cope. Perhaps you were deliberately injured whist playing sports; or your employer refused to provide you with equipment to protect you from chemical burns; or maybe you suffered due to a negligent cosmetic surgeon. However you sustained your injuries, if I t was not your fault and you can prove that a third party was to blame you should be entitled to make a personal injury claim for compensation.

Winning compensation will never alleviate your emotional pain however it could go a long way towards securing your financial position at a difficult time. The amount you receive in damages should recognise the following:

• Pain and suffering of the victim: you deserve to be compensated for the physical and emotional trauma associated with your injuries

• Financial hardship: you may not be able to work and as a result you could lose income

• Extent of injuries: further costly procedures may be required and the worse the injuries the higher the compensation figure is likely to be

In order to win the full and fair amount of compensation you deserve it is crucial that you instruct a specialist personal injury solicitor. The solicitors at our firm specialise in facial injury compensation claims and have both the sensitivity needed to support through throughout the claims process and the unrelenting work ethic required to win what you deserve. We will carry out a thorough investigation into your claim so that you have all the evidence and documentation needed to succeed. Our links with experienced plastic surgeons mean that you will receive an in-depth report analysing the extent of your injuries and the necessity and cost of further procedures to correct damage.

For advice on facial injury compensation claims, call FREEPHONE FREEPHONE 0800 1404544

Sustaining an injury to your face can be particularly traumatic. Our expert personal injury solicitors can help you achieve justice in the form of a compensation payout if you have been injured through no fault of your own.

Dial FREEPHONE FREEPHONE 0800 1404544, or

Email us via the contact form below.

    Multiple fracture injury claims

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    Fracturing one bone is horrendously painful but some people are unfortunate to sustain multiple fracture injuries at the same time, from the same accident, leading to unspeakable agony. Moreover, these injuries are often sustained due to the carelessness or negligence of someone else and yet can lead to permanent physical damage. Whether several bones are fractured at the same time, or fracture lines spread through one bone, the consequences of a multiple fracture injury can be devastating and it is only right that those who sustain such injuries through no fault of their own can claim compensation.

    Multiple fracture injuries can be permanently incapacitating or fatal at their worst and even at their best; they can ruin months or years of one’s life. Such injuries are completely debilitating and as a result sufferers will probably need to take an extended period of time off work, which is particularly problematic for those who are self-employed of course. With no income coming in, individuals will find it extremely difficult to support themselves or provide for their family and they cannot carry out simple everyday tasks. As a result, extra help may need to be hired, on top of possible medical expenses.

    Entitled to multiple fracture injury compensation?

    If your injuries were caused through no fault of your own, you may find that you are entitled make a personal injury compensation claim. Our team of personal injury claim specialists can help you with any such claim. To start with, we will be able to determine whether or not your claim is likely to succeed and estimate the damages you may be paid on the basis of loss of earnings and the extent of your injuries. The claims process can be complicated, so it is crucial that you have a specialist personal injury solicitor on your side who can work to recover the full amount you are entitled to and relieve some of your stress.

    Multiple fracture injury claim? Contact our Personal Injury team today

    Time limits apply to compensation claims, and it’s easier to investigate your claim if you get the right legal advice early on.

    So for FREE advice from expert Personal Injury Solicitors you can rely on;

    Call FREEPHONE FREEPHONE 0800 1404544, or

    Email our personal injury solicitors using via the contact form below:

      It’s not difficult to avoid suffering a scaffolding injury

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      Scaffolding accidents and the sometimes horrible injuries that result simply shouldn’t happen. Although experience and training are required to safely erect and dismantle scaffolding you don’t need a PhD to do it. Likewise there is a pretty concise short list of does and don’ts for people working on and around scaffolding. Language problems and extreme learning difficulties aside, they are not difficult to grasp and apply. Why therefore do falls from height, predominantly from scaffolding, continue to occur at the consistently high rates they do, particularly although not exclusively, in the construction industry?

      Well, you don’t need to a master’s degree in braininess to figure that out either; these injuries continue unabated because of inadequate attention by employers and others in control of employees using scaffolding, to comprehensively engage with their legal health and safety responsibilities. Whilst it might be going over the top to suggest that ‘profits above employees health and safety’ is an industry-wide operating model, there are still certainly some pockets of bad practice to be found out there.

      The current health and safety legislation charges employers with a duty of care towards their employees and specific regulations, such as The Work at Height Regulations 2005, The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 go into considerable detail as to what that duty practically entails. Health and safety professionals know all about this stuff and although most companies have a health and safety expert on their team or can certainly hire the services of one, having health and safety expertise on tap is of course different from having the commitment to effectively utilise it.

      There is no shortage of law or clearly worded guidance on sound health and safety practice for employers using scaffolding to allow their employees to work safely at height. What there can sometimes apparently be is a shortage of employers sufficiently incentivised enough to engage with health and safety in a way that will save lives and prevent injuries. All too often health and safety is regarded as a box ticking exercise and as a box is ticked but a loose bolt is not checked and tightened another worker falls to the ground and a life is ended or changed forever.

      For specialist Scaffolding Injury Claim advice – call us today

      If you suffered an injury whilst working on scaffolding, you could be entitled to compensation – but make sure that you call our personal injury team as soon as possible. Strict limits apply to all personal injury claims and if you delay too long, you could miss your chance to claim.

      For specialist legal advice, call FREEPHONE FREEPHONE 0800 1404544, or

      Email our personal injury solicitors using via the contact form below:

        How to avoid a forklift truck injury

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        The three principle areas of health and safety concern that any employer wanting to ensure that forklift truck accidents don’t occur on their premises needs to address are:

        1) Selection, training, supervision and managing of operators

        • Ensure training meets the minimum required level and is specific to the forklift truck and tasks to be carried out. Carry out ‘conversion training’ if the operator is to operator a different type of forklift truck to the one initially trained on.

        • Ensure that trainees are medically fit to drive a forklift and institute medical examinations for operators prior to training and at regular intervals during their forklift truck driving career. There is a long list of physical and psychological conditions that might preclude a person from driving a forklift truck.

        • Ensure that they identify themselves as reliable, mature and responsible employees before selection for training.

        • Ensure that trainees’ supervisors are familiar with the training regime and guidance.

        • Ensure that the trainees’ managers fully appreciate all the risks associated with the operation of a forklift truck and have taken all recommended steps to minimise them.

         2) The working environment

        • Take all steps to avoid accidental injury to pedestrians, who statistically make up 70% of the total killed or injured in forklift truck accidents. This can be done by either completely segregating forklift trucks from pedestrians or taking the following measures:

        • Issuing high-visibility clothing to pedestrians.

        • Ensuring that the aisles and gangways are wide enough for a forklift truck to pass.

        • Installing adequate lighting and avoiding situations where the forklift driver would be blinded by sudden glare.

        • Training pedestrians in forklift truck awareness.

        • All doorways to be constructed from flexible, transparent material.

        • Ensuring that the flooring is level and firm and free from potholes and even small piles of debris.

        3) The forklift truck

        • Maintain in good mechanical order.

        • Ensure it is fitted with roll-over protective structures and falling object protective structures (issue a hard hat to the operator as a further precaution).

        • Ensure that it is highly visible to the pedestrians – it should have a flashing light and make a distinctive warning noise, even if that is only the operator sounding the horn.

        • All dangerous moving parts should be fitted with a guard.

        • Operated at all times in such a manner as to preserve the stability of the vehicle.

        Having successfully addressed those areas, the employer can be confident that they will have diligently discharged their duty of care to ensure as far as practicable the health, safety and welfare of their workers with regards to the safe operation of forklift trucks in their workplace. Being able to demonstrate that they have discharged this duty of care and complied with all the workplace health and safety legislation currently enacted might go a long way to eliminating the risks posed by forklift truck operation or help in defending claims for injury compensation brought by employees injured due to a forklift truck accident.

        Forklift Truck Injury Claim ?  Call us now

        If you’re thinking of making an injury claim following a forklift truck accident, get in touch with our specialist personal injury solicitors as soon as you can. Strict limits apply to every injury claim and if you delay too long, you could lose out to right to compensation entirely.

        For specialist legal advice, call FREEPHONE FREEPHONE 0800 1404544, or

        Email us via the contact form below:

          Broken arm injury claims

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          Breaking an arm can have a serious impact on your life. Your arm may be completely immobilised for weeks and your cast may not enable you to move your wrist, shoulder or elbow, making those weeks extremely uncomfortable and frustrating. Arm fractures can be extremely serious especially if they are particularly complex. You may have crushed the bone, severed various blood vessels and nerves or had pieces of bone in shatter off. Sadly, in some cases, full movement will never return to the arm.

          Coping with a broken arm injury is difficult enough as it is but it can be far more traumatic when you know that your injury was not your fault. If the negligence, legal omission or deliberate actions of another individual were to blame for your fracture, you may find that you are eligible to claim compensation. This is because if you were not to blame for the injury itself, it is unfair for to have experience pain and suffering, shoulder the costs associated with losing income through time off work and have to pay for any follow up treatment. Damages are the least you are entitled to for such hardship and they are likely to reflect the seriousness of the injuries sustained (in the form of ‘special damages’) and the financial consequences of your fracture (in the form of ‘general damages’).

          Arm fractures can arise from many different circumstances such as:

          • A slip or trip at work (suggesting possible employer negligence)

          • A sports injury following an unnecessarily dangerous challenge (suggesting possible malice)

          • Or a road traffic accident involving a driver who failed concentrate

          In order to win your compensation you will need a specialist personal injury solicitor on you side. Our personal injury lawyers have vast experience dealing with broken arm compensation claims and could help you recover the full and fair amount of compensation you are entitled to. We will deal with the bureaucracy and formalities in making a claim so that you can focus on your recovery. Your solicitor will put you in touch with a medical expert who will assess your injuries and provide a report which will be central to the bundle of evidence used for your claim. Moreover, you will receive constant support throughout the claims process from your expert solicitor.

          Broken arm injury claim?Contact us today for FREE advice

          It’s always easier to investigate an injury claim if you make sure that you get great legal advice at an early stage.

          So for FREE advice from expert Personal Injury Solicitors you can trust;

          Call us on  FREEPHONE FREEPHONE 0800 1404544, or

          Email our personal injury solicitors using via the contact form below:

             

            How common are office injuries and accidents?

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            The myth that offices are safe places to work takes a considerable amount of demolishing, so entrenched is it in the national psyche. However, filled with hazards ranging from unsafe office machinery, furniture and fittings to none-ergonomic work stations, unsafe floors and storage, repetitive tasks such as typing and hours of sedentary work the potential for harm to come to an office worker is far from minimal.

            True, the rate of injuries and accidents is far higher is other sectors of the economy; indeed the 33 per 100,000 workers experiencing a serious injury in an office and 72 per 100,000 experiencing an injury requiring more than 3 days away from work, puts office work at the bottom of the Health and Safety Executive’s work injury incidence scale amongst the industry sectors for which there is data, but accidents and injuries in offices there most definitely are. To be precise, 1,035 serious injuries and 2,249 injuries requiring a three day plus absence from work in 2010-11 alone.

            Data from the UK’s Labour Force Survey for 2010-11 strongly suggests substantial under reporting of accidents that occur in offices. The main reason for this under reporting is apparently the victims’ reluctance to blame anyone other than themselves for their accident as it occurred in an environment that everyone knows is completely safe to work in. After all, you can’t kill yourself with a paper cut and you’re not going to fracture your foot if you drop a roll of sellotape onto it. If only all office mishaps were so minor.

            Contact our Injury Claim Specialists today

            If you need advice regarding a personal injury claim, don’t delay.

            For FREE compensation claim advice over the phone and a FREE first interview with expert Personal Injury Solicitors you can really trust call us on FREEPHONE FREEPHONE 0800 1404544 or e-mail us at advice@the-personal-injury-solicitors.co.uk

            The consequences of construction accidents

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            The obvious and most negative consequence of construction accidents is of course the sometimes terrible injuries that workers suffer. Multiple fractures of major bones, brain injuries, extensive burns, permanently damaged hearts due to electrocution, extensive damage to internal organs as a result of crushing injuries and nerve damage from conditions such as vibration white finger are amongst a list of injuries too varied and long to include here and which are all unfortunately still far from uncommon in the construction industry. Inevitably and tragically some of these injuries can prove fatal; in fact construction accidents accounted for a staggering 28% of all workplace deaths in the UK during the year 2011-2012.

            If there can be a positive aspect to the grim statistics detailing death and injury from construction accidents, it is that each fatality and injury serves to highlight, in many cases, the negligence of employers in failing to comply with their legal duty to provide a safe workplace and ensure as far as is reasonably practicable the health, safety and welfare of their employees at work. From these instances of negligence hard lessons can be learnt and the deterrent factor of ever increasing insurance costs and tarnished company reputations in the wake of unsuccessfully defended work injury compensation claims, weighed by construction companies against the morally unjustifiable benefits to be gained by skimping on health and safety in order to be able to undercut rival bids for construction projects or simply sinking back into a comfort zone of paying lip service to health and safety.

            On the evidence of the Health and Safety Executive’s data on accidents in the construction industry over the last couple of decades, lessons are indeed being learnt and the gradual reduction in deaths and serious injuries since the 1990s seems to reflect a more positive and pro-active approach to health and safety amongst companies working in the sector. However the numbers are still high compared to other sectors and whilst they remain so, the previously engrained misconception within the construction industry that the toll in human life and health is an inevitable and unavoidable consequence of the type of work being undertaken will stubbornly persist.

            Only increasingly proficient project planning, the elevation of health and safety above a merely paper exercise and the will to expunge the pockets of bad practice historically found in areas such as staff recruitment and training, workplace safety, personal protective equipment and the culture of long hours and bonus inducements, will continue the downwards trend in workplace fatality and injury rates.

            Contact our Construction Injury Claim Specialists now

            If you are in need of any advice or information regarding a Construction Injury, don’t delay, or you risk losing your right to be compensated for your personal injury.

            For a FREE first interview with expert Personal Injury Solicitors you can rely on;
            • e-mail our team at advice@the-personal-injury-solicitors.co.uk

            Common causes of accidents and injury in warehouses

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            Over recent decades, in order to become more efficient, warehouses have generally become larger which has generated the requirement for processes become increasingly automated and mechanised. The results of these changes have resulted in workplaces in which many more vehicles and equipment, than was formerly the case, have to be safely accommodated alongside the employees who themselves often have to manually move roll cages and pallets to tighter timescales than ever before. It can be a stressful environment to work in, often noisy and sometimes, unfortunately, more dangerous than it should be.

            By far the most common major accidents in warehouses in the UK since the turn of the century have been slips and trips, accounting for 26% of all injuries. A truly astonishing 45% of all injuries sustained in course of warehouse work that necessitated workers taking three or more days off work were caused by manual handling accidents. Trailing in the statistical wake of those two work accident types are:

            • Falls from height.

            • Being hit by a moving or falling object.

            • Being struck by a vehicle.

            • Impact with a stationery or fixed object.

            • Other kinds of accident.

            The main causes of these accidents fall under two main headings:

            1) Environmental

            2) Work processes

            Environmental factors include:

            • An insufficiently clean workplace.

            • Poorly maintained systems, devices and equipment.

            • Inadequate lighting.

            • Poor floor surface, due to presence of contaminants or inadequate maintainance, inappropriate covering, slopes, ramps and holes.

            • Accumulations of waste.

            • Staircases without handrails (one or two).

            • Insufficient space for employees to work.

            • Temperature too hot or cold.

            • Poorly designed warehouse floor plan.

            • Vehicles not separated from pedestrians.

            • Vehicle movement, not controlled when operating in an environment with pedestrians.

            Work processes factors include:

            • Inadequate job and health and safety training for employees.

            • Managers/supervisors not challenging unsafe behaviour by employees.

            • Jobs that require repetitive heavy lifting or the application of excessive physical force.

            • Absence of personal protective equipment or a lack of training on how to use it.

            • Inadequate communication with non-employees (visiting lorry drivers, members of the public) regarding site health and safety rules.

            • Lack of lifting and carrying equipment to enable manual handling to be avoided.

            • Overstocking causing packs to fall off shelves.

            • Poorly designed shift rotas leading to employee fatigue.

            • Insufficient training on the movement and storage of hazardous substances, leading to mishandling that causes hazardous contents to be accidentally released from their packs.

            The list is almost endless. The factors are all addressable and indeed, under the current and extensive UK workplace health and safety legislation it is the legal duty of employers to maintain their workplaces in safe and good order and as far as is reasonably practicable ensure the health, safety and welfare of their employees at work  – or risk the chance of a personal injury compensation claim.

            For further advice, contact one of our specialist work accident team now

            For FREE phone advice and a FREE first interview with expert Personal Injury Solicitors you trust;

            • Call us on FREEPHONE FREEPHONE 0800 1404544 or
            • e-mail our team at advice@the-personal-injury-solicitors.co.uk

            Can I claim compensation for an injury involving working with horses?

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            If your personal injury was the result of an accident for which you weren’t to blame, you are on well on your way to being able to make a claim for compensation. If, additionally, your accident occurred because your employer failed to ensure as far as is reasonably practicable your health, safety and welfare at the riding establishment or livery stables where you work, it will probably only take a short time for a specialist personal injury claims solicitor to determine the connection between your accident and your employer’s failure to discharge her legal duty of care to you. If that connection is there then your claim can usually go ahead.

            Although equine businesses are sometimes not structured like ‘normal’ workplaces and are often run by families and friends and have employees carrying out similar tasks to those family, friends or the customers paying to hire horses or livery their horses, the owner or employer has a duty of care to all of them, employees and non-employees alike. You do not therefore need to have been an employee when you suffered your injury to be able to make your claim although the duty of care to an employee entails a greater extent of responsibilities than does the duty of care to a non-employee. In the former instance health, safety and welfare of individuals have to be taken into account, in the latter only the health and safety of non-employees. Usually, in the case of a workplace accident and claim for compensation this differentiation will have no bearing on the validity of the claim.

            A straight forward example of an employer’s failure to discharge their duty of care towards an employee in their stables would have been to neglect to warn that employee that horses are unpredictable and nervous animals who possess a dangerously powerful and long reaching kick and as a result of that lack of training, the employee sustained a serious injury due to being kicked. Another straightforward example of an employer’s failure to discharge their duty of care would be a failure to supply adequate protective equipment, such as a hard hat and body protector to an employee expected to exercise horses by riding them and due to the lack of equipment that employee sustained a serious head injury when she/he fell from their horse.

            Making an Equine Injury Claim

            If you would like our expert Personal Injury Solicitors on your side, just email us on advice@the-personal-injury-solicitors.co.uk or call us on FREEPHONE FREEPHONE 0800 1404544 today and we will contact you very soon.

            Can I claim compensation for an injury caused by working at height?

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            Some of the injuries sustained by victims of workplace falls from great height can be appalling and permanently life changing. Falls from lower heights can also easily result in injuries sufficient to incapacitate for lengthy periods and perhaps leave the victim with an on-going disability. If the victim of such a fall strongly suspects that their accident would not have occurred had their employer not been negligent in their legal duty to ensure that the workplace was safe, then they might be able to bring a claim for personal injury compensation.

            Apart from their natural dissatisfaction or even anger about the circumstances of their accident, the workplace fall victim will probably also be coping with recovering from extensive multiple injuries and facing the prospect of the kind of life he or she could not have possibly imagined in their worst nightmares – perhaps confined to a wheelchair and needing constant assistance with even the most basic daily tasks. In such circumstances claiming compensation goes beyond merely being their right, to being their duty to themselves, their family and indeed other workers who might be yet to fall victim to a similar slipshod engagement with health and safety by their employers.

            Whether you can claim compensation for you accident or not, is, as indicated above, to do with a question of blame. Analysing the circumstances of your accident and determining who was to blame for it can be a complicated business involving consideration of all the available facts. These facts might be drawn from witness statements, photographic evidence, medical reports, reports from health and safety experts on the condition and fitness for purpose of the equipment you were using and even from the similarity of your accident to those that have occurred in the past for which compensation was awarded.

            It’s no game for the inexperienced ‘amateur’ and certainly not for someone struggling to cope with the aftermath of their injuries. That is the reason why specialist work accident solicitors developed – legal professionals whose experience and expert knowledge regarding work related personal injury compensation claims place them in an unrivalled position to be able to advise potential claimants on the viability of their proposed claims and then negotiate the claim to the most successful conclusion possible for their client.

            Making a claim for fall injury compensation?

            For a FREE discussion with one of our personal injury solicitors, just phone us on FREEPHONE FREEPHONE 0800 1404544 or e-mail our team at  advice@the-personal-injury-solicitors.co.uk