Show me the money!!
We are living in a compensation culture,everybody is trying to get their hands on the money, the country is almost on its knees as with any injury a windfall in damages is dished out by insurance companies. The apparent need for the dreaded risk assessments has resulted in almost every risk of modern life being eliminated as our children spend hour after hour watching Tv and online. This risk avoidance is all the fault of the Claims Lawyers. Or at least that is what many Government ministers and Tabloid journalists would have us believe.
Is it possible, against this background, that most injured people would rather just turn the clock back to a time before the injury, putting their lives back on track rather than receiving compensation?
Accidents do happen , if an incident cannot be reasonably foreseen no-one should be held responsible and no-one will win a claim if there has been a genuine accident.
We all make risk assessments everyday, just crossing the road we make one. If our actions could involve risk to someone else is it unreasonable to ask that the assessment be more careful? If you are driving a group of friends in a minibus, a scout leader leading a group of young people on a hill walk or a chemist holding drugs tests, a risk assessment should be carried out, but what is reasonable in each case will vary with the risk.
It is everyones responsibility not to injure others needlessly so we need to embrace the need for systematic risk assessments which do not have to be particularly difficult or complicated. They are not designed to prevent people from undertaking activity, they are designed to enable you to take part without causing needless injury to yourself or others.
Stop blaming the injury lawyers and lets make sure we can all play safely.
I once saw an advert by a
I once saw an advert by a local firm of solicitors that proclaimed " No claim No gain" - most honest piece of advertising I have ever seen !!
Compensation culture is destroying society with all instuitutions becoming ever more risk averse.
We can never live in the golden utopia this Government thinks it can create with ever more health and safety regulations.
Injury lawerys are merely parasites leeching off those who want to find someone to blame for everything that happens - we cant live in bubbles, the world is dangerous and accidents do happen. Get over it and stop the "someone must be to blame for this nasty thing that happened to me" attitude.
No win no fee is the worst concept that the Government has introduced.
Well thats certainly a point
Well thats certainly a point of view and as a "leeching parasite" i am happy to take criticism on the chin.
Though it may have its faults, "no win no fee" provides access to justice for many people who would otherwise be unable to afford to enforce their legal rights. Year on year the number of claims being made is falling, largely because no win no fee means solicitors will not take on claims that have little or no prospectof success.
No one criticises companies for chasing money they are owed, or indeed there would be no criticism if you expected a friend to repay money that you loaned them. Yet an individual whose life might have been turned upside down by an incident which could have been avoided should be accused of destroying society simply for claiming compensation ?
Personal injury Lawyers, have not, do not and will not expect people to live in a bubble, in fact quite the contrary is true. Our hope is simply that people are not put at unnecesary risk. Without assessing the risk however reasonable measures cannot be taken to reduce it. Nothing is risk free, but the difference between risk assessment and risk avoidance is too subtle for the tabloids to appreciate.
One of the first cases i ever worked on was the Zeebrugge ferry disaster. Should it really taken that incident to make people look at the safety of Bow doors? probably not.....
There are many services which are a stress purchase, do dentists leech on the misery of tooth decay or accountants on the misery of tax returns? Perhaps you think they do. I am proud to be able to assist in redressing the balance..and will continue so to do.
Richard Paremain
I see a car crash into a
I see a car crash into a river trapping its driver - I have no training in such rescue but leap in an attempt to do all I can & save his life.
In the process I am too rough in pulling the driver out and he bangs his head on the car roof resulting in brain damage.
He sues me for negligence.
Would it have been better legally for me to do nothing and risk letting him die ?
Absolutely not...unless you
Absolutely not...unless you are trained in water rescue and completely ignore your training, or you do something which any reasonably prudent person in that situation would have seen was unreasonable, or if rescue by those trained in water rescue was imminnent the claim against you would fail.
Richard Paremain
Too many subjectives in that
Too many subjectives in that response for my liking :)
And I would still have to go through years of legal wrangling, expenses and stress - Could I then claim against the other party for causing such emotional injury to me !!!
Well probably not...the
Well probably not...the solicitor instructed by the survivor of this river disaster would consider the prospects of success..see that this case was not viable, decline to act and save you, and all involved, the time effort and stress.
As you said "no claim no gain"
Richard Paremain