Recently in Personal injury Category

Relatives of asbestos workers who died from cancers related to the handling of the dangerous material have won a compensation battle in the Supreme Court, ending years of legal wrangling.

The decision means that employers' insurance companies will have to settle compensation claims.

The legal fight for compensation began more than five years ago, with relatives of victims attempting to claim from policies dating from as long ago as the late 1940's. Lawyers working in the field claim that yesterday's ruling could impact upon thousands of claims.

A major player in the no-win, no-fee compensation claim market has warned the public that time is running out for them to make claims if they have suffered an accident which was the fault of someone else.

Proposed changes will have a great effect on accident victims' claims, they say, and encourage those who think they may have a claim to step forward sooner rather than later.

The changes to the law on no-win, no-fee legal representation are included in the controversial Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, which is set to become statute law this spring.

The mother of four-year-old John-Paul Massey, who was killed after being attacked by a dangerous dog, has called on the Prime Minister to change the law.

Angela McGlynn has spoken out just over two years after the horrific incident which left her son dead, in November 2009.

The boy's uncle Christian Foulkes, who was 23 at the time, admitted owning the illegal breed and was jailed for four months for the offence in 2010. Christian's mother, Helen Foulkes, 64, admitted a charge of keeping a dangerous dog and was also given a four-month jail sentence, suspended for 18 months and was also banned from keeping a dog ever again.

David Cameron has announced a new plan to cap the amount of money lawyers can earn from personal injury cases. Describing the vast industry in accident and personal injury litigation as the 'health and safety monster', Mr Cameron pledged to curb its excesses to protect small businesses.

The plans would see lawyers' fees in personal injury, public liability and employers' liability cases capped at £25,000 in value. The move has already been successfully implemented for road traffic accident cases.

The plans have been welcomed by UK insurance companies which have long called for an end to the so called 'have a go' compensation culture, which sprung up after the introduction of no-win, no-fee legal representation at the end of the 1990's.

A leading UK law firm has announced a small but significant rise in the number of bladder cancer case referrals. This recent phenomenon has resulted in the firm currently handling around 20 such cases, in a field where claims were almost unheard of until a few years ago. In what has proved to be a landmark judgment in Cookson v Novartis in 2007, the Court of Appeal ruled that exposure to some analine dyes can provide sufficient causation for a damages claim.

Former chemicals-sector workers, including those who worked in paint and rubber manufacture and with pigments and dyes, may be at increased risk due to exposure to carcinogenic toxins in the workplace.

"My fear is that workers will develop cancers and be unaware that they related to their past employment" said Pauline Chandler of law firm Pannone, who specialise in this area.

Thousands of victims of asbestos-related cancer and their families are awaiting the outcome of a case which is being heard at the Supreme Court this week that could overturn a previous ruling which restricted the amount of compensation they were entitled to from insurance companies.

Many employees who were exposed to asbestos in their workplaces contracted the fatal lung disease mesothelioma as a result. While they were allowed to claim compensation, the problem was that their employers' insurers would only pay compensation from the date that symptoms started showing instead of from when they were exposed to asbestos.

Lawyers claim the case to be complex and state that victims faced "confusion and uncertainty" over compensation, since entitlement to damages was now a matter of "pot luck".

The law regulates how, when and by whom fireworks can be sold and used. Under the relevant law, such as the Fireworks Regulations 2004, there are a number of limitations imposed on the use of fireworks.

It is an offence for anyone under 18 to buy fireworks that can only be sold to adults, and to possess fireworks in public places. If someone under 18 is caught with fireworks in a public place, the police can issue them with a fixed penalty notice, usually an on-the-spot fine of £80. It is also an offence for someone to possess professional display fireworks, unless they are a firework professional.

With regard to how and when fireworks can be used, it is illegal to set them off in a public place or on the street; or to set them off anywhere between 11pm and 7am. There are some exceptions to this rule; for example, displays can continue until midnight on 5 November and until 1am on some other occasions, such as New Years Eve, Diwali and Chinese New Year. These offences are punishable by either an on the-spot fine of £80; or a fine up to £5,000 and/or imprisonment up to three months.

The highest court in the land has ruled in favour of Scottish asbestos victims, who contracted pleural plaques from contact with the chemical, in a tough legal battle against insurance companies.

The Scottish Parliament passed The Damages Act in 2009 which allowed people suffering from pleural plaques, a symptomless thickening of the lung membranes caused by asbestos, to claim for damages.

However, in the rest of the UK victims cannot claim compensation since pleural plaques themselves are not a disease and have no symptoms.

The Ministry of Justice has recently introduced a ban on referral fees for solicitors in personal injury matters.

A referral fee is charged by one company for providing a client to another company; a common example of this would be a solicitor paying an estate agent a fee for recommending their conveyancing services to prospective house-buyers. The estate agent gets a fee and the solicitor has a client and therefore will eventually still make a profit.

In personal injury claims, however, the situation appears to have got slightly out of hand.

The Government has announced it is going to ban the controversial fees paid by certain personal injury solicitors to insurance companies for the details of their customers who have been involved in road traffic accidents.

Motorist groups, such as the AA, and the Association of British Insurers (ABI) welcome the decision as they say the referral fee system has contributed to the significant increase in motor insurance premiums.

The referral fees, which are paid not only to insurance companies but hospitals, ambulance drivers and garages as well, can average £800 per claim.

A truck driver in Kentucky, USA, who booked himself in for a routine circumcision, woke up after surgery to find the entire organ had been removed without his consent.

Phillip Seaton, 64, had entrusted his manhood to Dr John Patterson at the Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, in October 2007.

But during surgery, the doctor discovered that Mr Seaton was suffering from a rare and potentially fatal strain of penile cancer known as squamous cell carcinoma.

While the Government is determinedly cutting back public funding at the expense of NHS staff and services, recent figures show that hospitals in the North East of England are spending millions of pounds on medical negligence compensation claims and on hiring temporary and agency staff.

Throughout 2009-2010, hospitals in the region paid out a total of £22,307,000 to people who had received botched healthcare and subsequently made compensation claims.

And a further £62million was spent ensuring that North East hospitals had sufficient staff cover, hiring agency and temporary staff to fill gaps made by job losses and hiring freezes.

A Surrey businesswoman was the victim of medical negligence when she received a botched facelift from a doctor who "played God" with her life.

Penny Johnson, a financial and IT consultant, was awarded over £6.1million compensation after Dr Le Roux Fourie admitted liability.

Mrs Johnson initially wanted Dr Fourie to conduct some minor surgery to her nose and to reduce the dark circles beneath her eyes. But Dr Fourie convinced her to have a full facelift, further work done on her forehead and eyes and also a replacement of her existing breast implants.