Camps Solicitors Personal Injury Blog

Beresford Solicitors, the law firm at the heart of the miner’s compensation scandal has had its two senior partners found guilty of misconduct by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal in London today.  Senior partners James Beresford and Douglas Smith were found guilty of 8 out of the 11 allegations of serious professional misconduct they faced including conduct unbecoming a solicitor, failing to represent the best interests of clients, misleading a government minister, breaching...

As solicitors who deal with work accident compensation claims, Camps Solicitors like to keep up to date with all the latest developments and notable court cases.  One recent case which we read about in the national press concerned a man who received £70,000 compensation after inhaling concentrated sulphuric acid vapour during the course of his work which caused him to develop Reactive Airways Dysfunction Syndrome, otherwise known as irritant asthma. The victim who was 36 years old...

After a Freedom of Information Act request submitted to the Welsh Assembly revealed the figures for compensation paid out to pupils injured whilst at school, there have been several alarmist headlines about the rise of the “compensation culture” within UK schools.  Whilst attention grabbing statistics such as the £200 compensation paid out to girl at a Welsh school who slipped on a carrot may make the headlines, the figures reveal that far from increasing the number...

Courts in Liverpool have been busier than usual this week after no less than 33 people appeared before judges in connection with an alleged “Crash for Cash” car insurance scam.  The hearings are the culmination of a Merseyside Police and Insurance Fraud Bureau investigation lasting three years. The 33 men and women were accused of staging “fake” road traffic accidents at a number of different locations across Merseyside and the Northwest to profit from...

The High Court in London has just approved what is believed to be the highest ever compensation settlement for someone of retirement age after a payout of nearly £3 million was approved for a 74-year-old woman who was left with severe brain damage after a car accident.  The woman in question, Pamela Olive Green, a successful businesswoman with substantial income from a number of companies linked to her property development business, was left unable to continue her role after the...

The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, (APIL) has issued a warning about proposals from the Law Commission to change negligence laws relating to public bodies.  APIL claims the proposals will undermine the rights of injured people to seek compensation by making it tougher to prove negligence against public bodies such as the police or local councils. The Law Commission’s proposals to overhaul current laws were outlined in July and include proposals to abolish the torts of...

Following on from Friday’s blog, we here at Camps were pleased to hear that the High Court in London had ruled in favour of asbestos-related disease sufferers in six test cases against insurance companies who were refusing to pay up.  Asbestos-related disease is the biggest cause of work-related deaths in the UK, so it is not surprising that Friday’s decision has been closely followed by both the national media and the legal profession. The central issue, as we mentioned...

Camps Solicitors are closely watching developments in the High Court in London today.  Some of Britain’s most senior judges are due to deliver a verdict in a case that could have implications for asbestos-related cancer victims and their families. The central issue in today’s case relates to when an insurance company becomes liable to pay out compensation to a worker exposed to asbestos.  Currently the insurance policy that an employer had at the time of the...

The dangers of working with vibrating machinery were highlighted again recently after a man from greater London received a £10,000 compensation payout for Vibration White Finger caused by the machinery he used whilst at work.  The man had been using hand held power tools in his job working as a manufacturer at Charcon Tunnels for up to 5 hours every day. Vibration White Finger (VWF) or Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS) as it is sometimes called is an industrial injury triggered...

The UK is the whiplash capital of Europe, according to research by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) which blamed badly-fitted head restraints and increased tailgating as the main reasons for a 25 percent rise whiplash injuries over the past five years. Every year the UK motor insurance industry pays out £2 billion in compensation to road traffic accident victims. The ABI said more than 430,000 people claimed compensation for whiplash last year.  The NHS also revealed...