Category Archives: Interesting Injury News & Cases

Unusual example of whiplash claim

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Fall off chair causes whiplash

Whiplash is a contentious subject bearing in mind allegations that it is often either made up or grossly exaggerated as an injury, due to the fact it is a muscular injury and therefore difficult to disprove. When thinking of whiplash we also tend to think of car crashes and typically, rear end shunts.

In an interesting recent case, a very overweight bus driver suffered an injury when a chair he was sitting on during a tea break broke. The bus driver in question is apparently claiming up to £75,000.00 and you might ask how on earth such an accident might equate to such a large claim. The answer to this is that in addition to a claim for general damages for pain and suffering for the whiplash injury, the individual is claiming the injury caused severe depression which in turn means that he has a claim for special damages for ongoing loss of earnings. This aspect (the special damages) is what makes claims potentially much higher since general damages for pain and suffering under English law are in reality quite modest.

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Deputy Mayor – beware the chair

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Deputy Lord Mayor of Sheffield making a PI claim ?

The local papers in Sheffield are reporting this week that the Deputy Lord Mayor is making a personal injury claim against a Tenant’s Association. Is there any reason why he shouldn’t ? Do you think the image of ambulance chasing lawyers creates an incorrect perception  and that there is no reason why a claim should not be made, whether by a senior establishment figure or anybody else ?

Apparently, the injury was suffered when the Deputy Lord Mayor sat on a chair which collapsed under his weight. IT is not known whether the Deputy Lord Mayor is a particularly large or heavy individual and this is perhaps an unusual claim in that sense. Whilst a duty of care would have ben oweed under the Occupier’s Liability Act, unless there wqas soenthing wrong with tha chair which was or ought to have been known to the Occupiers, it is far from certyain the claim would succeed at trial.

The Deputy mayor, who will take over from the current Lord Mayor in the next few months declined to comment on the basis that the matter is with his legal team.

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