Injury Compensation News

The Italian subsidiary of Carnival Cruises responsible for the Costa Concordia has offered more than 3,000 passengers who were rescued from the stricken ship 11,000 Euros (14,460 dollars/9,180 pounds) in compensation for disaster cruise holiday.

The offer has been made to reflect the cost of personal effects lost in the tragedy and also any psychological trauma that passengers may have sustained during the sinking of the ship and rescue effort. The same level of compensation for disaster cruise holiday applies to children and, in addition to the offer, the cost of the disaster cruise holiday and any transportation costs to return home will also be refunded.

Those passengers that sustained a physical injury will be assessed individually, and passengers prepared to accept the offer of disaster cruise holiday compensation can expect to receive their settlement within a week. However, the Carnival Cruises payout has attracted condemnation from some consumer groups, who have criticised the proviso that passengers accepting the disaster cruise holiday compensation offer will have to forgo any future claims against the company.

The consumer group Codacons claims that passengers should be entitled to a minimum disaster cruise holiday compensation settlement of 125,000 Euros (164,300 dollars/104,300 pounds) for each passenger, and has recommended that passengers seek professional medical advice before accepting the company´s offer of compensation for disaster cruise holiday.

A pub licensee, who sustained injuries to her face when she refused a customer entrance to her bar, has been awarded 500 pounds in personal injury damages following a hearing at Kirkaldy Sheriff Court.

The Court heard how Agnes Gallagher of the Greenside Hotel in Leslie, Fife, had seen Leala Brownlie of Glenrothes, Fife, being sick outside the hotel premises at approximately 9.15pm on the night of March 26 2011. Assuming that her sickness was due to an excess of alcohol, Agnes refused to allow Brownlie to return into the hotel bar.

After a heated discussion, the assault on the pub licensee followed, with Agnes sustaining cuts and bruises to her face and damage to two of her teeth which needed dental treatment to repair them. The assailant left the premises, but Agnes was able to track her down on Facebook where – the Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard – Brownlie had posted that she gave the landlady of the Greenside a good kicking.

Sheriff James Williamson heard that Brownlie admitted assault but, in her defence, had previously been of good character and regretted the incident. Acknowledging that a custodial sentence would have been inappropriate in the circumstances, Sheriff Williamson ordered Brownlie to pay Agnes 500 pounds in personal injury damages.

A professional tennis coach and keen cyclist, who was run over by a hit and run driver and suffered terrible brain injuries, is to receive four million pounds in compensation following a judgement in favour of his bicycle accident claim at London´s High Court.

Patrice Gougam (55) from Enfield, Middlesex, had been cycling along the A1000 Barnet to Hatfield road in November 2009 when the accident happened. He was run over by a Land Rover driver by Michael Elliot (66) of Potters Bar, Hertfordshire who drove away from the scene of the accident, unaware of the injury he had caused – only to give himself up on his return journey later in the day.

Patrice suffered catastrophic brain damage which left him in a coma for three weeks. He spent six months at the National Hospital for Neurosurgery and Neurology in Bloomsbury, London, before being transferred to a hospital closer to his home where he remained for a further fifteen months. He now requires round-the-clock care and he is wheelchair bound and unable to feed himself.

Assessing Patrice´s bicycle accident claim, the High Court heard that Michael Elliot had been found guilty of reckless driving, had served eight months in prison and been banned from driving for three years as a result of the accident. Finding in favour of the claimant, the Court awarded four million pounds to Patrice, to be administered by his wife Virginia.

A man who suffered a broken leg and head injuries, when his motorised wheelchair was hit by a negligent motorist on a road crossing, has settled his pedestrian accident claim with the driver´s insurers.

Arthur Billingsley of Olivette, Missouri, was in the process of crossing the town´s main road in his wheelchair when he was in collision with a car driven by Willette Jackson of St. Louis, Missouri. After being attended at the scene by an ambulance, Arthur was taken to St. John´s Mercy Medical Centre in Olivette where he was treated for concussion and underwent surgery for a broken leg.

After speaking with his solicitor, Arthur made a pedestrian accident claim for compensation against Ms Jackson; stating that she had been driving without due care for the road conditions and had failed to see him on the crossing. The claim was not contested by Ms Jackson and after four months of negotiations, a settlement was agreed between her insurers and Arthur´s legal representative for 100,000 dollars in wheelchair injury compensation was agreed.

According to figures released by Kettering General Hospital Trust, more than a third of all hospital injury compensation claims made by its own staff are attributable to slips, trips and falls.

Representatives of the Northamptonshire hospital claim that the 300,000 pounds that they paid out over the past five years in compensation payments to its staff “is comparable with other hospitals” and that “many measures, training schemes and policies and procedures in place to prevent accidents”.

Nonetheless, in the five year period to April 2011, 40 staff made hospital injury compensation claims with a total value of 313,126 pounds. 115,527 pounds was paid out in hospital injury compensation claims following falls in the hospital which were attributable to the hospital´s own lack of care, with some of the other significant amounts being:-

• 98,635 pounds for lifting injuries
• 17,079 pounds due to incidents involving needles
• 10,000 pounds in hospital injury at work claims due to the environment
• 6,171 pounds paid to staff exposed to infections, electricity or other hazardous substances

Under the terms of the hospital´s public liability insurance, all injury at work claims less than 10,000 have to be paid by the hospital itself, making a significant hole in the funds available to invest in healthcare and the wellbeing of the hospital´s patients.

A skip delivery man from Lancashire, who lost his thumb and finger in a manual handling accident, has won his injuries at work claim and is to receive 175,000 pounds.

In January 2009, Heath Riley (45) from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire was delivering a skip for Enviro Skips Ltd of Burnley, Lancashire, when the skip he was intending to unload slipped due to being placed inside another insecurely and crushed his hand. When an ambulance was summoned, Heath had the thumb of his right hand amputated at the scene and doctors failed to save his index finger during microsurgery at the Royal Preston Hospital.

Heath also lost the use of two other fingers in his hand and, after being discharged from hospital, sought legal advice about making an injuries at work claim. It was discovered following an investigation into the accident that the skips had been loaded insecurely as they were damaged and unsafe to use. As such Enviro Skips Ltd should have withdrawn them from service and not allowed them to be stacked to go out for delivery.

In an out-of-court settlement for hand injury compensation, Heath was awarded 175,000 pounds to account for his pain and suffering at the time of the accident, his future loss of earnings as he will no longer be able to work in a position which requires manual labour, and for the deterioration in the quality of his life as he will no longer be able to pursue his DIY hobbies.

A man who sustained a broken neck and catastrophic spinal injuries when the trailer of a truck broke free and landed on top of his car has settled his road traffic accident claim with the truck owners for 1.4 million dollars.

William Geary (60) from Medford in Jackson County, Oregon, sustained his injuries in December 2011 when the trailer of a truck driven by Philip McCullough broke free while McCullough was attempting a dangerous manoeuvre and landed on top of his Chevrolet Silverado.

William, who had been waiting patiently at a red light at the time, suffered a broken neck in the accident and catastrophic damage to his spine. The 6´ 4´´ tall man was trapped in his vehicle for 90 minutes while emergency services attempted to cut him free from the wreckage.

An investigation was launched into the accident, and McCullough was fined for making an improper turn and careless driving. However, on inspection of the truck, it was found that the brake slack adjusters were mismatched and the brakes on the rear trailer were not lined up correctly.

William made a road traffic accident claim for his injuries and a negotiated settlement was agreed of truck accident compensation which covered the medical expenses he had incurred to date paid (300,000 dollars), a consideration for future medical expenses (400,000 dollars) and compensation for his pain and suffering, loss of income and loss of amenity (700,000 dollars).

A ten year old boy, who fractured his skull and suffered internal bleeding after falling from a climbing frame at his school, has been awarded 75,000 pounds following a playground accident claim for compensation.

Jamie Griffin from Haverhill, Suffolk, was playing on the climbing frame at the Burton End Primary School in Haverhill when the accident happened in November 2009. Falling almost five feet, Jamie struck his head on concrete blocks at the base of the climbing frame and immediately lost consciousness. He was rushed to hospital and, when he failed to come round after an hour, was given a CAT scan.

Doctors diagnosed Jamie with a fractured skull and internal bleeding which was coming from the main artery to his brain. At one point he was expected not to live but regained consciousness the following morning. His injuries left him temporarily blind and he was unable to return to school for ten weeks.

Following an investigation into the accident, Suffolk County Council was found to be in breach of health and safety regulations and fined. Janie´s mother – Debbie Griffin – bought a playground accident claim against the council and Jamie was awarded 7,500 pounds for his injuries – a compensation settlement which will remain in trust until he reaches eighteen years of age.

A woman who sustained injuries to her face and body after being struck by a golf ball at her home club in Staffordshire has settled her injury claim for compensation for 7,500 pounds.

Rachel Davis was hit in the face by a wayward golf ball as she was returning to her car at the Branston Golf and Country Club. The force of the impact caused substantial damage to her teeth and cuts to her lips and, due to the shock of the event, Rachel also fell to the ground and sustained bruises to her body.

 Rachel was immediately taken to hospital where she received treatment, but was absent from work for the following week due to her injuries. After seeking legal advice Rachel made an injury claim for compensation against the Golf Club and instigated a health and safety inspection by East Staffordshire Borough Council.

The council found that the Golf Club had erected a fence to prevent such accidents but it was too low to be effective and was in a bad state of disrepair. The Golf Club was also in breach of several health and safety regulations including a lack of warning signs of the potential hazard.

Scotland´s largest teaching union – the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) – has revealed that more than 650,000 pounds was paid out to its members in occupational injury compensation, including one six-figure payment for stress in the workplace.

The unnamed teacher was awarded the compensation for stress after their employer refused to respond to the teachers concerns of an excessive workload. The teacher consequently sustained a stress-related psychiatric injury and received their compensation for stress in the workplace in an out-of-court settlement.

The General Secretary of the EIS, Ronnie Smith, commented that “The growth in the number of cases involving psychiatric injury and stress-related illness must be a warning to employers that they need to take account of their employees’ mental, as well as physical, wellbeing. The fact that this record compensation award arose from a workload-related case, which was compounded by a lack of management support, is no coincidence.”

A Scottish government spokesman said that they expect councils to take appropriate action to minimise the risk of stress in the workplace for teachers