Compensation Personal Injury

Before you can make a decision as to whether or not you should hire a personal injury attorney / lawyer, you first have to know what a personal injury case is.

Most people think that a personal injury claim is a car or motor vehicle accident claim. While an injury sustained in an automobile accident where another was at fault would be a personal injury claim, there are many other matters that also fall under that heading.

A personal injury attorney / lawyer handles matters where there has been a personal injury, either physical or emotional, which was caused by the negligence of another. If there was no negligence then there is no case. There must be negligence, whether intentional or unintentional, on the part of another, for a claim to be valid. In other words, you would have trouble making a case against your landlord, where you spilled water on your kitchen floor and then slipped and fell because of the water. However, if the landlord had failed to fix the plumbing under your sink and the water was on the floor because of leaky plumbing then you may, I say may, have a case. There are other variables that could come into play and you would need to seek the advice of a good personal injury attorney, in order to determin your rights.

There are many matters other than car accident matters that can many times be included under personal injury, IE: slips and falls, workplace accidents (after a workplace accident you may be covered under workers compensation or disability but you may also have a personal injury claim), injuries caused during a storm or power outage, airplane, bus and train crashes, construction accidents, fires, food poisoning, drug or vitamin overdoses, animal bites, getting beat up, robbed or otherwise injured inside or outside of a business, medical malpractice and even malpractice by an attorney.

There are many variables that can come into play in determining negligence and many times you may think that there was no negligence on the part of anyone when there actually was. I myself, know of a case where a party was struck by a car while riding a motorcycle and injured severely. He settled with the driver and the driver’s insurance company for the $100,000.00 maximum of the driver’s insurance policy. This settlement did not even begin to cover his medical bills. Some time later, a personal injury attorney, while speaking with a member of the injured party’s family, found about the case and was asked to look into it for the family. The injured party was broke and paralyzed. The attorney did some checking and then agreed that, even though the man had accepted the settlement, there might still be a case. He then hired my detective agency and another to do further research. Finally, he filed a law suit against the car driver, the drivers insurance company, the motorcycle manufacturer and others. I won’t go into the whole case, but suffice it to say that he went to trial and ended up obtaining a verdict against several of the parties, including the drivers insurance company and the motorcycle manufacturer, for several million dollars and the injured party is no longer broke. I might add that the attorney took the case on contingency and advanced, out of his own pocket, all of the expenses including court costs and investigation fees.

The point of the foregoing is that if you have been injured, you should seek the advice of a competent personal injury attorney even if you don’t think that there is anyone at fault. Only a good experienced personal injury attorney can attempt to make that determination.

Whiplash Compensation Claims Advice

Whiplash Injury
is a sudden moderate to severe strain affecting the bones, discs, muscles, nerves, or tendons of the neck, which is composed of seven small bones known as the cervical spine.

Symptoms
may appear straight away or develop gradually over hours, days, or weeks after the injury.
Symptoms of whiplash may include

Pain or stiffness of the neck, jaw, shoulders, or arm
Dizziness
Headache
Loss of feeling in an arm or hand
Nausea or vomiting

Diagnosis Whiplash Injury can be difficult to diagnose because X rays and scans do not always reveal the injury and diagnosis is
usually based on observation of symptoms, medical history, and physical examination

Treatment
is usually by way of medication, physical therapy, and supportive treatments. Severe whiplash may be treated with a surgical collar.

Compensation
The amount of compensation payable following a whiplash injury depends on the severity of the injury,
the recovery period, and whether or not there are any permanent residual symptoms

Medical History
If you believe that you have suffered a whiplash injury in an accident it is important that you seek medical advice as
soon as possible from either your General Practitioner or in more serious cases the Accident and Emergency department of your
local Hospital. The medical record of your injury will used in part for the assessment of the value of your claim, and it is therefore
important that the injury is documented as soon as possible after the onset of symptoms.

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If you need advice or would just like to speak to someone, please dont hesitate to give Claims Master Group a call on 08000 71 22 71.

The Personal Injury, Accident Claim, No Win No Fee, Whiplash Compensation Claims Advice specialists.

Personal injury attorneys representing clients who have allegedly been harmed by the prescription drug Vioxx are congratulating themselves over a historic judgment rendered recently. On August 19, 2005, a judge awarded the family of Bob Ernst $253.4 million due to his death from the drug. Vioxx, which had been prescribed most often for arthritis pain, was withdrawn globally by its maker, Merck, after research trials showed it increased patients’ chances of a heart attack. Although Merck pulled the drug off the market in September 2004, legal action against this leading pharmaceutical giant will continue and expand. Lets take a look at why Vioxx has become a litigation lightning rod.

In 1998 as Merck was running clinical trials for Vioxx, company reports to the FDA stated that there were no cardiovascular signals apparent. This meant that there were no telltale signs that the drug could cause heart problems for users. Later, however, it was revealed that an internal study conducted by Merck around the same time Study 090 revealed serious cardiovascular problems as compared to patients not taking Vioxx. The study was never published by Merck as the company insisted that it was not large enough to provide definitive data.

The following year the FDA gave Vioxx its approval and the drug became the second nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medication [or COX-2 inhibitor] to hit the market. Celebrex, another problem drug, was the first.

Merck widely and thoroughly launched a marketing campaign upon the introduction of Vioxx to the marketplace. Indeed, by 2003 the drug had entered 80 nations with sales exceeding $2.5 billion. Still, there were problems looming as ongoing tests conducted by Merck hinted of potential deadly side effects.

As early as 2001, the FDA recommended label warnings be put on prescriptions warning users of potential side effects. In addition, Merck was warned by the FDA to quit misleading physicians about potential side effects.

As potential problems began to surface, they served as red flags to industry watchdogs, to the FDA, as well as to personal injury attorneys who began to gather evidence to show that Merck was negligent. Indeed, web sites and advertising campaigns meant to inform and attract patients harmed by the drug were launched and fairly soon the internet, radio, television, and print media were flooded with advertisements asking those suspecting harm from Vioxx to come forward.

With the September 2004 announcement that Merck was withdrawing Vioxx, personal injury litigation was well on its way to being established. By early 2005, the first cases were filed and the Ernst case became the first Vioxx lawsuit to be settled.

Wrongful death lawsuits against Vioxxs maker, Merck, are expected to increase as the result of the Ernst decision. Personal injury attorneys insist that thousands of former Vioxx users and/or their families are due compensation for Mercks neglect. It remains to be seen if juries will render judgments as large as the Ernst judgment and whether courts will uphold these amounts. Nevertheless, it is certain that Merck is in for a long battle that will reach well beyond its US base.

Tips on Selecting the Right Personal Injury or Car Accident Lawyer

If you are in a car accident and suffer an injury, you should consult with an attorney. Although most people would like to do the right thing and compensate your for your injury, it is rarely up to the person which caused the injury. In fact, it will more than likely be at the discretion of the other person’s insurance company. In addition, as we all know, insurance companies will do everything in their power not to offer compensation for your injury or offer a settlement to you way below what you would receive if you had hired a lawyer. If you did not know, insurance companies profit from this type of under compensation.

An experienced car accident or personal injury lawyer will know how to negotiate with the insurance company, build your case, and take your case to trial if necessary. It is not advisable for you to meet personally with the insurance company without your lawyer present. Insurance companies will do everything they can to take advantage of you and will obtain statements from you that could jeopardize your case if you should decide to sue.

Find the right lawyer can be a time consuming and challenging task. Usually people begin their search when they are in need of one immediately. A lawyer should be selected for their expertise and experience in car accident cases. The right lawyer will have experience in cases such as yours and will be able to take action immediately. The right lawyer will know what to do immediately without having to research your case or check court decisions, as he/she should be familiar with your type of case. Selecting the right lawyer will save you time and money in the long run.

Begin your search for your lawyer as soon as possible. A critical deadline called statue of limitations and other deadlines may give you a limited amount of time to take legal action. Do no rely on advice from friends and family in choosing your lawyer, doing so will limit your search for the right lawyer. However, if a family member or friend can recommend a lawyer that has work experiences in a case similar to yours, then act on their recommendation and make the appointment to meet him or her.

The most important factor in selecting your lawyer is that you are comfortable speaking with him or her and that you feel that a working relationship can develop. A good working relationship and communication can be a vital key to the success of your case.

If you are involved with a legal decision, financial claim or insurance arrangement, the financing process to settle and resolve the claim can often take two forms. Either a one-time lump sum payment, or a long-term periodic series of deferred structured settlement payments. But which is best for your situation?

A structured settlement involves a financial or insurance arrangement which includes a periodic stream of payments, that a claimant or plaintiff accepts in order to resolve a personal injury claim or other legal case. They were first utilized in Canada and the United States during the 1970s as an alternative to lump sum payments and are now part of the statutory tort law of several common law countries.

A structured settlement is a deferred payment method for compensating injury victims, and is a voluntary agreement between the injury victim ( plaintiff ) and the defendant. The plaintiff will receive the monetary payout over the course of a number of years through this deferred payment agreement. Under a structured settlement, an injury victim does not receive compensation for their injuries in one lump sum, but rather, they will receive a stream of tax free payments designed to meet future expenses and living needs. This type of compensation method is becoming more popular in a wide variety of legal cases.

The benefits of a structured settlement over a lump-sum payment include the security of a guaranteed long-term income with deferred payments that are exempt from income taxes. The federal government encourages the use of structured settlements in personal injury cases. Structured settlements also attract support from plaintiff attorneys, state attorneys general, legislators, consumer and disability advocates.

Structured settlements can be ideally suited for cases with:

Persons with disabilities
Guardianship cases that may involve minors
Workers compensation cases
Wrongful death cases
Severe injury case

Want to Sell Your Structured Settlement?
Not everyone benefits from a long-term payment situation and some may want or need a lump sum instead. The owner of a structured settlement, such as lottery winners, medical, insurance, accident and lawsuit settlement owners, can often sell their rights to the deferred payment stream, in exchange for a one time lump sum payment from a variety of financial institutions. All situations are different, and as with any financial or legal issue, you should always consult your accountant and attorney.