It’s sad that so many people either don’t know that they are entitled to claim compensation for injuries sustained by the negligence of others or think that claiming is only for the greedy. Seeking advice is your legal right and finding the right lawyers to help you can make all the difference.

The rise of health and safety laws and the increase in road safety have gone some way towards preventing serious accidents in the workplace and on the road. Nevertheless, no amount of law or safety procedures can prevent all accidents; where people are involved, carelessness or negligence can easily occur.

A duty of care:

A duty of care exists between people, companies and organisations in a variety of circumstances. A doctor or care provider owes this duty to his patients, for example. A driver owes a similar duty of care to other road users and an employer owes a duty to his employees. If that duty of care has been breached and someone suffers an injury as a result, the injured party is legally entitled to seek justice, often in the form of compensation. Personal injury lawyers are those who specialise in helping injured parties obtain that justice.

A good personal injury lawyer will often have a wealth of experience in one particular area of injury law, so if you have suffered an injury in the workplace, for example, you could deal with someone who has extensive knowledge of all the laws that apply in such a situation. This means that the lawyer will be more able to assist you in any claim that you decide to make, as he will have successfully dealt with similar claims beforehand.

Why you should claim:

The outdated view of personal injury solicitors does not do them justice. Dubious characters who see claims everywhere they look have no part in a modern, professional law firm that seeks to provide clients with a voice and which works hard to ensure that justice is served. It is this notion of justice that drives most lawyers who specialise in personal injury law. Claiming does not only benefit the injured party, but can provide a means by which the roads, workplaces and hospitals can be made safer for everyone; in fact, the law on negligence extends to all areas of society, so pursuing legal claims can improve safety for everyone.

A doctor, for example, who has negligently caused injury to his patient may be found legally responsible. This might result in new procedures being implemented in the hospital, thus preventing a similar incident from happening again. Similarly, a council that has failed in its duty to maintain roads or pathways to the correct standard (assuming road workers had not implemented a ‘reasonable system of inspections’) could be sued by someone who is injured as a result. It is unlikely that that council would make the same mistake twice and other councils would also learn from the mistake.

Of course, it is not just for the good of society as a whole that a claim should be made. Often the injured party has suffered a financial detriment as well as the injury. Compensation seeks to right this wrong by providing a means by which the injured party can live his life as well as he did prior to the accident.

AUTHOR BIO:
Maria John is a writer who specialises in the area of personal injury law. As a law graduate, Maria understands the important work that personal injury lawyers do in the community.