Accidents in Public Places

The family of a man killed by a bus that mounted the pavement has been awarded compensation at the High Court. The accident occurred in 2004. Bent Hjerting, 61, was walking with his two sons, Harald and Gustavus, when two buses collided...

The owner of a flower shop has failed in her bid to hold a commuter partly responsible for a fall that occurred on the pavement outside her London shop. In July last year Brian Piccolo, 50, won the right to damages for injuries he...

A landmark decision of the House of Lords could pave the way for some victims of sexual abuse to claim compensation from their attackers many years after it took place. Mrs A, a retired teacher, has won the right to sue for damages a man who...

Supermarkets owe customers a reasonable duty of care to ensure that they can carry out their shopping safely without the risk of injury. A woman who was injured by falling soup cans in a supermarket recently won £2,000 in compensation. The woman, who...

A cleaner who slipped in a puddle of water at the shopping centre where she worked has been awarded £3,500 in compensation. Susan Marriott, 51, worked at the Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield. She had been asked to...

A man whose life was ruined after he was hit on the back of the neck in a freak accident has been awarded £1m in compensation. John MacMaster was standing outside a London pub when the accident occurred. A sun lounger...

A woman has been awarded £2,602 in compensation for an injury she suffered whilst travelling on a bus. The woman was the only passenger on the bus when the accident occurred. She was seated in the first row of seats behind the...

A nursing assistant who fell down a stairway on her way to get her car out of the garage has been awarded £108,750 in compensation. Agnes Wilson, who was 57 at the time of the accident, was on her way to work when the accident...

A company with a long-hours culture has been found liable for an accident which left an employee paralysed.   Michael Eyres, 23, worked for Atkinsons Kitchens and Bedrooms Ltd. in Bradford. Late one evening, he was...

As of 23 April 2007, measures introduced under the Compensation Act 2006 establish a regulatory framework for...

A woman who was knocked down by a car at a pedestrian crossing has received £8.5 million in what is believed to be one of the largest ever compensation awards of its type. Leanne Evans, now 22, was...

Two victims of dog attacks have recently received compensation for their injuries.   In the first incident, a ten-year-old girl was bitten on the arm by a dog when her father stopped to talk to its owner. The injury required...

  A shopper has won £243,750 in compensation after being crushed by a reversing truck. Candace Donaldson, 58, who had been shopping at Argos in Inverness, had gone to the loading-bay area to collect...

The level of the damages awarded as compensation for personal injuries has risen slightly in the last year, with typical rates now being as follows:   minor whiplash (full recovery within 2 years), between...

A charity worker who had his finger severed by a dog has been awarded almost £7,000 in compensation. Peter Ball, 72, was putting an RNLI leaflet through the letterbox of Kenneth Belfield when a dog bit off the tip of his index finger. ...

A schoolgirl who witnessed a stricken plane heading towards her house is to receive £27,500 in compensation for post-traumatic stress. The  Korean Airlines Boeing 747 crashed just a few minutes after it had taken off from Stansted in December...

The Court of Appeal has ruled against arguments put forward by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in its prosecution of Hatton Traffic Management (HTM) Ltd. following the death of two workers in an accident on the A66, near Scotch Corner. The men were...

There are over 1,500 deaths from skin cancer in the UK every year and the number is increasing. As summer approaches, the GMB union has issued a warning to those who work outdoors and their employers to take measures to reduce...

A Staffordshire woman suffered 65 per cent burns after she was trapped under an electric sunbed for two and a half hours. Melanie Wraith had rented the sunbed from Terence Howell, the former owner of a sunbed rental business in...

A Durham man who was injured when trying to put away a bouncy castle was recently awarded £33,750 in compensation for a serious lower-back injury. The 51-year-old man was trying to move the rolled-up bouncy castle onto a trolley when the load shifted...

The Court of Appeal has held (Keown v Coventry Healthcare NHS Trust) that a child who climbed a fire escape, which was not itself in disrepair or dangerous, knowing that there was a risk of falling and that what he was doing was dangerous, was not owed a...

When the Government announced that it did not plan to implement a comprehensive ban on smoking in enclosed public places this was described by the Chairman of the British Medical Association as a ‘wasted opportunity to protect the public’s...

As most people know, the musical ‘The Sound of Music’ has a happy ending – or it usually does anyway. The perennial favourite is often presented in ‘sing-along’ form with members of the audience invited to...

The Government has announced that the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme (CICS) is to be revamped, offering increased compensation to those who suffer serious injury as a result of crime. The way the current scheme works has been heavily criticised for...

The House of Lords has dashed the hopes of claimants who have suffered from the effects of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) after ruling that the test case against China Airways and British Airways, brought by 8 people claiming that they developed DVT as a result...

The family of a banker who died when the plane he was piloting crashed at RAF St Mawgan, near Newquay in Cornwall, has won a £5m damages settlement from the Ministry of Defence (MOD). In June 2001, Hugh Paton was piloting a Cessna...

When someone has suffered an injury at work, they may wish to return to their job, or to other work with the same employer, as soon as they possibly can. A driver for Virgin Trains, who claimed that his employer had failed in its duty to...

A Kent teenager has won the right to seek damages in the High Court after falling through the roof of the youth club at the Eden Valley School in 2001. Sixteen year-old Stephen Young climbed onto the roof of the youth club one night to retrieve a ball....

A Manchester ambulance worker, who lost his job after 21 years, has accepted a settlement of £140,000. He had to give up work as a result of a back injury sustained in 1999 when a trolley, on which we was supporting a patient, collapsed. ...