Personal injury news roundup: 7 days ended 4 June 2013:
Personal injury solicitors are draining the coffers of not just local authorities but government ministries as well, new reports revealed this week.
Now there’s nothing new under the sun when it comes to stories about how personal injury lawyers are routinely able to secure large personal injury compensation awards in the thousands of pounds for injured clients – it’s just what good lawyers do, regardless of whether or not their clients are worth their salt or not. Sure, you’d like to hope that all these claims aren’t spurious ones – or at least I hope that these claims aren’t – but sometimes I just have to wonder after some of the news stories I’ve come across this week, like how the Ministry of Defence has paid out in excess of £1.4 million on personal injury compensation claims for any number of incidents.
Over the past three years, the MoD has been positively besieged by a barrage of personal injury claims stemming from incidents involving low-flying aircraft buzzing along and startling the blue blazes out of people and animals. Apparently these low-altitude flights have been disturbing human beings, which have then turned around and sued the MoD for compensation; this strikes me as a bit much in my opinion, though I can completely understand the claims involving startled pets or livestock, including one parrot that shuffled off its mortal coil after one particularly loud and low-flying jet plane startled it terribly, poor little blighter.
Meanwhile, there’s plenty of other examples of massive compensation bills and not just directed at the MoD. In fact, Notts County Council and Nottingham City Council together have had to pay out the exorbitant sum of a combined £565,000 from 2008, and that’s just related to school-related accidents sustained by staff and pupils.
Slips and trips tended to be the largest source of dismay for the local authorities and tended to be related to incidents occurring during the winter months, especially in areas where pavements weren’t gritted properly. Still, there were plenty of incidents precipitated by a lack of supervision when it came to rowdy pupils left to their own devices, as children tend to be vile little bastards when they’re left alone and routinely torment each other.
There were almost 75 personal injury claims made over the last five years, according to industry insiders. Notts County Council ended up paying some £310,000 in compensation, while the remaining £225,000 was paid out by the city council.