Personal injury news roundup: 7 days ended 2 Sept 2014:
Criminal activity and personal injury claims often go hand in hand, and in fact this week there’s no dearth of examples of this not so rare phenomenon.
Personal injury solicitors of course don’t necessarily end up handling criminal cases all that much, even though there could be a bit of overlap. I mean if you think about it if you’re bringing a work accident claim against an employer that was negligent in providing a due level of care the Health and Safety Executive might get involved, but otherwise it’s more of a matter of extracting personal injury compensation from a defendant than getting them tied up with jail time. Even so, there are times that the criminal justice system crosses into the realm of personal injury claims.
Here’s a perfect example of such an occurrence: in a drunken brawl between himself and one of his mates, John Dawson stuffed his thumb into another man’s eye socket, permanently blinding him in one eye. The altercation began because Dawson ended up chipping one of his front teeth and the thumb-gouging was apparently an escalation of the row, but when the police showed up they were told that the half-blind man fell down the stairs. Meanwhile, six months later and with his ability to work compromised, Dawson’s mate changed his tune – and suddenly Dawson’s not just facing a compensation claim but possible jail time as well, considering there’s criminal charges getting lined up. I suppose that it’s poor taste to make a ‘an eye for an eye’ joke at this point, isn’t it?
Of course sometimes even criminals end up deserving compensation as well. Just because you’re serving time in prison doesn’t mean you might not need a good personal injury lawyer if you’re roughed up whilst in the clink. Well that could be the case with Alan McAuley, who ended up suffering injury to his hand as he did a stint in Castle Huntly open prison on drugs-related charges.
McAuley had apparently been tasked with taking rubbish out to the prison kip, only to have the bin lid smash down on his wrist because it was being propped up by a mop handle. Now the man is looking to get £10,000 in compensation for his trouble, namely because he had a sore wrist for a few months and allegedly had some problems handling cutlery. Whether this will pan out for him is anyone’s guess but honestly if it was me I wouldn’t be holding my breath. I mean it’s not like he couldn’t work for those three months or anything – the bloke was in jail.