Bartletts personal injury solicitors in Wrexham recently helped an experienced staff nurse recover £2,000 compensation for anxiety caused as a result of being scratched by a hypodermic needle whilst at work. The 40-year nurse had been scratched on the leg by the hypodermic needle that was sticking out of a refuse bag which she moved whilst on ward duty.

Nurses are regularly exposed to many hazards at work and are acutely aware of the risks of contamination and injury from medical instruments. They are trained to dispose of dangerous implements such as used hypodermic needles in a specific ‘sharps’ box, which allows them to be safely transported out of the hospital.

In this case someone had failed to dispose of the needles safely. The hospital quickly admitted there had been a procedural failure and as an employer they were vicariously liable for the actions of their employees. This subsequently led to a breach of their duty of care towards the injured nurse.

After the accident the nurse, who had been working at the hospital for over 10 years, had blood tests to test for HIV and was given a hepatitis booster injection. As per normal practice, she then had to wait for six months for the tests to be repeated before she could be given the all clear.

It was during this period of uncertainty that the nurse came to see a specialist personal injury solicitor who was able to reassure her and offer advice on a personal injury claim.  The nurse, who had two young children, was suffering from anxiety and stress as a result of waiting for the result of her tests.

Our lawyer recognised that the second set of tests was overdue and she should have been recalled by the hospital. As the prolonged waiting time was causing extra stress, our solicitors arranged for expedited blood tests to be carried out at a private hospital, which finally put the nurse’s fears to rest when she was told she was not infected.

Bartletts successfully recovered the costs of the private tests and a settlement of £2,000 in compensation for temporary anxiety on her behalf.

 

Bartletts personal injury lawyers in Chester recently helped a man who slipped down the stairs in the dark recover £14,000 in compensation for personal injuries from his landlord.

The gentleman, who had just moved to the area from abroad to take up a management position in a local company, had been living in the rented house for less than a week when the accident happened.

He awoke in the night and decided to go downstairs to get some water. As he stepped onto the internal landing of the terraced house, which had no windows, he reached for the light switch only to find that there was not one. No light had been installed at the top of the stairs.

Unable to see his footing on the dark, he slipped on the top stair and, as there was no handrail to grab onto, fell right to the bottom. He suffered extensive injuries having fractured his collarbone and shoulder. His shoulder had to be strapped, preventing him being able to write in his new job.

When the 40-year-old man came to see one of our specialist personal injury lawyers he was still suffering from a frozen shoulder, which had limited mobility. He needed regular physiotherapy to manipulate his shoulder and relieve the pa

Our solicitor helped the man make a claim for compensation against his landlord under the Occupiers Liability Act. Landlords have a duty of care towards their tenants and must make sure that the rental property is safe by carrying out risk assessments and regular safety checks.

The landlord should have foreseen that there was a risk to his tenants at the top of the stairs and installed lighting and a handrail.

We were eventually able to negotiate a £14,000 settlement for the gentleman from the landlord’s insurance company as compensation for injuries.

Doing the weekly shop can be a chore at the best of times, but for one gentleman it became a very real pain in the side.

The gentleman, who had a pre-existing spinal problem that affected his mobility, was walking through the automatic sliding doors in his usual supermarket when they unexpectedly closed. Despite trying to get out of the way, the sliding doors managed to trap him, injuring his arm and the side of his back.

The gentleman was understandably shocked and in the time it took for the supermarket staff to free him from the doors he became quite distressed.  The supermarket staff offered him comfort and logged the accident in their accident book.  When he left the supermarket, the gentleman was suffering from considerable back pain.

When he came to see one of our experienced personal injury solicitors in Chester, they were able to advise and help him to submit a personal injury claim to the supermarket for spinal pain and mental shock.

The company has a duty of care to make sure that their customers do not have an accident whilst in a supermarket. There was clearly a fault in the sliding doors, as they had unexpectedly closed and should have been out of commission. Our solicitor established that the supermarket had failed in its duty of care towards the gentleman and it was responsible for the accident.

Bartletts’ personal injury specialists arranged a private medical examination which established that his existing spinal problems had been exacerbated by the accident. The gentleman had increased his dose of painkilling medication since the accident to cope with the pain and remain mobile.

The supermarket sought to reduce the amount of compensation to the gentleman because of his pre-existing back condition. However our solicitor confidently negotiated a settlement of £3,500 in compensation for injuries on his behalf, enabling him to receive some private physiotherapy treatment.

While many of us feel nervous about going to the dentist, we usually expect to feel better after the visit is over. For one lady who came to see Bartletts personal injury solicitors in Chester this was not the case, after it was discovered that the dentist had extracted the wrong tooth.

The lady had been suffering from ongoing tooth pain for over a year and had been receiving treatment under the care of her dentist. To manage the condition the dentist had prescribed antibiotics four times in that same period. When the lady returned for her fifth consultation and reported that the pain had not eased, an x-ray was taken and revealed that there was no option but to have the tooth extracted. Reluctantly she agreed, and the tooth was removed under anaesthetic.

In the days following the extraction, and allowing for recovery from the procedure, the lady was surprised that there was no improvement in the tooth pain. She grew increasingly concerned that something was wrong and so decided to get a second opinion from her local dental hospital. They took another x-ray of her mouth and discovered that the wrong tooth had been pulled out.

The dentist who had carried out the extraction had returned to his home country and the lady thought that she would not be able to make a claim for medical negligence. So it was not until two-and-a-half years later that she came to see one of our personal injury specialists.

In cases where a dentist is working for a dental practice on a self-employed basis, they are responsible for their own insurance and the liability of the practice can be limited. As the dentist could not be traced, our solicitors wisely contacted the General Dental Council and presented the lady’s case. They were able to indemnify the claim against the dentist and awarded the lady with a total of £7,000 in compensation for pain and suffering and enabling her to receive tooth replacement implants throughout her life.

There is a strict time limit which applies to all personal injury claims. If you think that you may be eligible to make a claim, you should seek legal advice immediately.

An out of court settlement of £250,000 was achieved for a steel fabricator who could not continue working at the factory where he suffered a debilitating spinal injury.

The 45 year old gentleman was an experienced steel fabricator, and had been working at the same factory for over 20 years, when he was injured at work after slipping on a patch of cleaning solution that had been spilt on the floor.

He fell so badly that he sustained a mechanical spinal injury, causing extreme pain and permanent suffering. On medical advice, he was told that he would not be able to return to his job as it would be too arduous for him to stand up or sit for a long time. He would need to do something that was less physically demanding and allowed him regular breaks to move around.

The gentleman sought the advice of Bartletts experienced personal injury lawyers in Wrexham, who commissioned a detailed medical report on his condition and presented it to his employers, who agreed with its findings.

Usually, employers are obliged to offer an existing employee an alternative form of employment which accommodates their physical needs, so far as is reasonably practical. However, employers are not obliged to create a position for you. In this case, no suitable alternative position was available at the factory and the man was offered redundancy, based on incapacity.

Determined to provide for his family, fortunately he was able to find a new job as a data entry clerk in a factory office, albeit at a significantly lower wage. His new employer was very understanding and allowed him the regular breaks to move around that he needed.

With Bartletts’ help the gentleman made a successful claim for personal injury to his spine and a claim for future loss of earnings against his former employer. As the medical experts all agreed, the case was settled out of court with a £250,000 compensation award.

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Plans to dance the night away were ruined for one lady who stood on a wine glass that had been left on the nightclub dance floor.

Causing tremendous pain which left her unable to stand, the wine glass had pierced the lady’s shoe and lodged itself in the sole of her foot. She fell to the floor and was assisted to a medical room by her friends and a bouncer employed by the nightclub.

An ambulance was called and she was taken to the accident and emergency department of the local hospital where the glass was removed and the puncture wound was stitched. Following the treatment the lady was left with a permanent scar on the sole of her foot and an ongoing sensation of pins and needles in two of her toes, a condition known as paraesthesia.

The lady came to see Bartletts Solicitors in Chester for expert advice regarding this personal injury and we immediately contacted the nightclub. The owners of the club initially denied all knowledge of the incident and claimed that they did not serve drinks out of glass vessels in their establishment. They claimed they only used plastic vessels.

Determined to investigate further, our solicitor sent some of the lady’s friends back to the nightclub to gather evidence. They cleverly obtained photographic evidence of glass vessels being served and used in the club and provided witnesses statements.

Faced with the irrefutable evidence, the nightclub’s insurance company eventually settled the lady’s claim and we successfully secured £5,000 for her in compensation for personal injuries.

 

Starting a new job is always daunting, but usually with a bit of training you expect to find your feet. This was not the case for a builder’s labourer who lost his footing in an accident at work, just three weeks into his new job.

The labourer, who was in his late 50’s, was left with significant injuries when the construction accident happened. Under instruction from his manager he had gone to fetch some materials and tripped over a heavy duty steel wire that was protruding from the ground. The gentleman immediately fell to the ground, landing on his left side injuring his shoulder and ribs and fracturing his elbow. The tear to his shoulder left him with mild residual symptoms and permanent pain.

The gentleman came to see Bartletts personal injury solicitors in Chester for advice. Our priority was to get the claim underway as swiftly as possible as he was a casual labourer and was unable to work due to his injuries.

We were quickly able to get his employers to admit liability establishing that the employers were in breach of their statutory duty to provide a safe working environment.

Bartletts Solicitors negotiated a settlement of over £16,000 on his behalf for compensation for injuries and loss of earnings. As part of the settlement the gentleman even received health care from a private consultant, paid for by his employer’s insurers.

Bartletts Solicitors has seen an increase in Will disputes and inheritance claims in recent years. Their advice to all local people is to ensure they have a watertight Will and, upon experiencing difficulties regarding inheritance, to seek professional legal advice.

“It is becoming increasingly important for people to have a properly prepared and indisputable will, as cases of contested wills and disputed inheritances now appear to be commonplace,” Nina Sperring, Solicitor at Bartletts Solicitors says.

“We’ve seen a sharp increase in the number of will disputes and inheritance claims in the last few years, possibly as a result of the fact that research carried out showed more than 60 percent of people in the North West of England don’t have a will, plus estates seem to be rising in value.”

A Will specifies how you wish your assets and estate to be distributed upon your death and if it is correctly prepared, signed and witnessed, then it is less likely to be contested.

Current intestacy law dictates that the spouse and immediate family inherit the estate when the deceased person has no will, meaning certain family members and friends can be left out as a result. Such individuals then often decide to make use of dependency law to make an inheritance claim.

Even when a will has been made, disputes still arise, especially when the nature of how or when the Will was made is contentious.

Nina adds: “We’ve handled Will and inheritance dispute cases involving various family feuds, from sibling rivalry to former partners believing they’ve not received their fair share.”

Homemade wills are particularly open to challenges, as are the methods and timings of a will.

“There may be grounds to challenge a Will if it is felt the individual was not of sound mind at the time of making the Will or was duped or bullied into signing in some way, although providing sufficient evidence in such cases is complex,” says Ms Sperring.

“In most cases, challenges can be settled outside of court, but when a will is shown to have an issue it then becomes the people who want the will to stand’s responsibility to illustrate its validity.”

Will disputes and inheritance claims cause a great deal of stress and heartache for loved ones at what is an already upsetting time.

Nina adds: “We have legal specialists in Wills and probate, and an excellent track-record of helping people in Chester and the North West region resolve will disputes, as well as making watertight Wills that are signed and executed according to legal requirements to reduce the likelihood of future challenges in the first place.”

Contact Nina Sperring at Bartletts Solicitors for advice on our wills and probates services

When an injury results in a need for constant care and someone else is at fault, compensation can be claimed to cover two aspects; the injury itself and the cost of the on-going care. Where care is to be provided by a nursing agency, the cost is simple to calculate. Where someone is looked after by a family member, calculating the cost is more complicated and compensation for a carer’s allowance can be harder to obtain.

When Bartletts personal injury solicitors in Wrexham represented a lady suffering from brain injuries following a road traffic accident, they confidently negotiated a compensation award of £200,000 and enabled her to choose the most appropriate carer for her circumstances.

The lady, who was in her late 50s, was knocked over whilst crossing a road by a car that was not roadworthy. The car had been modified by its owner with windows that had been heavily tinted.

Following the accident, the lady was left with brain injuries which significantly reduced her level of concentration. She struggled to cope with simple daily tasks and required a lot of support from a carer.

The nature of the brain injuries meant that care from a family member was preferable to a professional nursing team. Constant care and supervision was kindly provided by a family member, who as a result suffered loss of earnings from their job.

Understanding the complexity of the case, Bartletts personal injury experts successfully negotiated a settlement with the driver’s insurance company which allowed the lady to continue to be cared for by the family member, providing compensation to reflect the level of care and for their loss of earnings.

The final compensation of £200,000 comprised roughly 30 per cent for the injuries sustained and 70 per cent to reflect the generous care provided.