claims

  A train driver who became wedged between his train and the platform after slipping on black ice while descending from his cab has won £10,000 compensation. Thomas Burns was driving a First Scotrail Aberdeen to Perth train in December 200...

  It has been reported that the NHS has paid out over £1 million compensation since 2009 to men who have had the wrong testicle removed by surgeons. According to the National Health Service Litigation Authority there have been over 56 succe...

  A giant eagle owl has reportedly been terrorising the people of Inverness over the last week. Whilst one might usually think of owls as being wise, calm creatures who will helpfully deliver your mail for you when the Post Office is being a bit slo...

The cost of living is rising.  Even if it isn’t – it feels like it is. With relatively less in our pockets for the next ‘rainy day’ when a dip into savings is required seems daunting for most.  None more so than ...

  Fiasco is a word which the residents of Edinburgh are all too familiar with in relation to trams. The City of Edinburgh Council proposed a tram project some years ago which has never quite captured the imagination and subsequent to the installatio...

There was some personal injury related scare-mongering in the news this week with warnings that the Council face making personal injury compensation payments of up to £1million to cyclists who become injured when the wheels of their bikes become ...

  We are all guilty to some degree of repeating things we hear without full knowledge of the facts. That is how views and opinions, often entirely flawed transubstantiate into fact. Take for example the quote ‘Hell hath no fury like a women sc...

  I was shocked to hear of the latest tactic taken by insurance companies in dealing with claims for compensation by mesothelioma sufferers. The insurers argue that a claim is time-barred if a victim was originally diagnosed with pleural plaques, bu...

  Mrs Thom reassures me that when David Cameron vowed to stamp out the Health & Safety monster he wasn’t talking about me. He was however unwittingly threatening to increase the likelihood of people like you and I suffering a personal inju...

  Following the recent disaster off the coast of Italy involving the Costa Concordia I suspect there will be plethora of personal injury claims arising out of that incident. The captain has already admitted deviating off course which is likely to pu...

  I was pleased to read recently that the number of people suffering personal injury on Scotland’s roads fell to a record low last year according to official figures published by the Scottish government. There were 13,324 reported road cas...

  As a car accident claim expert I am familiar with most of the medical injuries inflicted on drivers. In minor low velocity road traffic accidents (especially as a result of rear end shunts) the most common form of injury is a ‘whiplash re...

  If you have been involved in an accident involving personal injury, you need an expert personal injury Solicitor to act on your behalf.  This is where I come in.  We at Thompsons have over 100 years of experience to draw on and consider ...

Often when people think of compensation claims they think of car crash claims.  Car accident claims make up almost 30% of the claims that I deal with on a daily basis. I guess this makes me an expert car accident compensation Solicitor.  I ...

  It has been reported that £15 million in compensation has been paid to some of the relatives of those who tragically lost their lives when the helicopter they were in crashed into the North Sea. When a Super Puma Helicopter crashed in to...

  I was saddened to read about the death of a 26 year old woman following what was thought to be a minor injury while horse riding in Turkey.  Charity fundraiser Louise Carolan fell off a horse in Turkey and hurt her knee.  She was tol...

  I was shocked to read recently about a woman who was involved in a terrifying accident at Kirkcaldy train station. The mother of two was trying to get off the train with her husband and two sons when the accident happened.  She stated that...

  I was shocked to read this week that male executives in Scotland’s private sector are paid on average £10,000 more than their female colleagues.  The news reports also claimed that it would take another 75 years for women’s ...

  I read in the papers this morning that a woman saved her seven year old grandson from a dog attack when they were out on the beach in Essex.  My first thought was just how brave both the child and the grandmother had been to get through such ...

  I was sad when I heard the tragic news that an oil worker had suffered fatal injuries and died after falling overboard from a North Sea oil platform. It has been reported that the 37 year old oil worker was working on ropes on a platform opera...

  Compensation has been awarded to the parents of a boy who was paralysed from the neck down after a delivery by forceps went wrong. The 10 year old will require 24 hour care for the rest of his life.  His parents were suing NHS Greater Glas...

  I was reading in the papers the other day that a woman has won £28,000 compensation after injuring herself falling in a nightclub. Angela Spalding slipped on a wet dance floor and fell breaking her wrist.  The former chef has been un...

  Is it just me or has there been a spate of cyclists and motorcyclists seriously injured in Scotland’s roads of late? It is regrettable that the most vulnerable on the roads are offered no protection from negligent drivers. The latest inciden...

  Thank goodness my friends at Thompsons are there to stick up for all the people who have legitimately sustained whiplash injuries and have a right to claim compensation. I feel reassured to know Thompsons are not afraid to take on the big Insuranc...

  A family have been awarded £270,000 compensation after the death of a loved one in a motorbike accident. Paul Bellingham died in July 2008 after he was knocked off his motorbike while on holiday in Scotland. Paul and his brother Mark were...

  A farmer has been awarded compensation after one of his cows died after choking on a balloon.  Children at a Primary School in south-east London released hundreds of balloons in aid of comic relief.  Little did they know the dangers of d...

  The Japanese Government has ordered Tokyo Electric to pay one million yen in compensation to every family within 30 km of the Fukushima nuclear power plant.  The compensation is around £7,365 per family and the total compensation bill i...

I punched a red plasticine fist in the air from the back row of the Court of Session  on Tuesday when it was announced that we have won another milestone battle against AXA Insurance & Others in relation to Pleural Plaques.   Pleural plaqu...

  A woman who is suing the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde for compensation for injuries caused when her smear tests were incorrectly interpreted has been allowed to continue with her case. Helen McGlone is arguing that if her smear tests has been...

  I was saddened to read about two tourists that were killed when a vessel they were sightseeing in flipped over at Iguazu Falls in Argentina.  The driver of the boat and 5 other passengers were seriously injured. The boat, which was owned b...

I was intrigued to read that Jenni Simpson paid £1 for the compensation claim of Alan Catchpole who contracted MRSA at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital in 2005. Mrs Simpson is seeking compensation from Norfolk and Norwich University Hos...

PREPOSTEROUS OR PRACTICAL?  PROPOSALS TO SCRAP "NO-WIN NO-FEE" CLAIMS PREPOSTEROUS? It is important to understand both sides of the argument, to be the diplomat; I guess this is one of the main attributes we take from Law School. To f...

  My friends at Thompsons have dealt with a number of compensation claims for people who have had accidents and sustained loss and injury on a construction site.  Some of the people Thompsons have represented suffered extremely serious injuries...

  We won! ....I have a dream...  Never has so much ..... Ich bin ein berliner ...... The exact words of last night’s victory speech are unknown but what is known is that Thompsons are Firm of the Year 2011.   2 new records h...

  Scottish Borders Council was recently ordered to pay £2,000 compensation plus costs to a schoolgirl who sustained injuries in the playground of Burgh Primary School. Abigail Wardle was swinging from rafters in a playground shelter when s...

  A trip to the gym left Robert Gordon University student Anthony McDavitt feeling anything but fit, after a car reversed out of a parking place and directly into his path. Mr McDavitt sustained a broken wrist, broken teeth, cuts and bruises whe...

  I read with interest this week about a claim for a factory worker being awarded £300,000 in compensation following an accident at work that left him with a permanent disability.  Wayne Miller from Cumbria was an employee of James Cr...

  I was so sad to read in the newspaper about the six people that were killed after a plane crashed at Cork airport. The accident is due to be investigated by the air accident investigation unit. My friends at Thompsons Solicitors have told me th...

  The Ministry of Defence is to pay £1.8 million compensation following tragic accidents in Afghanistan. £1.7 million compensation is to be paid to a paratrooper who sustained severe injuries in Afghanistan and £100,000 compensatio...

  I was really saddened to hear that a lollipop lady Audrey Williams, 79 from Ayr died after being involved in a road traffic accident involving a single decker bus while she was on duty. The lollipop lady known otherwise as the Forehill Primary...

  If you think you are having a hard time driving through all the potholes at the moment, imagine what it is like for me in my plasticine car!   The weather these last two winters has been a nightmare and has left our roads looking like the s...

  Ever since I was a plasticine toddler I have been hearing stories from my Friend McKenzie about the dangers of working offshore.  McKenzie is an older more hardened piece of plasticine than me and has spent the majority of his life on the rig...

  I was interested to read that a company owned by former Rangers Chairman, Sir David Murray, were recently fined £50,000 after an employee suffered a personal injury. Fifty year old Iain Sutherland was left with a broken right forearm and ...

  It is like something out of a disaster movie - offshore workers exposed to nuclear radiation. But this is exactly what happened on a platform operated by Schlumberger Oilfield UK, who yesterday plead guilty to breaches of the Health and Safety ...

  I was horrified this week to read in the news of an attack on a ten year old girl by a Japanese Akita dog causing her to suffer severe facial wounds requiring over 100 stitches.  The little girl was savagely attacked as she played in the gard...

  Like many of us I have spent the last few weeks treading gingerly along our nations pavements trying to be one of the few to avoid slipping and falling on the ice. The ‘big freeze’ has inevitably brought with it a huge spike in road traffic accidents and has seen hospital admissions at 10 times the normal quota for this time of year.   Careful drivers, who have never been in an accident before will have succumbed to the conditions and will feel aggrieved to be held ‘at fault’ for accidents that wouldn’t have happened had it not been for the ice and snow.  Unfortunately, in terms of car accidents, insurance companies and the law pay no mind to the fact that adverse conditions may have caused your accident.  Even if you are driving within the speed limit and cause an accident you are deemed to not have driven ‘as conditions dictate’ and will be found liable. The law is not much more forgiving for pedestrians who are injured as a result of falling on ice. There is unlikely to be any liability in a case where someone falls on ice so long as the accident was due only to the ice.  The law does not regard the natural accumulation of snow and ice as an actionable defect.  Simply, there is no liability in cases caused purely by natural conditions. Local Councils have a broad obligation to maintain the roads but there is no particular requirement for them to grit roads or pavements to any particular standard or frequency. The exemption that applies to Councils does not extend to private landowners. Thus, for example, in a private complex, the company could find itself liable for problems arising from a failure to clear ice and snow. In circumstances where the ice may have formed due to man-made defects such as a faulty gutter, or where the snow has been transformed or moved into an unnatural hazard then liability may attach.

  Well folks it's getting to that time of year again when little Thom gets excited about building snowmen, me and Mrs Thom pretend to be fictional characters while devouring our son with presents and Granny Thom pulls on her granny-grip shoes. ...

  I am of the opinion adverts like the one on the tv which I am in and my family are in provide a route for injured people to secure access to justice.  It is thought Lord Young in his review of the so called “compensation culture&rdq...

  I turned even redder today when I heard the news today that John Lewis plead guilty to breaching the asbestos regulations only one year ago.   Despite numerous campaigns to highlight the dangers of asbestos in the workplace, John Lewis allo...

Victims of pleural plaques developed as a result of exposure to asbestos in England and Wales are now eligible to claim £5000 compensation from the government, providing any previous compensation claims they have made have not been resolved.  ...

My working life is spent obtaining the absolute maximum compensation for victims of accidents in the most stress-free way.  There is never a more stressful time in someone’s life than when they have just lost a loved one.    Dealin...

  Positively recent statistics have revealed that there has been a decrease in the number of fatal accidents at work in the UK over the last year.   Thompsons are advocates for safer workplaces and work hard with employers, families and the H...

  One of the side effects of the recession is that workers feel so insecure about their employment prospects that many of them are reluctant to report accidents at work, industrial or otherwise.   I increasingly hear stories of workers being ...

  It’s good to see that the Department of Work and Pensions has decided to help victims of asbestos exposure trace the insurers of their former employers, the vast majority of whom have long since ceased to exist. These diseases, a miser...

  Me and Solicitor Greg Whyte at Thompsons currently have a number of compensation cases against TUI travel, also known as ‘First Choice Holidays’ in regard to gastroenteritis and other stomach complaints caused by bad hygiene.   ...

  Compensation claims against hospitals are often riddled with difficulty.  Doctors and hospital staff are, after all, only human and are trying to do their best for their patients.   With this in mind, any act of negligence needs to b...

Clydeside Action on Asbestos, pleural plaques victims and Frank Maguire, our Senior Partner at Thompsons Solicitors all welcomed the news that the bid by insurers to block the Scottish Parliament’s new law confirming the right to compensation of victims of pleural plaques has been blocked. Frank said: “This judgement states categorically that the Scottish Parliament was perfectly within its rights to pass this law and that is tremendous news for pleural plaques sufferers. We have an Act of the Scottish Parliament that establishes pleural plaques victims right to compensation and overturns the infamous House of Lords judgement to the contrary. Those responsible should now abide by the law. Thompsons have almost 1,000 pleural plaques cases which have been in limbo while the insurance industry pursued this ill-fated legal action and I now call on them to stop obstructing justice and not to try and put any more barriers in the way of victims seeking compensation. It was also noted that many insurance companies not involved in the court action, as well as the Ministry of Defence and British Shipbuilders, have been holding back on settling pleural plaques cases. They also should now meet their obligations and pay up. Frank went on to say “The Westminster Government should now enact similar legislation for the rest of the UK. It is ironic that pleural plaques sufferers in Gordon Brown’s constituency which includes Rosyth will now be able to claim compensation, but other MOD workers outside Scotland will not.” Suffers often have some form of breathlessness, but the biggest strain is the worry of developing a fatal condition like mesothelioma which happens with frightening regularity. Claimants mainly come from shipyard workers who had to cut asbestos boards – many stating that their employers kept them doing it long after they knew of the dangers telling them to use small blades rather than a buzz saws and to keep dust to a minimum. Out of 150 joiners who worked at the Caledonian joiners only 35 are still alive. The others all dying well before they were 65, most of them from mesothelioma or lung cancer.” This is a great day for the victims and their families.  

  I help thousands of people with accident compensation claims every week and really have seen it all.  However, sometimes even I am surprised at how poorly health and safety in the workplace is enforced.  Last week for example, Inverurie firm International Paper (UK) Limited were fined £6000 for an accident in which one of their workers lost an arm. The accident happened when the man got his arm caught in machinery in January 2009.  Investigation revealed that the safety barrier provided was completely inadequate to offer protection for workers. The HSE called the accident a “Dickensian-Style event” which should not have happened in this day and age. The man’s compensation claim continues.  

Compensation claims have increased 3 fold this month, particularly from cyclists.  With more people opting to cycle to work in the rush hour the number of accidents on the roads involving bikes has been steadily increasing. 

Most serious cyclists are prepared with well fitting helmets and quality bicycles, but educating drivers is another story.  Roundabouts prove to be a paricularly dangerous environment for cyclists and how the City addresses these incidents and encourages people to cycle each day is difficult, but the incidents that have come to our attention most recently were almost fatalities which is worrying and these victims are going to need financial security over the next 12 if not 24 months before they are fit to work again.  For this cyclist there was a least a positive financial outcome after successfully winning compensation for an accident that was not their fault.