Injuries Direct - Personal Injury Claims

North Yorkshire Police have made a criminal compensation claim for damages after a prisoner started a fire in one of their holding cells.

The accused, Sarah Heseltine had been arrested for drunk and disorderly behaviour in Harrogate in the early hours of February 25th.

Prosecutors stated how she had recognised one of the police officers on duty after being dealt with them over a road traffic matter just a few days earlier. As a result she became very abusive; throwing herself to the floor and threatening them when they tried to pick her up and move her.

When she arrived at the police station her aggressive behaviour continued, and she threatened and lashed out at officers further.

Miss Heseltine, 31, is believed to have been given a t-shirt to wear and was then put in a holding cell. A short time later the cell had filled with smoke and the t-shirt was found smouldering on the floor. She had used a cigarette lighter which had been concealed from the police when they had conducted a search.

Police totalled up a compensation claim bill of £1,116.25, which would cover the destroyed t-shirt and the scorch mark damage to the floor of the prison cell.

Miss Heseltine pleaded guilty to be drunk and disorderly on the night of her arrest, as well as criminal damage in the cell. However, her solicitors contested the amount of compensation she was being asked to pay – saying it had come as “something of a surprise.”

The case was adjourned so the claim could be clarified with police. Miss Heseltine was bailed until the 30th March.

Supermarket giant Tesco has settled an injury compensation claim with the daughter of a woman who died shortly after she was injured by an automatic door.

Margaret Buxton, 84, died just months after suffering terrible injuries when her leg became trapped in the sliding door at a Tesco store in Nottingham.

The supermarket chain admitted liability for her injuries and agreed to make an out-of-court settlement with Mrs Buxton’s daughter, who made a claim on behalf of her mother.

After the door shut suddenly on her, Mrs Buxton suffered a large blood clot as a result of a cut to her leg. She also needed a skin graft from her thigh and underwent this operation in May 2008.

It’s believed that Mrs Buxton’s health deteriorated rapidly following this operation, and she was brought back into hospital again in November after she was found collapsed in her home. She died on the 6th December.

Compensation claim solicitors for the family said: “She suffered terrible injuries from the accident as a result of the faulty automatic doors which shut unexpectedly and forcefully, exposing an elderly lady with existing medical conditions to severe pain, suffering and distress.”

Inmates of a London prison are preparing to make compensation claims after an outbreak of salmonella.

Over 300 fell ill with diarrhoea and vomiting at Wandsworth prison in the south-west of the capital last September.

The prisoners claim that the Prison Service was to blame for the outbreak, which lasted for approximately seven days.

Notices were put up outside the prison when the bug first struck, telling people that visiting time was restricted.

At the time the bug was unknown but the Health Protection Agency (HPA) later confirmed that it was salmonella.

The agency then declared that a full report into the illness was to be issued last month, however as of yet this has failed to materialise.

Compensation claim solicitors representing a number of the inmates have said they cannot act until the report has been published.

One said: “What hasn’t been confirmed is how it happened. That’s what the report is about – was there negligence on anyone’s part?”

Rumours that suggest egg sandwiches were to blame are yet to be confirmed.

A number of holiday makers are acquiring the services of compensation claim solicitors after falling ill onboard a Thomson cruise liner.

As many as 70 legal claims could be made against the tour operator by people who argue that hygiene standards were not up to scratch on the ship.

The passengers were travelling on the Island Escape over the Christmas and New Year period when an outbreak of norovirus spread around the ship. This caused many people to fall ill with vomiting, diarrhoea and fever.

Leicester couple Shaun and Elizabeth Shields fell ill with norovirus on the week-long cruise around the Mediterranean; something which they blame on the dirty conditions onboard the boat.

Mr Shields said: “If this had happened before, then I think we should have been notified and asked if we still wanted to go, but instead we were just flown out to Tenerife. I was told at one point there were over 300 people that had been ill.”

When the couple contracted the virus, they were quarantined in their cabin for two days to prevent any further spread of the illness, before being cleared with all other passengers for a full sterilisation to be carried out.

Thomson has disputed the compensation claims against them, stating that many customers have had a good time onboard the Island Escape. A spokesperson said: “We are very confident that guests due to travel onboard the Island Escape in the future will experience the excellent levels of quality and standards they expect from an Island Cruises ship.”

Visit our holiday accident compensation claims page for details if you have been in the same situation.

A new system to speed up the process of claiming car accident compensation has been looked at by parliament ministers.

Under the new proposals, there will be fixed stages and costs associated to what type of road accident the victim has and what injuries they have suffered.

The system could be similar to the current Motor Insurers’ Bureau scheme, which compensates those involved in an accident with an uninsured or hit-and-run driver. These are also awarded on a tariff basis depending on the type and amount of losses sustained by the innocent party.

The new proposals would introduce deadlines for the claimants’ and defendants’ solicitors to put forward their claim intentions.

Only sums between £1,000 and £10,000 will be covered by the new system – though a figure between these numbers make up the majority of car accident compensation payouts at the present time.

The scheme, which was developed in conjunction with the Ministry of Justice is due to come into effect from the 30th April.

Hundreds of patients who were treated at Stafford Hospital are making compensation claims against it.

Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust is currently facing legal charges following an investigation that showed patients were grossly neglected, ignored and generally mistreated during their stays at the hospital.

Approximately 220 compensation claims are currently being made, all for clinical negligence and/or breaches of human rights.

The investigation showed that patients were left in soiled bedclothes, unwashed and in a state of undress in front of other patients and visitors.

It was also revealed that patient’s families had to clean lavatories and public areas themselves, food and drinks were left out of reach and patients resorted to drinking out of vases to quench their thirst.

Julie Bailey, who formed the campaign group Cure The NHS after her mum died during her stay at Stafford Hospital said: “I am not in the least bit surprised at the amount of people who could put in claims. It just shows the extremity of the harm they were going over the years.”

If you have been affected by clinical negligence at a Mid Staffordshire hospital, or any other UK hospital, contact the Injuries Direct team for professional assistance.

New laws could require dog owners to obtain insurance to protect others from attacks.

The government’s proposals aim to give greater protection to members of the public from the threat of dangerous dogs, and will give them the right to easily make a claim for compensation if they are injured by a dog bite.

Currently the 1991 Dangerous Dogs Act bans four breeds of the animal – the Pit Bull Terrier, the Japanese Tosa, the Dogo Argentinos and the Fila Brasileriros – from all public places.

However, it will now be discussed whether these dogs should be banned from private property as well. This would mean that postal workers and others that need to go to people’s houses would be better protected.

Ministers are worried about an increased trend in keeping the dangerous animals as ‘status dogs’ – used to intimidate and threaten people. Approximately 100 people are admitted to hospital following a dog attack.

Local councils and the police could now be given powers to force dangerous dog owners to muzzle them, or to have them neutered.

Another proposal is to make it compulsory for third-party insurance to be taken out for dog owners, which will ensure that victims of attacks are compensated accordingly.

The postal union CWU has welcomed the proposals. General Secretary Bill Hayes said: “Thousands of our members are attacked at work every year. This reform cannot come soon enough.”

A worker at Staffordshire University has been won a £110,000 compensation claim for work-related stress.

However, despite the payout was made in an out-of-court settlement, the university has refused to accept liability.

Programme manager Mark Bannister, 49, was allegedly made to work up to 65 hours a week after one of his colleagues committed suicide and another went on long-term sick leave.

The members of staff were not replaced and Mr Bannister was given more and more work to deal with. Despite complaining about the massively increased workload, his bosses did nothing to relieve the pressure.

Mr Bannister, who has a history of anxiety and depression, signed off sick from work in September 2007, and briefly returned before going off sick again.

His compensation claim solicitors argued that Staffordshire University should have done more to ensure that their employees were not overworked.

They said: “Despite Staffordshire University being aware of Mr Bannister’s previous medical history and despite his complaints about the workload nothing was done to ensure he was coping. Stress cases are difficult to prove but here Mr Bannister was ignored and felt he had no choice but to work excessive hours and the damage to his health followed.”

A diabetic man was the first person in Britain to be awarded injury compensation for being shot by a police taser gun.

Nicholas Gaubert slipped into a coma when he was travelling on a Leeds city centre bus to have drinks with friends in nearby Headingley. The reaction was so fast that he did not have time to call anyone for help or even press the stop button.

After the bus terminated the driver checked to make sure it had been emptied of its passengers. With Mr Gaubert seemingly asleep on the top deck, and with a rucksack next to him, the driver began to panic. Only a week before the London 7/7 attacks had seen many people killed on a similar double-decker vehicle.

When Mr Gaubert failed to stir, the driver called the police and started to clear the bus depot. The nearby Asda was also evacuated.

Despite being a white male and with the vehicle being miles out of the city centre – therefore not showing typical signs of being a terrorist , eight firearms officers came to the scene, with three entering the bus.

When Mr Gaubert didn’t respond to their shouted orders, didn’t show his hands and was seen to be sweating profusely, one of the officers deployed the 50,000 volt taser. After one final warning he fired it into his chest.

The electricity passed through his body for five seconds, leaving him with uncontrollable muscle spasms. He fell to the floor and when officers failed to get him to show his hands, they shot him a second time.

Mr Gaubert regained consciousness after the police had finally arrested him and put him in handcuffs in the back of their van. He was then able to shout that he needed urgent medical attention. He was taken to Leeds General Infirmary.

He said: “I shudder to think what could have happened if I hadn’t come round. They would have put me in a cell and I would probably have died. I was in a diabetic coma, and all they were bothered about was whether I was going to blow up an empty, stationery bus.”

Mr Gaubert, who is believed to have received an injury compensation payout in the tens-of-thousands of pounds and a full, formal apology from West Yorkshire Police added: “I showed no aggression – I was unconscious and unable to respond to their demands. I think they just saw it as an opportunity to try out their toys.”

Polar explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes was involved in a three car road traffic accident on the A6 in Stockport on Saturday afternoon.

Police have since appealed for witnesses to the accident amid claims that he caused the accident after falling asleep at the wheel of his Jaguar.

Sir Ranulph, who is the oldest Briton to reach the peak of Mount Everest, collided with a Nissan Micra travelling in the opposite direction before swerving into a Ford Focus. He was taken to hospital but was not badly injured.

Prior to the accident, Sir Ranulph, 66, had been taking part in the High Peak marathon – a 42-mile run across the Peak District. Authorities are now trying to find out whether this contributed to the crash.

The driver of the Nissan Micra, a 45-year old male, had to be cut free from the wreckage of his car. He suffered leg injuries and was taken to Stepping Hospital. His condition isn’t believed to be serious. His five-year-old son, who was sat on the back seat at the time sustained minor injuries.

Falling asleep at the wheel can be classed as dangerous driving and can lead to a hefty fine. The maximum penalty is two-year imprisonment. However, no arrests have yet been made.