Case 1: hotel restaurant accident Our customer booked a package holiday to Naples for himself and his wife

for one week in May 2005. They were staying at a four star hotel and were half way through their week away when he suffered a holiday injury. The couple had decided to eat at the hotel restaurant for dinner. They were just finding their way to their table when our customer slipped on some food that had fallen on the ground but had not been cleared up. He fell heavily to the ground, landing awkwardly on his left leg. He was taken to a hospital in a great deal of pain and it was determined that serious damage had been done to the ligaments in his leg. He also had some damage to his hip, which was already in a poor condition. His injuries meant that he could not put much weight on his left leg for a lengthy period of time, preventing him from moving around much. He also failed to recover quickly from his hip injury and after six months, underwent a hip replacement operation, which was a success. His daughter contacted us on his behalf, wondering if he would be able to claim holiday injury compensation. We told her that we would be able to help her father to make a personal injury claim and explained our cost-free service. Her father was pleased that he would have the chance of recovering compensation for his holiday injury, as it had severely impacted his usual activities, such as gardening. He telephoned us and asked us to help him make the compensation claim. Our personal injury solicitors examined the details of his case and, almost exactly one year after the holiday injury, we were able to settle the claim for 24,000. Our customer was delighted with the outcome and did not have to pay a penny for our service at any time.

Case 2:Waitress Accident At Work In this case our client sustained a significant injury to her right hand index finger whilst at work as a waitress in November 2008. Whilst going about the course of her duties carrying some glasses, our client slipped on some wet lino flooring and as a result of the slip the glasses came together and smashed. As a result, she sustained a laceration to her right hand index finger, severing a tendon and digital nerve within that finger. In addition to the injuries, our client lost earnings. A Letter of Claim was sent to the third party in the early part of 2008 and whilst the third party representatives initially tried to argue that our client should accept some blame for the accident (known as contributory negligence), we were shortly thereafter able to secure a full admission of liability. Once medical evidence had been obtained, our clients claim was settled for 11,500.00.

Case 3: Back injury claim against employer Our client worked for a hotel as a restaurant manager. On the day of her accident, she was asked to move 120 chairs across the hotel car park to a function room on her own using a chair trolley on two wheels. The weather was very cold as it was mid-winter and our client was not provided with any suitable clothing or safety equipment. On one of her journeys with the trolley it slipped out of her hands and fell on top of her along with the seven stacked chairs. The employer admitted liability. Our client sustained a soft tissue injury to her lower back and suffered from ongoing pain. An orthopaedic expert said that she would have suffered from a pre-existing back problem within about 15 months in any event. The claim was settled for a global sum of 4,500 without our client ever having to go to Court.

Case 4:Boiling Water Leads To Successful Work Accident Claim Our client worked in a kitchen as part of his role in a public house as a trainee chef. One of the kitchen appliances was a large pot that ensured boiling hot water was always readily available. On the day of the work accident, a colleague noticed that the pot was boiling over the top of the lid. She asked our client to help her move the pot to remove some of the water to stop it boiling over. Unfortunately the lid was not correctly secured in place. Whilst moving the pot, the lid came off causing severe burns to his waist, lap, legs and right arm. He immediately attempted to remove some of his clothing and applied cold water to his burns before the ambulance arrived. He was taken to hospital and received seven hours of specialist treatment from the burns unit. On discharge from hospital our client was unable to leave his house for two weeks as a result of both severe pain and being advised by his consultant to keep the burns out of strong sunlight. He had difficulty sleeping on a number of occasions. Work Accident Solicitors obtained evidence to support our client's claim for his pain and suffering. This detailed the first degree burns, superficial burns and the permanent scarring. Full details of his claim were forwarded to his employer's insurance company and he received a settlement of his claim in the sum of 5,000.

Case 5: Kitchen Accident

Our client was involved in a slipping accident in the kitchen at her place of work. The incident took place at the beginning of our client's working day when she went into the kitchen to prepare some milk jugs. As she walked into the kitchen and turned right towards the fridge she suddenly felt her feet go from underneath her and she fell heavily to the floor onto her left side and left hip. Immediately after the accident our client became aware of two things. Firstly, she was experiencing a great deal of pain in her hip and, secondly, that she had slipped on a wet patch on the kitchen floor which had emanated from a leaking hot water boiler. Her employer had failed to put out any signage indicating that the floor was wet and it transpired that our client's employer had been aware of a problem with the boiler but had done nothing to repair it. Having taken a detailed statement from our client and having sent the letter of claim to her employer a full admission of liability was received within two months. Our client is now symptom free and will receive compensation for her pain and suffering within the next few months, once medico-legal evidence has been obtained. As with the vast majority of our personal injury clients, this client was taken on under a "no win no fee" agreement and therefore she will keep every penny of her compensation and we will recover our costs from her employer's liability insurer.

Case 6:Reception Accident

Our client was involved in a slipping accident in the reception area of his place of work. The incident took place during the recent heavy rainfall we have been experiencing. Having arrived at work, he entered the building and, having walked over one section of matting just inside the reception area, he then proceeded to walk across a stretch of laminate flooring, but due to the amount of water that had been brought in by co-workers on an earlier shift, the laminate flooring had become wet and the client ended up slipping on the wet flooring. As a result of the slip, the client fell to the ground and suffered a severe musculoskeletal injury to his back, together with further soft tissue injuries to the chest. The employer had failed to put out any warning signs advising people arriving at the premises that the floor was likely to be wet/slippery, despite the fact that it had been raining all morning and all the previous day. Having taken a detailed statement from our client and having sent the Letter of Claim to the client's employer, a full admission of liability was received well within the three month period allowed for the third party/third party insurer's liability investigations under the terms of the Personal Injury Pre-action Protocol. At that stage the client could therefore be reassured that, subject to our medico-legal evidence, he would be receiving some compensation for his injuries.

Case 7: Cleaner Work Accident Claim We acted for a client who suffered an injury whilst working as a cleaner when he was struck on the back of his legs by several boxes full of flooring material. Whilst our client did not sustain any fractures, he did suffer quite significant bruising to his left leg, ankle and foot. The client was diagnosed by our medical expert as having probably suffered a strained joint ligament in the left ankle (the source of the clients main symptoms) but a full recovery was made by the client within little more than 18 months of the accident and just over 1 year after the Letter of Claim had been sent the clients claim for general damages (i.e. compensation for the injuries) was agreed at3,500.

Case 8: Case study - swimming pool accident The lady and her boyfriend had just arrived at the hotel resort and planned to try out the swimming pool for the first time. They dived in and, although her boyfriend was unhurt, the woman struck her head on the bottom of the pool.

She was pulled from the water unconscious and an ambulance was called whilst the lifeguard on duty tried to help her. Once at hospital, she regained consciousness but was diagnosed with a spinal cord injury that meant she might not be able to walk again. She was transported back to the UK and taken to a unit that specialised in back injuries. Luckily, her injury proved not to be permanent and slowly healed after many months of gentle exercise and strength training. She came to YouClaim several months after her holiday accident because she believed she was due personal injury compensation. She felt she could claim because the depth markers on the pool were in some places missing and in others badly obscured. Our personal injury solicitors accepted her case on a no win, no fee basis and were able to help her make a compensation claim against the tour operator that had arranged her package holiday. After investigating the circumstances of her holiday accident and gathering evidence of her medical condition, the tour operator admitted 75% liability for the accident. Our customer agreed to this and the holiday accident claim was settled for a total of 22,200. This comprised: 14,000 for the injury 6,000 for the loss of earnings 2,200 for care and assistance