Expert Witness Legal News – page 44

Lift injury payout

Thompsons’ Legal Line personal injury branch reports that its specialist personal injury lawyers have recently acted in a compensation claim on behalf of a lift engineer who was injured in an accident at work. He suffered a manual handling injury while installing some machine steel at the top of a lift shaft. It slipped out of its retaining pocket and he held on to it in an attempt to prevent it from falling, sustaining an injury to his neck and shoulder as he did so.

He required extensive medical treatment and time off from work and eventually had to change his occupation altogether, as the long-term injury meant that he was no longer fit to carry out the heavier aspects of his job.

The injured employee appointed expert lawyers to act on his behalf in a claim against his employer. They pursued the case on the basis that the employer failed to employ sufficient health and safety measures to provide him with a safe system of work and keep the risk of injury to a minimum.

Liability was admitted and detailed negotiations with the defendant ensure that the client received an appropriate amount of compensation. During the process his lawyers were able to obtain interim payments to help fund his medical expenses until the case could be concluded. A total amount of damages in excess of £35,000 was secured in respect of his injuries, loss of earnings, medical costs and other losses.

Group therapy could help PTSD after car accidents

Research funded by the National Institute of Mental Health aims to develop a group therapy programme that can be used by psychologists to treat the thousands of people every year who develop PTSD after traumatic car accidents, according to claims specialist YouClaim.

Not guilty because of mental impairment

by Dr JONATHAN SHAPERO, consultant forensic psychiatrist

English law has long accepted the principle that some offenders are not fully responsible for their actions when committing crimes. Edward II declared that under common law a person was insane if their mental capacity was “...no more than that of a Wild Beast”.

The concept of ‘years brought forward’

by MARK PHILLIPS, consultant orthopaedic and trauma surgeon

We clinicians are often vexed by the following question posed by solicitors in personal injury cases: “If the patient was likely to develop a degenerative condition at some point in the future, how many years has this injury brought forward the onset of the degenerative condition?”
On the face of it, it is a fairly simple question for an expert with years of clinical experience, you might say. However, I think that is to misunderstand the complexity of the question. I will attempt to explain, from a clinicianís point of view.

London cycle hire could mean more vulnerable cyclists

When London Mayor Boris Johnson and Transport for London (TfL) announced the timescale for the launch of the capital’s cycle hire scheme, TfL also announced the introduction of safety measures to protect the thousands of extra cyclists anticipated to be on London’s roads come the summer, including ‘advance stop lanes’.