subject: Five More Injuries For Which You May Not Have Thought You Could Claim Compensation [print this page] Not everybody realises that these scenarios can result in a successful claim.
Criminal injuries
By that we mean injuries consequentially sustained during the course of a criminal act, or directly sustained as the result of an assault. As in the case of untraced drivers, there is a government organisation in place to fund compensation claims from victims: the Criminal Injury Compensation Authority (CICA) which makes awards of GBP1000 all the way up to a maximum of GBP500,000. This fund is, among other cases, meeting the cost of compensation payments to the victims of the July 7th bombings in London as well as anyone affected by the Cumbria shootings last summer.
Animal injuries
If you've been injured by an animal: bitten by a dog, scratched by a cat, kicked by a cow, thrown from a horse, etc then you are eligible to claim compensation from the owner of that animal, if the accident was not your fault. If you provoked the animal or knew beforehand that it was reasonably likely to behave as it did, then it might be more difficult to make a claim.
Injuries that happened when you were a child
You may think that if you were injured fifteen years ago when you were an infant that you cannot make a claim now. This is, happily, incorrect.
In normal circumstances UK victims have three years from the date of their accident in which to make a claim, but this only applies if they are eighteen years old or above. And therefore, if you are injured as a child, the time limitation rule only starts to count down the three years from the date of your eighteenth birthday. Or, to put it another way, you have until you are twenty-one to claim.
Of course, this does not mean that you cannot seek and win compensation before your eighteenth birthday. A parent or guardian can pursue the claim on your behalf and the money can be held in trust for you.
Sports injuries
Sports injuries represent a hurdle, no pun intended, to successful claims, but not an insurmountable one. An injury that occurs in the normal course of play, provided it was an accident or at least was not maliciously intended, will be difficult to claim for; in rugby, for example, which is a very physical sport, injuries are commonplace.
However, if a competitor injures you in a way which is unlikely to have been part of routine play, then it may be possible to make a claim. We have seen this recently in the case of a Gaelic football player who was arrested after he allegedly injured another player due to unreasonable behaviour.
You could make a claim from the organisers of the match or from the club that the player was competing for, on the basis that they shouldn't have fielded such an aggressive participant.
Repetitive strain injury
This is an umbrella term that describes a series of injuries that slowly develop over the course of a long term exposure to adverse conditions, whether they be sitting at a computer in an ergonomically-unfriendly position or using power tools or heavy machinery. It affects muscles and ligaments and can lead to associated problems that may affect your ability to do your job properly. It is a common workplace injury.
by: Richard Craig
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