10 Things You Never Thought You Could Claim For

Many people in the UK don;t consider claiming compensation if they are injured, even if they would be perfectly entitled to make a claim. Here are ten of the most popular reasons that I think put people off:

Injury on holiday: if you booked a package holiday through a UK company, they are liable for any injury or illness you sustain while you are abroad, or even when you're on the plane.

Accommodation in disrepair: anywhere you live that you do not own is the responsibility of your landlord, whether that is the local council, an individual or a private lettings company. If you are injured because your accommodation is in an unsafe condition, you could claim compensation for those injuries from your landlord.

Injury on public transport: the driver of any bus, taxi or train has a duty to protect their passengers. If you are injured because of the driver's negligence, you can claim from the transport operator if the injury is not your fault. For example, if you were standing on the top deck of a double-decker bus, which is not permitted, when you were injured, you may not be able to claim. Make sure that you're the one in the right!

Product liability: if you are injured by a defective product, you can pursue a claim against the manufacturers, who still have responsibility for their product after they have sold it, unless the fault is the result of a change or tampering by an unauthorised person. The product could be something as small as a kettle or as big as a car. As long as an inherent fault has caused your injury, then you could make a claim.

Untraced drivers: generally, if an applicant wishes to make a compensation claim, they know who they are claiming from: the supermarket where they slipped, the council whose defective pavement caused them to trip. What about the unfortunate motorists or pedestrians who suffer an injury if they are struck by an uninsured or untraced driver?
That's where the Motor Insurers' Bureau (MIB) comes in. This government-run body exists to compensate blameless victims of road accidents who are unable to claim money directly from the guilty party's insurance if they are injured.

Criminal injuries: and 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.

Animal injuries: this could mean that you've been bitten by a dog or thrown from a horse. The main thrust of a successful claim is essentially the same as any other: somebody else must be at fault: for example, you must not have provoked the dog that bit you and the dog's owner must have been negligent in allowing its behaviour.

Injuries that happened when you were a child: UK claimants have three years from the date of the accident in which to begin claim proceedings, but if the accident happened when they were a child, the 'three year' rule only applies from when they reach their 18th birthday. Or, to put it another way, they have until their 21st birthday. So somebody that was injured as a one-year old baby has another twenty years to make a claim.

Sports injuries: injuries can be commonplace in sports but if you are injured by an action that is outside the result of normal play, then you may have a case. For example: if you're playing hockey and a competitor suddenly comes up at half-time and strikes you in the leg, that is outside normal play. The difficulties can arise when deciding who to actually pursue the claim from, but there are ways and means. You could claim from the organisers of the match for letting a dangerous competitor take part.

Repetitive strain injury: RSI is a common workplace injury. It takes a long time to develop on occasion. It is caused, as the name suggests, by muscles and ligaments being put under constant stress on a frequent basis, such as by operating a computer keyboard. Just because an injury is not sudden and agonising does not mean it can not be the subject of a successful claim.