Lawford Kidd's Blog

Workers who have sustained an injury as a result of an accident at work will find it much harder to bring a successful compensation claim after Section 69 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act came into force on the 1st October 2013.

Government’s justification

The Government describes the purpose of the Act, which received Royal Assent in April of this year, as “cutting the costs of doing business in Britain, boosting consumer and business confidence and helping the private sector to create jobs.” However, from a personal injury point of view, the effect of the Act has been to switch the burden of proof for a work related injury claim from the employer to the employee.

The Government claims that such a radical switch was necessary because businesses are currently liable to pay compensation for employee injuries, even where they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent the injury from occurring. According to the Government, this has resulted in companies over complying with health and safety regulation out of a fear of being sued, and has led to them facing unnecessary costs.

The number of cyclists killed on Britain’s roads increased by ten percent in 2012, according to the latest figures from the Department for Transport. The increase has led the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) to call for action to tackle the problem.

The annual road casualty figures for Great Britain in 2012 show that overall road deaths fell by eight percent to 1,754 in 2012, but deaths among cyclists rose by ten percent to 118. There was also an increase in the number of seriously injured cyclists (3,222).

The increase in deaths was mainly among the young with the number of child cyclists killed doubling from six in 2011 to thirteen in 2012, although the number of seriously injured fell by a fifth.

Changes to the mandatory reporting system for work related injuries came into force on 1st October. The changes had been the subject of a consultation exercise that ran from August to October last year.

RIDDOR

The rules on injury reporting are contained within the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) 1995, which place a legal requirement on employers to report and keep records of certain incidents at work, including fatal accidents or accidents that result in serious injury. Employers are also required to report diagnosed cases of certain industrial diseases, and let the authorities know if certain ‘dangerous occurrences’ or near-miss incidents take place.

By reporting these incidents, employers provide enforcing authorities such as the Health and Safety Executive with enough information to identify the risks involved and to decide whether they need to be investigated further.

Motorists who drive too close to the car in front are the target of a new campaign to reduce the number of whiplash injuries.

“Tailgating can result in crashes and injuries which could otherwise have been avoided. All it achieves is suffering for the driver in front and probably a higher insurance premium for the offender,” explained Deborah Evans, chief executive of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL). “We’re simply asking for motorists to back off.”

The national not-for-profit safety campaign group has produced a short animated video for social media about the consequences of tailgating, titled ‘A Lesson in Social Graces’.

Sheriff Principal James Taylor has recently published his much anticipated report on the system of expenses and funding of civil litigation in Scotland. The report contains a number of recommendations for far-reaching changes to the current system, some of which relate directly to the personal injury claims process.

Background

The need for a review of expenses and funding of civil litigation in Scotland was initially highlighted by the then Lord Justice Clerk, the Rt. Hon. Lord Gill, in his report of the Scottish Civil Courts Review. The recommendation was taken up in March 2011 when Sheriff Principal Taylor, a member of the Board of the Scottish Civil Courts Review, was asked to conduct the review by the then Minister for Community Safety, Fergus Ewing MSP.

The Review was extensive, and included 57 meetings, a fact finding visit and a public consultation exercise. It has resulted in a report described by the Scottish Government as “thorough and meticulous,” which puts forward a number of radical and substantial changes to the current system, and sets out 85 recommendations to put these into practice.