Whilst we can advise in many areas of General Litigation, the following is a brief overview of the most common types litigated upon. Please click on any of the areas for a more detailed explanation.

• Personal Injury Claims
  • Causes of Action
  • Types of Injuries
• Fatal Injury Claims
• Injunctions

Personal Injury Claims

Personal Injury is defined in the Civil Liability Act 1961 as `including any disease and any impairment of a persons physical and mental condition`. Clearly this is a very wide definition and therefore, over the course of many years, personal injury litigation has become very widespread and covers many areas.

Causes of Action

The most common causes of injury are accidents on the road, accidents at work and accidents in public. Other causes of action include assault, injuries from defective products and bullying. In addition, medical negligence has created a large amount of litigation over the years. In the vast majority of cases the injuries are the result of the commission of a wrong caused by negligence and/or a breach of duty including statutory duty.

Types of Injuries

The most common types of injury are neck and back injuries or those involving broken limbs but injuries, which constitute claims for compensation, can occur anywhere from head to toe. Psychiatric or psychological injury can form part or all of a claim for personal injury. The most frequent category of psychiatric injury is post-traumatic stress but other illnesses including depression can constitute a personal injury capable of compensation.

Fatal Injury Claims

In certain circumstances where a person dies as a result of the wrongful act of another, an action known as a fatal injuries action can be pursued against the wrongdoer. The actions must be brought on behalf of all the deceased persons dependants.

Injunctions

An injunction is a court order, which restrains a party, or parties affected from doing a particular thing or in its mandatory form, require a party or parties to do a particular thing. In essence an injunction is designed to ensure that a status quo in maintained pending the hearing of a substantive action and to preserve the effectiveness of any final judgement.

Some circumstances in which injunctions are granted are to restrain trespass, to compel compliance with planning permissions, to prevent illegal picketing, to restrain passing off, to prevent breaches of contract and to freeze assets. An injunction is a discretionary remedy, which a court will grant only when satisfied that it is just and equitable to do so.