Merton Solicitors

Compensation Claims – Legal Guide from Merton Solicitors

I booked a holiday abroad and the “resort” we were staying at was described as “all inclusive”. This turned out to be false.  Can I claim compensation ?

If the resort was described as all inclusive by the brochure, then under the Package Travel Regulations, it is your legal right to expect that the resort fitted this description.  You should bear in mind that you are under a duty to mitigate your losses by making reasonable efforts to let the travel company know that resort was not all inclusive and put the discrepancy right by either offering you compensation or alternative accommodation.

If you cannot contact the travel company, the travel company refuses to pay you compensation or make alternative arrangements, you will be entitled to claim compensation for the inconvenience caused to you and loss of enjoyment.  To claim compensation, it is advisable to have a solicitor send a letter to the company detailing your rights and requests for compensation.  If this fails, you could apply to the Small Claims Track of the County Court (if the claim is lower than £5,000).

What is a Conditional Fee Agreement ?

A Conditional Fee Agreement is commonly referred to as “no win no fee”.  Under a Conditional Fee Agreement, a law firm will offer to take on your case on the basis that you will not have to pay any fees to your solicitors if the case is lost.  Confusingly however, if the case does go to court and you lose the case, you may be obligated to pay the other side’s costs, which could potentially run into the thousands.  For this reason, it makes sense to take out insurance to cover for this.  It is also possible that your home contents and/or driving insurance will cover these costs.  Before presuming this is the case, it obviously makes sense to contact your insurers directly and double check.

What factors determine how much I will get for a personal injury claim?

The amount you will get in compensation for a personal injury will depend on:

• The severity of your injury
• How long it takes you to recover
• The extent of your expenses and financial loss caused by the injury e.g. lost earnings

What is negligence ?

Central to the concept of negligence is the term “duty of care”.  Duties of care often have a fleeting existence, but they are equally capable of applying over a longer term as well.  If, for example, you were a customer in a shop, the shop owner would be under a duty of care to you to make reasonably sure that there are no dangers to the customers and staff.  When driving your car, you are under a duty of care towards other road users and pedestrians.

Another concept central to negligence is “breach” of a duty of care.  If a duty has been established, then the courts will look at whether the duty was in fact breached.  The courts determine the standards by asking what the reasonable man in the defendant’s situation would have been expected to do.

The concept of negligence is fairly complex and backed up by decades of case law.  This short description gives a very brief overview of the concept.