Can I make a claim if I am injured by freak weather?

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    How No Win No Fee Works

    With no win no fee agreements (also known as a Conditional Fee Arrangements, or CFAs), there are no upfront legal fees, which means anyone who has been involved in an accident that wasn’t their fault can gain access to justice without any financial risk. Your solicitor only gets a fee if your claim is successful. If your claim isn't successful, you won’t pay your solicitor any legal fees.

    If your case is successful, typically you will pay 25% (including VAT) of your compensation to your solicitor, although they will discuss any fees before starting your case. To ensure your claim is risk free, your solicitor may take out an insurance policy on your behalf. If you terminate the agreement, you may have to pay fees for the time already spent on your claim, or due to: lack of cooperation, misleading your solicitor, missing medical or expert examinations, or not attending court hearings.

    There are some instances where you are not required to use the services of a claims management company, and are able to claim yourself, for free, directly via the relevant ombudsman/compensation scheme. These include:

    - Criminal injuries: The Criminal Injury Compensation Authority (England, Wales, and Scotland) or the Criminal Injury Compensation Scheme (Northern Ireland)

    - Minor road accidents: The Official Injury Claim Portal

    - Accidents involving uninsured drivers: The Motor Insurers' Bureau

    Can I make a claim if I am injured by freak weather?

    Thanks to a changing climate, the weather in Britain is becoming increasingly unpredictable. Floods, high winds and heavy snowfall are becoming more common. Freak weather like this can result in people suffering injuries. High winds, for instance, can cause cars to career out of control, or cyclists to fall off their saddles, while people walking down the street can be hit by windblown debris.

    Act of God

    Nobody is responsible for the weather. In legal terms, freak weather, along with other natural events such as earthquakes, are known as acts of God. Even weather forecasters can’t be held to account if their predictions were dramatically wrong. However, just because nobody is to blame for the weather, doesn’t mean that somebody’s negligence didn’t contribute to an accident during the freak weather.

    Negligence

    While nobody can fully predict freak weather occurrences, people do have an obligation to take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of others. For instance, if the road is wet or icy due to the weather, drivers have to consider this. If a driver is driving too fast for the conditions or fails to leave enough space to the car in front, he or she could be deemed responsible if there is an accident. In addition, if you are injured by a piece of windblown debris, such as a street sign, it may well be the case that it was not secured properly, which could mean you could make a claim for any injury you have suffered.

    Making a claim

    If you are injured during a freak weather occurrence, you could have a case for claiming compensation. Negligence in these sorts of scenarios can be difficult to prove, but if you believe somebody was negligent, you should speak to a personal injury solicitor as soon as possible who may be able to advise you whether or not you have a case

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