Can we be accused of embracing a compensation culture?

Last year Tony Blair made a speech saying that we as a nation have become obsessed with making the most of situations where we might be able to make a compensation claim. He told an eager listening audience that we simply "cannot eliminate risks" and that sometimes "we have to accept that no-one is to blame."

But when an accident isn't your fault and your case has been taken through the courts with a successful outcome, can we really say that us Brits have taken on the American savvy compensation culture or are we claiming for injuries and damages caused by accidents that should have been prevented?

Although some people claim we have begun watching more and more adverts on television with sympathetic solicitors asking us if we have been injured in a road accident recently, in reality people have been suffering from no-fault accidents for years.

The difference is that people in the new median are exposed to all kinds of offers of help to make a compensation claim. Before the so-called compensation culture arose in Britain, people used to be more tight-lipped and acceptable to accidents instead of pointing the finger at somebody who may have been to blame.

A classic example of such stereotypical British behaviour is featured in the 1985 box office hit, National Lampoons European Vacation. In the film, Clark, played by actor Chubby Chase, is driving his family through the various beautiful cities in Europe when he accidentally hits a cyclist, played by Eric Idle, with his estate car.

The cyclist has clearly suffered serious personal injuries in the bicycle accident but reassures Clark and his family that "It's just a flesh wound" and makes polite conversation while just about managing to stand in the street with blood dripping from his cuts and grazes.

Obviously it seems absurd that this would happen in reality. If you are involved in a road accident that wasn't your fault, you are rightfully able to make a car accident injury claim against the person who would have caused your personal injuries.

In a positive sense, we as a culture have become more willing in standing for our rights as individuals, who, as an employee injured in an accident at work or pedestrian knocked down by a speeding car, are more likely to make a claim for personal injury compensation.

Tony Blair spoke about how we should replace "the compensation culture with a common sense culture", but for people making a claim, whether it be for a taxi accident or for whiplash injury compensation, how can it be argued that somebody use their common sense to avoid such an accident we risk facing every day of our lives?

This argument was proved recently when a woman from Milton Keynes tripped and fell on broken paving in the city centre.

Anne Mullane, 48, made an accident claim after seriously injuring herself outside Abbey House on Grafton Gate East in March 2003 and won a four-figure sum in personal injury compensation.

It was discovered that Milton Keynes council had carried out an inspection on the paving slab just weeks before the accident and recorded it as having a ‘minor defect', yet did nothing to remedy the problem.

Miss Mullane told reporters, "My life has changed quite a bit, I used to walk quite a lot which I can't do now, and gardening is something which I absolutely love but I cant do that either.

"I think the pavements in Milton Keynes are an absolute disgrace."

The fact the Miss Mullane won her case in court, reinforces the issue that she couldn't have avoided the accident. At Milton Keynes County Court, Judge Tetlow, said the council was ‘closing its eyes' to the dangers of the paving slab and that it was their negligence that resulted in Miss Mullane's fall.

Obviously, not all cases are as straight forward as this. Critics who oppose the notion of claiming compensation fear that we are becoming fixated on trying to make money from, as Mr Balir puts it "everyday accidents".

Although British people have been accused of taking on the American compensation culture, it's difficult to imagine anyone going as far as suing a coffee shop after spilling a hot drink down themselves, or causing such fear to a businesses that they put a sign in their shop window reading, 'Caution - there is a glass pane in this door'.

Accidents do happen, some are trivial and some more serious. But if your have been effected by any type of accident that wasn't your fault, you have every right to make a compensation claim for the unfortunate effect it has had on you life.

If people say that we are becoming a greedy culture, maybe, just maybe they might take a different view if they themselves suffer a serious personal injury in an accident.

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