Mulderrigs Blog

Alberto Contador is stripped of his 2010 Tour de France win and handed a 12 month ban by the Spanish Cycling Federation.

The 2010 Tour winner tested positive for the banned substance clenbuterol during the 2010 Tour de France. His explanation? He ate imported beef that had been contaminated by the drug. Well, like….yeah…whatever!

Millions of  potential followers are now permanently turned off cycling by this never-ending trail of drug scandals affecting the top riders, and yet Contador’s only punishment is a 12 month ban.

When are the authorities ever going to learn?

The road back to public respect for cycling will be long and hard….And that journey won’t even start until the authorities adopt a hard-nosed zero tolerance approach to drug offenders.

One of Mulderrig's snaps from the fab Rammy Rake event 2010

Contador has 10 working days to appeal against the decision.

What happens to an injured worker if the employer doesn’t have Employers’ Liability Insurance?

This is a potentially serious problem – If there is no insurance in place it may be impossible for an injured worker to get any compensation at all.

Under the Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 employers have a duty to display their insurance details in a place where you can see them. Most employers display the details in the canteen, or another place where they are easy to see.

Employers who don’t have valid insurance can be fined upto £2,500.00 for every day without insurance. They can also be fined upto £1,000.00 for failing to display details of their insurance. But that won’t get an injured worker any compensation if a stupid employer hasn’t arranged insurance, and we know this has happened to a number of people in recent months. Right here in Rossendale a couple of our clients were left high & dry in relation to accidents at work when the company they had worked for – a fireplace company called Petra Hellas – went out of business without having had any Employers’ Liability Insurance in place.

So, don’t wait until it’s too late – Check now to make sure your employers have a valid and up to date insurance certificate on display. Or it could be you that ends up with your head in your hands.

“People are free to choose their own solicitor when making a claim for compensation after an accident, and they certainly don’t have to put up with a so-called “panel” solicitor appointed by their own insurers.”

So said specialist personal injury solicitor Paul Mulderrig of Mulderrigs Ltd, who are campaigning to raise the public’s awareness of their freedom to choose their own lawyer.

“After an accident lots of people find that their car insurers or house insurers try to insist on sending them to a so-called “panel” solicitor. These firms often deal with cases entirely by post, without ever seeing their clients face to face and in my view, clients deserve better.

“In one recent case we took over from “panel” solicitors who had strongly advised our client to settle their case on “50-50” terms, but after we had sent just one extra letter the other side accepted 99% responsibility for the accident!

“In another, tragic, case we took over from “panel” solicitors in the case of a young motorcyclist who had been paralysed by his injuries, but they had written to him wishing him a “speedy recovery”.

“Sadly, we have been involved in many other similar cases.

“In 99% of cases it is against both the English and the European law for insurers to try to restrict a person’s choice of solicitor. People are free to use their insurance cover to instruct whichever lawyer they choose and I would urge them to take control of their cases and choose their own solicitor.

“After a serious accident people deserve to receive the specialist advice of an expert who will travel to meet them at home and show a genuine interest in their case. In any case involving a serious injury I urge people to find a genuine specialist lawyer.

“The Law Society’s website www.lawsociety.org contains a helpful search tool, you should make sure that the solicitor dealing with your case is a member of the Law Society’s Personal Injury Panel, and you should also check that the law firm hold the Law Society’s LEXCEL quality mark.

If you’ve had a bad experience at the hands of a “panel” solicitor who was appointed by your insurance company please let us hear about it.

An open letter to Rt Hon Lord Young
House of Lords
Westminster
5th October 2010

Dear Lord Young
I have seen the news coverage of your proposals for regulation of the so-called “compensation culture”.

I have been qualified as a solicitor for twenty-three years, and have run my own practice since 1989. Throughout that time I have specialised in personal injury claims on behalf of injured claimants, and I was first appointed to the Law Society’s PI Panel in 1992.

Coincidentally, my career has run almost perfectly in parallel with the relaxation in the rules regarding advertising by solicitors. During that time I have witnessed a number of high profile marketing disasters of the type which have no doubt influenced your views:-

1.
Claims Direct used a massive budget to advertise widely on TV for a shoddy service which resulted in many thousands of accident victims being massively overcharged.

2.
The Accident Group hired teams of untrained people to loiter in town squares and supermarket car parks to accost members of the public. Unsurprisingly, the company took on many thousands of claims which had no realistic prospect of success. When the balloon went up with that company the owner fled the UK and their staff were fired by text message.

3.
More recently the MOJ and the Claims Standard Council have started to certify claims management companies. These organisations generally have no legal qualifications of any kind and serve only to insert a commercial middle-man between the public and the expert lawyer they need to consult. Their only contribution to the process is to drive up the cost of litigation because many lawyers (not including my company) have fallen into the trap of paying huge “referral fees”.

I agree with you that steps ought to be taken to improve things for the public good. However, despite these problems, the so-called “compensation culture” is no more than a media-led myth.

The law which governs injury compensation claims has been well settled for many years. Injured claimants must prove their claims to a very exacting standard against insurers who are powerful and effective opponents.

Insofar as there is a culture which encourages safety in the workplace or in organised public events, the principal consequence is that there are now thousands of workers who are still alive who might otherwise have suffered fatal accidents, and thousands of others who still have the requisite number of working arms, legs, fingers and toes.

There is no culture, caused either by lawyers or by the HSE which prevents or discourages fun-days, cheese rolling events or school sports days. Purely by way of an example, my ten year old son has Down’s syndrome, but took a skiing trip to Switzerland this year. It’s much closer to the truth to observe that sensible and safe activities sometimes fall victim to the kind of politically correct nonsense from ill-informed public servants that means we now have chairpersons rather than chairmen, and have schools prevented from teaching children about Baa Baa Black Sheep.

A blanket ban on advertising of personal injury services would deny access to justice to many people who have a legitimate and urgent need for expert advice.

A simple and sensible proposal

The Lord Chancellor’s Dept was warned by the Law Society more than twenty years ago to restrict or prohibit the involvement of non-lawyers in personal injury claims. If that advice had been heeded at the time, we would not have ended up in this mess.

In my view there are a number of simple and sensible steps which could be taken to improve matters:-

A.
Outlaw claims management companies immediately. They don’t have any of the requisite professional skills, they are not regulated with any force.

B.
Restrict personal injury advertising to those solicitors who can properly demonstrate professional expertise in that field of law – Members of the Law Society’s Personal Injury Panel and/or firms with the Law Society’s LEXCEL quality mark. (Yes, my firm would qualify on both counts, but so would many other legitimate personal injury lawyers).

If advertising is restricted to qualified solicitors you would immediately gain control via the code of conduct which binds all solicitors.

If advertising is restricted to proven experts it can only improve the position for accident victims who have legitimate cases.

C.
Outlaw the payment of referral fees by solicitors to claims management companies, and impose suitably strict sanctions. The Law Society has repeatedly stepped back from addressing this issue; referral fees serve only to add a layer of substantial and pointless expense to the process.

I hope that you will find the time to read this correspondence, and that my comments will give you some cause for thought.

If I can assist you in your deliberations I would be happy to help in any way that I can.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Mulderrig
Mulderrigs Solicitors Ltd

It’s time for the FA to sort out a national scheme of insurance to protect amateur footballers.

Millions of people play organised amateur football every year… We all know it’s the best game in the world!

The game is regulated at national level by the Football Association.

Each year dozens of players suffer very serious injury as a result of reckless/rash challenges from opponents. It is a small number, but the consequences for the individuals concerned are dreadful.

It is certain that these injuries will continue to occur for as long as the game is played.

Many of these players are legally entitled to claim damages for their injuries – We have represented individuals who have recovered over £100,000.00 each. Clearly these can be very serious cases.

These claims are not novel; the claims are governed by the law of negligence – exactly the same law that governs car accidents or accidents at work – and the law has been settled for many years.

There are never likely to be “floods” of claims….they are extremely difficult to prove and, fortunately, serious injuries are fairly rare.

The FA require all county associations to arrange public liability insurance for member teams, but they do not insist that the insurance includes “player-to-player” cover – i.e. cover for incidents where one player injures another.

The FA have been saying for years that they will reconsider the position, but nothing ever happens.

The consequences of the current inadequate insurance arrangements:-

1. Many injured players who should receive tens of thousands of pounds receive nothing. (We represent dozens of them).

2. Some offending players face financial ruin because they are sued and discover that they are not covered by insurance. (We are, very reluctantly, taking this action against a number of offending players).

It is long over due for the FA to introduce a national scheme so that all players are covered by adequate “player-to-player” cover.

What a treat it was to get involved in the Foggy & Whit “Givin’ It Gas” tour during 2010.

Venues in the West Country, Wales and Cumbria rocked as these two m/cycling legends reminisced about their times on top of the SuperBikes world.

Paul Mulderrig with Foggy & Whit - Penrith 2010

Rammy Rake….Now there’s a challenge. How the bl**dy hell do they get a bicycle up that steep hill so quickly. I’m not sure I could get a bike down the hill that fast.

So there we were, minding our business at an outdoor eaterie in Brisbane during the 1st Ashes Test match and who should walk by….None other than Simon Barnes, the great Times sportswriter. 

Could Mr Mulderrig fight off his celebrity-stalking tendency? Could he hell!

PM with Times columnist Simon Barnes

Here’s a pic from yesterday’s game

The Clarets eased past Port Vale at Turf Moor on Saturday, although the 4-2 scoreline was more than a little flattering.

Vale had a large and raucous following, who sang themselves hoarse throughout the afternoon despite things going badly on the field.

Presumably, Lancs Police had been tipped off that there was likely to be trouble of some sort & judging from the policing outside the ground before the game you’d have been forgiven for thinking that Israel were about to play Palastine. Happily, in the end, there didn’t appear to be any significant problems.

The Clarets went ahead early with a Clark Carlisle header at the back post and, although Vale pulled one back after half an hour  the teams were only level for a few minutes before Ty Mears restored the Clarets’ lead with a well struck freekick that the keeper failed to hold.

A Graham Alexander penalty early in the second half sealed the win, and Eagles then added a fourth before Vale grabbed a late consolation.

So, in the end, a routine win and the Clarets are rewarded with another home tie in Round 4