There can't be many personal injury solicitors who don't, at least after a while, wish that their job wasn't necessary.
It may go against the stereotype of lawyers seeing every ambulance as a business opportunity to be chased, but if you spend enough time speaking with the victims and their families as they try to pick up the pieces after an accident, you realise that prevention is far better than a cure.
It isn't even close. I have done nothing but personal injury claims for accident victims for over 20 years, and I am yet to meet anyone who, at the end of their case, has been glad they were injured because of the financial reward.
So it is no surprise that APIL - the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, of which I am a member - are running Injury Prevention Week, aiming to raise awareness of the risk of accidents, and hopefully to hep reduce the number of people accidentally injured and killed in in the UK.
APIL's campaign will highlight not just accidents caused by other people - speeding motorists, negligent employers and so on, the sort of thing that might give rise to a legal claim - but all kinds of accidental injury. A lot is about using common sense, things like not being distracted by our phones and being more aware of hazards around us. A key focus will be on teaching children good habits as pedestrians, and especially when crossing the road, as we approach the start of the new school year in September.
There were just under 830,000 accident compensation claims made last year. That's 830,000 people who were in their opinion injured due to someone else not taking care. 830,000 people who would much sooner not have been hurt in the first place. For a small but significant number of those their injury was life-changing, for them and for their families.
Good habits for avoiding injury are often basic, the kinds of thing we learnt at school, but if everyone does it it can have a huge effect. Please do what you can, and put me out of a job.
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