Canberra personal injury lawyers, United Legal are specialist personal injury barristers and solicitors serving and representing clients in the courts of the Australian Capital Territory.
You pay nothing unless we win your legal case successfully.
Discover your legal position with honest advice about your rights and options today.
Our dedicated team proudly achieves over 99% success rate for client claims.
We fight to secure maximum compensation for your injuries and losses.
Clear, helpful guidance to answer all your personal injury claim questions.
If you have any questions about a potential personal injury claim, please come into our office and speak to one of our solicitors free of charge.
When it’s a big case, don’t go to a large firm where you’re just one of many. For us, it’s personal. We spend more time, and put up a bigger fight to get you justice. Unlike the big firms, we don’t spread ourselves thin by taking on too many clients.
The nature of their injuries however might recur or flare up and result in them losing work from time to time. Yet others still might find that they’re going to be out of work from time to time because they lose their job. Our skill is to try and present as best we can how your injuries are going to impact upon your earning capacity.
This is one of the biggest components of any claim. It’s broken up into the past loss of earning capacity and the future loss of earning capacity. Given that in most cases the loss of earning capacity will run to age 67, anybody who is young or middle-aged, the loss of earning capacity accumulates over the years and results in a very large figure.
Did you know that all personal injury, compensation and damages cases are actually the result of a mere snail; a snail known as a “Paisley snail”. All of these claims for damages are due to a snail that was left, after cleaning by a manufacturer, in a bottle of ginger beer in a cafe in Paisley. Who knows how the snail got there.
It certainly had a huge impact. upon the rights of people who want to sue for personal injury. You see, Mrs Donoghue went into a cafe. She was drinking a bottle of ginger beer. The snail was in the bottle. She discovered it after she drank the ginger beer and she fell ill. She sued the ginger beer manufacturer, a man named Mr Stevenson.
At that time, the Courts made a decision that fundamentally established a new form of liability in law which didn’t depend upon previously recognised categories of claims. It was a huge step forward in the law. It allowed the law to evolve so that it encompassed a concept of duty of care.
You see at the time, injuries resulting from defective products were normally claimed on the basis of contract. Elsewhere on our website we’ll tell you a bit about contracts. Most contracts however are verbal and are often between a seller and a consumer. In this case, Mrs Donoghue hadn’t bought the bottle ginger beer, so she had no contract with Mr Stevenson. As a result, she couldn’t sue in contract and had to find another way to sue.
The case of Donoghue v Stevenson opened up the gateway for people to be able to sue in such cases. Of some historical interest to Australians is the fact that the leading decision was given by Lord Aitken. He was actually a judge in the House of Lords. Essentially, the most important part of his judgment was as follows:
“The rule that you are to love your neighbour becomes in Law, you must not injure your neighbour; and the lawyer’s question, Who is my neighbour? receives a restricted reply. You must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which you can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure your neighbour. Who, then, in Jaw, is my neighbour? The answer seems to be – persons who are so closely and directly affected by my act that I ought reasonably to have them in contemplation as being so affected when I am directing my mind to the acts or omissions which are called in question.”
In substance, the components of the law are that if you are owed a duty of care, in cases too numerous to mention, can arise in motor vehicle accidents, workplace accidents, medical negligence accidents; public liability accidents, product liability accidents and a variety of other accidents, then provided such a duty of care exists and somebody breaches that damage and thereafter if the breach causes injury, loss or damages, you are entitled to those damages. It is not a particularly difficult concept.
That decision has given rise to a variety of forms of potential claims including the following:
Have you experienced child abuse?
At United Legal we know elders are not exempt from abuse.
Personal Injury Compensation Claim for Elder Abuse
We are aware there is not one specific form of elder abuse. The abuse our elders face is so diverse and complex, it is not uncommon for their suffering to go unnoticed or undetected.
We know elders are not exempt from abuse. We are passionate about ensuring older people have access to safe and equal conditions, whether this be in private or professional settings.
There is no denying elder abuse is often at the hands of someone who has been entrusted with a person’s care. That is, the perpetrators are often family members, friends or even care workers.
Elder abuse can be as subtle as a person doing your grocery shopping for you and not returning the change. Alternatively, it could be a family member forcing you to change your will or denying you access to your own funds. If you feel this is you, contact us now. The first step to getting you help is learning the warning signs. This is something we can teach you.
We are passionate about ensuring older people have access to safe and equal conditions, whether this be in private or professional settings. We are aware there is not one specific form of elder abuse. The abuse our elders face is so diverse and complex, it is not uncommon for their suffering to go unnoticed or undetected.
There is no denying elder abuse is often at the hands of someone who has been entrusted with a person’s care. That is, the perpetrators are often family members, friends or even care workers. Here at United Legal we understand how distressing these circumstances can be.
We are dedicated to protecting elders from all kinds of abuse. This includes financial abuse, psychological abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse and neglect. We can help you get the compensation you need where you have been subject to injustice.
We pride ourselves on our ability to keep things as human as possible. We promise we will not over complicate things for you to ensure you understand each step of your claim. We have the experience and skills needed to protect your best interests.
Have you experienced disability abuse?
The effects of child abuse are devastating for everyone involved.
We are a firm made up of solicitors with children. This means we as a firm are incredibly passionate about protecting children and ensuring their safety.
We understand these issues are often hard to talk about and the personal, emotional and private problems that arise in these circumstances. We are committed to making your experience with us as stress free as possible. We pride ourselves on our nurturing nature and ability to empathise with all people.
We are a small firm, meaning our communications with you are much more personal than traditional law firms. You will find, we genuinely care for you and your wellbeing. We will advise you in the most appropriate manner to assist you in relation to your claim, while keeping things as human as possible.
At United Legal, we are deeply concerned with the prevalence which child abuse continues to hold in our society. It is our personal mission to help minimise the suffering of victims and to ensure they have access to the justice they deserve.
Have you experienced disability abuse?
The effects of child abuse are devastating for everyone involved.
We are a firm made up of solicitors with children. This means we as a firm are incredibly passionate about protecting children and ensuring their safety.
We understand these issues are often hard to talk about and the personal, emotional and private problems that arise in these circumstances. We are committed to making your experience with us as stress free as possible. We pride ourselves on our nurturing nature and ability to empathise with all people.
We are a small firm, meaning our communications with you are much more personal than traditional law firms. You will find, we genuinely care for you and your wellbeing. We will advise you in the most appropriate manner to assist you in relation to your claim, while keeping things as human as possible.
At United Legal, we are deeply concerned with the prevalence which child abuse continues to hold in our society. It is our personal mission to help minimise the suffering of victims and to ensure they have access to the justice they deserve.
First of all, make no mistake, it’s all about the money. We don’t mean to sound like greedy lawyers when we say that. If your body’s been injured, we can’t give the injured parts back. We can’t give parts of your life back. We can’t make you better. All we can do is get you money. That money can pay for treatment. It can pay for rehabilitation. It can give you some financial security. It can buy you a house. It can make your life easier and better. But it is all about the money, that’s all we can get. When it comes to the money, we call it “damages” or in other cases “compensation”.
Where lawyers talk to you about how much you’re going to get, it’s made up of several different parts. We’ll try to give you a rundown of the most common parts, components, or what we call “heads of damages”. Non-economic loss/general damages/pain and suffering This is a part of the damages that is meant to compensate you for the damages for the pain and suffering and inconvenience that you have been through.
In modern days it’s called “non-economic loss”. The reason we call it “non-economic loss” is that it’s not capable of being mathematically calculated or attributed to some specific. loss of money that has been incurred as the result of, for example, loss of wages, medical expenses, or other expenses that you may incur. You can imagine because of the very imprecise nature of those damages that it is very hard to work out. Often we get people talking about the pain they’re in and saying they want $1 million or some huge sum for it. Sadly, it doesn’t work that way and it does vary from State to State and case to case as to how much you can get. For example, generally if you get non-economic loss in New South Wales (there’s a lot of rules and regulations and restrictions about whether you can get that in New South Wales), you get a higher payment than what you’d gt for example in the ACT. In another State again, in Queensland, it’s even lower.
