Getting Injured on the Job

Many workers get injured on the jobs, typically on construction jobs. With the collapse of the housing market, there may be less of this, but it's not going away. I had a similar incident in the United States, but there are also Accident Claims UK going on.

When I had my leg hurt in a construction accident, it was a bloody mess. I had a fracture in one leg, and above my knee, the skin was even ripped open. After 3 operations and 7 months rest and therapy, I was able to walk again. The legal case took a lot longer. It's a shame that you have to get a lawyer and go through all this nonsense just to get a worker's compensation claim paid. It would be much better if there was some sort of mechanism where the government could offer injured workers some sort of settlement, automatically. As it was, my case never did go to trial, it was settled out of court, but there were drawbacks for all you worshippers of free enterprise. The lawyer gets to keep 33-percent of the settlement money, for doing not really that much. The main thing that he did was arrange a couple of hearings and depositions. I don't even really remember if the lawyer was there or not.

Some of these cases involve the death of the individual and the survivors getting any money awarded. In the UK, inheritance taxes have to be paid for estates worth over about $600,000. That is not a huge amount when it is considered how much real estate values alone have been inflated in the UK. According to the Scottish Widows Organization, some 10 million families in the UK may be subject to this tax. So that's another thing for you survivors to worry about.