Posted by admin on May 17, 2012 under legal documents | 
In order to comply with the law and protect a business and its employees appropriately, risk assessments should be carried out on a regular basis. Risks that could potentially cause harm can be identified by risk assessments and usually controlled by simple, cheap and effective methods.
What is a risk assessment?
A risk assessment is a systematic examination of a task, job or process that is carried out in a workplace to:
- Identify the significant hazards that are present (a hazard is something that has the potential to cause someone harm or ill health).
- Gauge whether the safety measures already in place are sufficient and if not;
- Implement additional safety measures to reduce risk to an acceptable level.
What is the difference between a risk and a hazard?
A hazard is anything that can cause harm and can come from a wide range of sources. General examples include any substance, material, process, practice, etc that has the ability to cause harm or adverse health effect to a person under certain conditions.
A risk is the chance or probability that a person will be harmed or experience an adverse health effect if exposed to a hazard. It may also apply to situations with property or equipment loss.
- A hazard is anything that can cause harm (e.g. work materials, equipment, work methods and practices)
- The risk is the chance of harm being done (likelihood and the extent of harm)
Who should carry out a risk assessment?
Anyone carrying out a risk assessment should have a suitable amount knowledge, awareness, training, and experience to do so. Suitably experienced members of staff may be able to perform risk assessments but sometimes it is necessary to employ the help of an external professional in order to ensure accuracy and efficiency.
When should risk assessments be done?
Risk assessments should be carried out on a regular basis to comply with health and safety regulations but the regularity of these evaluations will depend on the industry in question and can be monthly, annually or bi-annually, depending on associated risks. Risk assessments may also be carried out more frequently if something changes, for example, if a new process or substance is used or if a new worker joins a company.
For all of the tasks and processes performed in a workplace, a separate risk assessment should be carried out. These evaluations should be undertaken before the tasks being observed start or as soon as is reasonably practicable for already functioning processes that take a long time to complete.
What does the law say?
The law does not stipulate that employers must eliminate risks in their work place but it does require employers to ensure that people are protected as far as is reasonably practicable.
How to assess your workplace:
Although more complex risks should be carried out in special circumstances, a straightforward risk assessment can be carried out by using the following steps:
- Identify hazards
- Decide who might be harmed and how
- Evaluate the risks and decide on precaution
- Record findings and implement them
- Review your assessment and update if necessary.
As it is not necessary to be a health and safety expert to carry out a risk assessment, owners of smaller companies might chose to evaluate their business themselves. However, for larger organisations this might not be possible as although they will be able to provide useful information in relation to the equipment and machinery that they use, staff may not have the level of competence required to complete a risk assessment properly. Therefore, although it is recommended that staff or their representatives are involved in the risk assessment process, in some cases it may be necessary to employ the help of a health and safety professional.
If you would like a risk assessment form or template or more information in relation to this topic, all you have to do is visit www.free-legal-documents.co.uk and browse the library or free legal documents.
Tags: Acceptable Level, Accuracy, Awareness Training, Efficiency, Evaluations, Extent, Gauge, Health And Safety, Health Effect, Ill Health, Knowledge Awareness, Likelihood, Material Process, Probability, Regularity, Risk Assessment, Risk Assessments, Safety Regulations, Systematic Examination, Work Materials
Posted by admin on May 3, 2012 under Solicitors UK |
Over the past 30 years in England and Wales the general population has increased by 10%. In the same time the amount of qualified solicitors has more than tripled, increasing by 36%, and currently stands at a figure of almost 118,000.
The shift in gender of solicitors has also seen change, in the year 2000 almost two thirds of all solicitors were males, today it is completely evenly split. However, double the amount of male solicitors reach the position of partner within private law firms in comparison to women within the same organisations.
The exact figure for the total amount of solicitors in the U.K now stands at 117,862, with a staggering 87,576 of these being situated in or around the city of London. That is a whopping 74% of all solicitors practising in the U.K today. In the inner reaches of the City the number of solicitors greatly outweighs the amount of people. To every 1000 people there are 1,760 solicitors. The rest of London is a different story with the average being around 9 solicitors to every 1000 people, however in contrast to nearly every other region in the U.K, this is nearly 9 times the average.
It could be argued that solicitors in London have it a lot easier than similar professionals situated in different parts of the county, but with huge choice available for customers it’s not necessarily the true picture being painted. In such a competitive market law firms are having to reduce their prices to attract customers in what is such a ‘battered and bruised’ economy. More than ever, potential clients are looking out for the best value possible, and if they feel they are not getting it, they will simply go elsewhere.
Of course the number one priority must be to ensure that you are receiving the best legal advice possible, however it is also important that you achieve value for your money. At Rightsolicitor.co.uk we have an extensive library of solicitors in your area from you to choose from, all of which will happily provide with an initial free answer to your query.
Tags: City Of London, Competitive Market, Different Story, Economy, England And Wales, Exact Figure, Extensive Library, Legal Advice, Money, Organisations, Population, Priority, Private Law Firms, Reaches, solicitors in london, Two Thirds, Year 2000
Posted by admin on May 2, 2012 under Personal Injury, Personal Injury Compensation |
Who’d have ever thought that a specific day of the week could be more dangerous than another?
Well, apparently this is the case in Irish work places.
According to a recent study, Thursday is the worst day for work accidents in the Irish work place and November is the worst month. The State agency in charge of assessing personal injuries claims revealed this information as part of their latest review and also concluded that there has been a drop in work accident payouts from 25.1 million euro to 22.5 million euro in the past year. However, this is said not to reflect an advance in workplace health and safety but to merely indicate a fall in the number of people in employment over the same period.
Nonetheless, we suggest you keep your hard hats firmly in place because by the sounds of it, the coast is far from clear.
The chief executive of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, Patricia Byron, has urged people to be extra vigilant towards the end of the week as the work accident claim analysis results suggest that pressure to get work finished by the end of the week may be one of the reasons why Thursday is the most dangerous day.
We understand that businesses today are under constant pressure to drive efficiencies, often operating with scarce resources, but cutting corners on employee safety is a cut too far,” Ms Byron said.
It has also been reported that those employed in the manufacturing and production fields were accountable for the majority of work place accident claims in the past year as a result of trips, slips and falls, faulty equipment and poor handling of goods – many accidents are said to be surprisingly preventable.
However, in spite of these recent findings, one study suggests that a particular annual occurrence increases the likelihood for accidents at work on one day each year – the changing of the clocks. Statistics show that employees on average get 40 minutes less sleep on the Sunday night of the switch and that there are 5.7% more workplace injuries on the Monday after the change.
More evidence from insurance companies such as CGU Insurance has also suggested that the beginning of the week was much more dangerous than the end in terms of work place accidents. Their findings show that Monday is the most dangerous day of the work week, and Friday is the safest. Sprains and strains were the most common workplace injuries, while the lower back was the most common body part to be injured.
“Lack of sleep over the weekend and the effects of alcohol and other drugs may be contributing factors to the increased incidence of workplace accidents on Mondays,” says CGU spokeswoman Kristine Haseldine.
So it seems there are many different theories in relation to which day of the week, month or year work place injuries are more likely to occur. However, one thing that we can always be certain of is that accidents have and will continue to occur in the future. It is therefore important that people are aware of where they can seek reliable advice from a legal professional.
Right Solicitor provides legal advice for free so that individuals who have had an accident at work can benefit from professional guidance and be sure to make the right decisions for their case. All they have to do is type the details of their work accident into the portal on the Right Solicitor site and a legal adviser will respond for free with advice tailored to the individual situation.
Tags: 5 Million, Accident Claim, Accidents At Work, Assessment Board, Cutting Corners, Efficiencies, Employee Safety, Faulty Equipment, Hard Hats, Health And Safety, Likelihood, Occurrence, Personal Injuries, Scarce Resources, Slips, Study Suggests That, Work Accident, Work Accidents, Work Place Accident Claims, Workplace Health And Safety
Posted by admin on under Uncategorized |
New figures have revealed that teachers are claiming record amounts of compensation for the injuries they have incurred in the classroom in the past year.
From slips and trips and being exposed to asbestos to injuries resulting from a physical assault by a parent or student, evidence has now confirmed that teaching staff claims have soared up by 25 per cent from 2010.
So what’s changed?
Experts have blamed soft parenting and teaching for creating a generation unable to respect authority or interact socially without lashing out. It is often suggested that there has been a collapse in classroom discipline in recent years and that the balance has swung too far towards pupils.
According to the Telegraph this could well be the case as it was reported that 56 per cent of teaching staff said that they would not recommend a career in the classroom.
“Some 20 per cent of staff working in schools said that they had been attacked by pupils or parents during 2010/11 academic year.”
Results of a survey released by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers this week also showed that more than half of teachers surveyed believe classroom behaviour has deteriorated over the past five years, with 72.9 per cent blaming influences at home for the problem.
According to the National Union of Teachers, 200 cases have been dealt with in the past year in which 53 teachers were injured. A further 76 cases involved criminal damages being sought after assaults. No overall figure has been released for the total amount of compensation won on behalf of its members but the individual settlements illustrate how high some payouts can be:
- £426,000 for suffering severe breathing problems after being sprayed in the face by a pupil with an aerosol can.
- £222,215 for being hit in the head with a bus door
- £200,000 for slipping on a grape
- £158,000 for slipping on mud left behind by building works
- £25,674 for tripping on a book lying under a mat
- £20,000 for being assaulted by a pupil
- £13,590 for being knocked out by a pupil’s punch
- £7,000 for a scald from a kettle
The problem is clearly a complex one, exacerbated by the ever-increasing health and safety restrictions that prevent teachers from taking action against unruly students. Union leaders have also highlighted the increased amount of stress that teachers are placed under due to excessive workloads and claimed that this led to staff taking more short cuts which increase the odds of accidents occurring.
Serious attacks on staff have increased, with 44 teachers taken to hospital last year and Chris Keates, general secretary of the union, said the government was determined to remove “already inadequate protections for working people” and predicted that compensation claims would “undoubtedly rise in future”.
Many incidents have the potential to not only harm a people physically but also emotionally and leave them traumatised and unable to return to work.
The good news is that contacting a personal injury expert in order to manage your accident claim has never been easier. Right Solicitor help thousands of injured people throughout the UK make personal injury compensation claims every year.
If you have suffered some form of injury, either physical or psychological, as the result of an accident or exposure to a hazard, Right Solicitor can help you for free. All you have to do is submit details of your case into their online portal and you will be given clear, comprehensive advice from friendly and experienced solicitors before making a claim.
You can establish how your situation will be dealt with, how much it is likely to cost and how the process will work. All you have to do is ask your question and wait for your free response.
Tags: Aerosol, Asbestos, Association Of Teachers And Lecturers, Breathing Problems, Classroom Behaviour, Classroom Discipline, Collapse, Damages, Injury Compensation, Left Behind, Mud, National Union Of Teachers, Parenting, Parents, Physical Assault, Pupil, Pupils, Slips, Teaching Staff, Telegraph
Posted by admin on under Solicitors UK |
London solicitors are quite probably the envy of the legal profession in the UK in many respects.
What is not to be envious of?
London is a city of over 9 million people, working in one of the most diverse communities in the world. Along with this community comes billions of transactions a week; personal, business, industrial etc. All of which will require some sort of legal assistance at some point.
As well as the legal opportunities of business transactions in the city there is also the plethora of personal legal cases, so much so that some London legal firms are somewhat spoilt for choice.
Tags: Billions, Business Transactions, Diverse Communities, Envy, Legal Assistance, Legal Opportunities, Legal Profession, London City, london solicitors, Lucky, Personal Business, Plethora, Respects
Posted by admin on under Solicitors UK |
London is the capital of the UK so arguably one would say it is the legal capital of the country. There is certainly the most diverse range of solicitors available in London.
This is only to be expected with the highest concentration of courts for all areas of law in the UK. There are:
- • At least 1 magistrates court for each borough of London
- • Numerous civil courts, including County and The High Court
- • Several Crown Court facilities including the famous Old Bailey
- • Other judicial regulatory courts such as The Supreme Court and Court of Appeal
So with all these courts you might think there would be a Solicitors London Inc?
In fact the legal industry in London is split with sole practitioner solicitors, solicitor partnerships, corporate firms and advocates that act between solicitor instruction and barrister instruction, both criminal and civil.
It is not hard to find solicitors in London and a simple internet search or web based directory search will locate some excellent resources for you quite quickly.
Tags: Advocates, Areas Of Law, Borough Of London, Capital Of The Uk, Civil Courts, Concentration, Court Of Appeal, Crown Court, Directory Search, Excellent Resources, Internet Search, Magistrates Court, Old Bailey, Partnerships, Sole Practitioner, solicitor, solicitors in london, Supreme Court
Posted by admin on April 26, 2012 under Uncategorized |
We have covered the need that people might have for legal advice and how to obtain it but what are the underpinnings of legal work?
The underpinnings basically come to down to documents, statements, agreements and other writings that set out, legally, what is to be done or not done in any situation.
Legal documents are tools for a particular job. Much as you would use a Phillips screwdriver for a Phillips screw a solicitor will use a will for probate and a contract for a lease.
A legal document can be a very powerful form of maintaining control over a legal matter but it can also be the downfall in a legal situation if the wording, context or overall structure is not correct.
Whilst many legal documents look the same there are often subtle nuances in words and phrases that can mean all the difference. Solicitors are trained professionals in this area and if you are unsure of a legal document it can pay dividends to have it checked properly and receive professional advice.
Happily though, many people will not become embroiled in complex legal arrangements on a commercial level and much of the needs of a normal private individual can be dealt with by use of pre-prepared legal documents.
There are many pre-prepared legal documents available such as wills, basic contracts and so on. These have usually been prepared by qualified solicitors and give you a great start to preparing legal work which can cut down on costs by simply having a solicitor check your document rather than prepare it from scratch.
Tags: Dividends, Downfall, Legal Advice, Legal Document, Legal Documents, Legal Matter, Legal Situation, Maintaining Control, Phillips Screw, Phillips Screwdriver, Phrases, Private Individual, probate, Professional Advice, Scratch, solicitor, solicitors, Subtle Nuances, Underpinnings, wills
Posted by admin on April 19, 2012 under Uncategorized |
For anyone who is in employment there are laws which will likely affect them whether they are aware of it or not. This area of law is incredibly complex, in areas, and has many different applications for different categories of employment.
Not only is employment law varied and complex it is also highly changeable depending on many things such as new stated cases, health and safety variations, discrimination law and a whole host of other governing law and organisations.
So what does this mean for you? It means that you should maintain a reasonable level of awareness of law covering your particular area of employment and that if you experience a legal problem at work you need to be able to find your way through it.
It may be that you have a union representative or an appointed HR representative. A union is independent but HR workers are employed by the same employer who employs you so bear in mind that their motivation may be influenced!
The most common legal issues that crop up in employment are:
• Harassment
• Discrimination
• Redundancy
• Employment rights and entitlements (leave, wages, conditions, hours and so on)
• Tribunals
• Unfair or wrongful dismissal
Employment law is often overlooked by employees who are not aware of its protection but it is also overlooked by employers for much the same reason.
A key factor for this, particularly for small businesses, is that there is no legal requirement for an employer to have or gain any knowledge of employment law. This propagates the “learn on the job” approach, which can have catastrophic consequences as this is a hit and miss approach that, often, does not take advantage of formal training or formal legal advice.
This can often result in financial, lifestyle, working practice and emotional difficulties for employees and employers who become embroiled in an employment legal issue that may require intervention from a solicitor.
Our advice is that it always better to seek professional advice if you are faced with an employment problem that clearly requires legal advice.
Tags: Catastrophic Consequences, Discrimination Law, Emotional Difficulties, Employment Discrimination, Employment Law, Employment Rights, Financial Lifestyle, Formal Legal Advice, Health And Safety, Hr Representative, Level Of Awareness, Professional Advice, Redundancy, Small Businesses, solicitor, Stated Cases, Tribunals, Union Representative, Wages, Wrongful Dismissal
Posted by admin on April 17, 2012 under Uncategorized |
Let’s turn to current events. This last year has seen, possibly, one of the biggest legal scandals land in Britain; Phone Hacking.
I think we are all aware of the almost daily headlines that give the latest “bulletins” on the scandal surrounding News International, The Police and Politics.
We’ve also seen a veritable smorgasbord of celebrities pitch up at the Leveson Inquiry and in the various courts dealing with damages claims.
We’ve also seen not so fortunate people and victims of crime at the same venues.
What binds these people together? The most obvious is that they have all been victims of heinous invasions of privacy.
The second, which is not so obvious, is that the vast majority of people, celebrities included, who are bringing legal action against News International are not paying the solicitors fees themselves but are relying on conditional fee arrangements which are otherwise known as “no win, no fee.”
But why would rich celebrities do this? Well, legal fees and professional advice can be expensive, particularly when the organisation or person you are taking legal action against has power and considerable financial resource themselves.
Without conditional fee arrangements many of these people would never have been able to take action against News International.
But it doesn’t stop there. Conditional fee arrangements are used every day to assist people with legal costs in more routine matters such as road accidents, work injuries and so on. So it would appear CFA’s are a good thing and they are…..for the moment.
The government of the day is making inroads to dilute who can access CFA’s and restrict access to professional advice from solicitors. Their reason for this is that some personal injury lawyers have abused the system.
Mark Lewis is the prominent lawyer in the phone hacking scandal and he concedes the point of potential abuse of the system but still with one eye on the “common person” trying to access legal advice with a CFA he says to the Guardian Newspaper:
Some personal injury claims may have been an abuse of the CFA system, Lewis concedes, but that should not be grounds for reshaping it so drastically. “In some ways we are not only throwing out the baby with the bathwater, but losing the bath as well.”
Guardian Newspaper, July 2011.
Tags: Bulletins, Cfa, Common Person, Current Events, Financial Resource, Inroads, Invasions Of Privacy, Legal Advice, News International, Personal Injury Lawyers, Phone Hacking, Professional Advice, Road Accidents, Routine Matters, Scandal, Scandals, solicitors, Veritable Smorgasbord, Victims Of Crime, Work Injuries
Posted by admin on April 11, 2012 under Uncategorized |
Buying and selling a house usually requires two things to get started; the property you want to realise and an agent you can work with. Without those two factors in place it’s going to be a difficult proposal.
The estate agent is there to give you professional advice but will also be looking after their commission payment.
There is another area you will need professional advice in and that is conveyance. This is the process of land registry checks and the formal transfer of the property from one person to another.
The people who handle this professional area are either solicitors or licensed conveyance practitioners.
This is one of the most important areas of a property realisation and a mistake can cost you dearly in time, money and aggravation.
It is also another facet of property that requires phone calls, appointments, tedious travel to the appointments……….Or does it?
Not necessarily because this service, amongst other professional legal advice, is available on the internet at www.rightsolicitor.co.uk
This is a website that allows you access to solicitors anywhere in the UK and to have a comprehensive, clear and professional answer to your legal question in 60 minutes.
In terms of conveyance it is even easier and there is already a formula question that asks the value of the property, the deposit you have and an estimated instruction date.
Fill this form out and the solicitor will be in touch almost immediately. And there you have it; your conveyance matters are in hand with a few key strokes as opposed to time consuming appointments and extra hassle that you don’t need.
See for yourself at www.rightsolicitor.co.uk
Tags: 60 Minutes, Appointments, Checks, Conveyance, Facet, Hassle, Land Registry, Legal Question, Mistake, Phone Calls, Professional Advice, Professional Answer, Professional Area, Professional Legal Advice, Proposal, solicitor, solicitors, Strokes, Time Money
