Aims and principles

Injurywatch aims to counter the myth that a "compensation culture" exists in Britain today and to presses for the rights of victims to receive the compensation due to them. We campaign against business practices intended to rip-off claimants wherever we find them. We strongly oppose the culture of delay, obfuscation and legal challenge which we believe insurance companies are using in a cynical attempt to limit their liabilities to pay valid claims, particularly to asbestos victims. At the same time we deplore the behaviour of claims handlers who promise no-win-no-fee agreements but dip into compensation rightfully due to the claimant if the case is successful. The guiding principle of injurywatch is to act in the victim's best interest. We aim to offer you the best advice and the highest quality service using the best solicitors available...

About injurywatch.co.uk

Injurywatch provides free advice, information and support resources for victims of harm, from victims of relatively minor hurt or injury to those who have suffered greatly from the negligence of others. We will help individuals directly to pursue a successful claim through a panel of solicitors which is widely recognised as comprising the leading workplace-illness, personal injury and clinical negligence practices in the UK. At the same time we provide technical assistance, technology and resources to victim groups seeking to establish an online presence to recruit support, provide mentoring or discover information. One area where we can assist is in discovering details of long defunct companies and their "disappeared" insurance companies which is particularly important in cases with a long latency such as the asbestos cancer mesothelioma. We actively campaign for the interests of all victims to be upheld by making representations directly to government bodies and insurance and legal groups in the media. When we cannot provide assistance ourselves, we will provide quality advice and pointers to the best people to assist you further. If you wish to write articles for the site, please check out our writing for us pages.

Our people

Injurywatch is divided into three teams:

Our web services are available 24 hours a day. Our helplines are open between 8am and 8pm every day except Christmas Day.

Solicitors

From the outset to the time your claim is settled, all aspects of your case will be handled directly by a solicitor who is an expert in their specialist field, be that workplace or environmment-related illness, personal injury, clinical negligence or human rights. All our solicitors are able to make home visits. In many cases we will recommend the most skilled and experienced specialist solicitor in your area, but some claims require particular expertise and in such cases we may suggest someone known to be uniquely proficient in the field who may be based further away. Injurywatch solicitors are regulated by the Law Society are members of the appropriate Law Society Panel , be that for Clinical Negligence or Personal Injury. You will deal with your solicitor directly at all times. After the initial interviews they will send a Client Care Letter outlining the relationship and how the case will be handled. You are assured they will act in your best interests at all times. If you are a solicitor, you can discover more details of how we we work on our solicitor information pages.

Jobs and internships

Injurywatch is always looking for quality staff, particularly in the customer service field. Staff can be based in our Canary Wharf offices but we are also able to facilitate home-based workers who may wish to work part time. Staff wishing to work from home must have — or be able to install — a broadband connection. Good interpersonal skills are required, along with the ability to use the web and email. Common sense is a distinct advantage but life skills and a sympathetic ear are more important. Full training will ge given. Injurywatch is also looking for a web editor to work on our high traffic website. Linux, PostgreSQL and Python skills would be an advantage, but the site is content-led and the ability to spot a story, good editing skills and an ability to lay out a page are more important. You can be based in our Exeter offices or alternatively can work from home (broadband essential), If you are interested in applying for either position, please send a request for more information using the "contact" link, above.

Technical information

This website operates on a content management system called Plone which is served through an Apache server from a network of servers using the Linux operating system. The hardware is equipped to the following specification:

1U 4HS bay 400W PSU OPTIServ Dual Opteron DP246, 4GB DDR ECC Reg 3200 ATP (4*1024), 4*73GB 80PIN SCSI HDD, LSI U320-1 MegaRAID SCSI card, Slim DVD/CDRW, RAILS; Motherboard: Tyan s2882G3NR-D

whatever that means. We use PostgreSQL to drive the back office and Yac to drive the call centres.

Credits and compliments

Thanks to Murdo Maguire and the support team at our associated company Watch Media Group who handled some late-night problems. Plone and Zope hosting is by Openia. Both Openia's Ali al-Azzawi and Bill Gannon met and resolved every problem as it came up. They come highly recommended. Our back office was built, integrated and is maintained by Phil Kilner at XFR who hit every deadline and helped with much more besides. Chris Lodge from the Andrew Gardner Partnership provided quality advice and suggestions. Call centre technology is by Yac with email ticketed support built on MailManager from Logicalware. We use a technique derived from Lomography to produce the weird effect you will see in many of our editorial pictures. Plone and its associated products drive the system. In our opinion it is the world's best industrial-quality content management software. It's also open source and supported by a dedicated group of developers and enthusiasts who have solved problems we didn't even know we had. Last of all, thanks to our dedicated team of Panel Solicitors who actually do the work...

Privacy policy and terms of use

Please see our terms of use pages

injurywatch.co.uk — key locations