Stimulating Thoughts On The Reason Why The Size Of A Grape Ought To Have Absolutely Nothing To Do With Compensation Claims
Every so often we have seen some much-publicised reports within the populist press concerning compensation claims and pay-outs within the legal system to people who’ve been associated with some sort of accident or personal injury, frequently at the job. The tabloid press is quite proficient at sensationalising any kind of story, as all things considered this is what sells them newspapers and lets them acquire earnings from advertisements. Banner headlines hardly ever tell a complete story, but they often contain a perceived shock value.
“£300,000 awarded to a teacher who slipped on a grape,” shrieked one particular headline recently. The headline was accompanied by a larger-than-life image of the grape, so that the various readers centred on the triviality of the grape on its own, therefore questioning the credibility of the claim. The tale went into more depth underneath however, giving us material to further validate the claim. In the end, the teacher was injured to such an extent that she was unable to work for an extended period of time. The faculty itself was found responsible due to a failure to clean up floors and supply a secure working environment.
The bottom line is that when somebody is injured in an accident which was due to the negligence of one other, exactly who should suffer? Within a reasonable society it’s not fair that the hurt person is left to pay out and our entire structure relies on the belief that there must be consequences when expectations aren’t satisfied, especially when this concerns safe practices.
At present, injury claims may well not always supply tabloid fodder and may not always involve anything as diminutive as the grape, but we need to be comforted by the truth that our legal devices are in the position to champion the cause of the underdog, regardless of how many in the media industry might trivialise their situations.
The moral is not to look at precisely what you read within a newspaper headline at face value and try to understand that there is much more to the story than might meet the eye.
Filed under Blog by on May 25th, 2011. 
