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Personal Injury Solicitors

Accidents can happen anywhere; on the road, at work, home or in hospital and victims, through no fault of their own can suffer different degrees of physical injury. There can also be long lasting and distressing psychological repercussions. Collins Solicitors have built a considerable expertise in this area and are also able to draw upon strong relationships with medical experts.

We are client focused and have an innovative approach to all we do. We have built a formidable reputation for taking on big corporations who often try to use their financial might to crush genuine claims. These include major oil companies, international airlines, train operating companies, local government and the NHS.

We are also one of the leading specialists in the UK in environmental personal injury cases including the toxic waste case of Corby Litigation v Corby Borough Council and the Buncefield Oil Terminal disaster. We have acted for victims of the Hatfield, Ladbroke Grove, Watford, Southall and Potters Bar train crashes and have the necessary experience to deal with individual claims and class actions.

We have in-depth experience of damage recovery in cases of serious injuries, regularly on behalf of our clients recovering six figure sums. In two important recent cases, we recovered damages in excess of 2 million pounds.

The personal injury team work is supervised by Solicitors who are members of the Law Society Personal Injury Panel as well as a Fellow and Senior Litigator in the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers.

The head of the team, Des Collins, has received a number of awards for his groundbreaking personal injury work, including winning the prestigious Law Society Legal Personality of the year in 2010. The department is also Top Ranked in Chambers and Recommended by the Legal 500.

Contaminated Blood Scandal

During the 1970s and 1980s thousands of haemophiliacs were treated with Factor VIII, extracted from blood plasma donated by high-risk sources including prisoners, intravenous drug users and cadavers. By the early 1970’s Hepatitis was known to be potentially fatal and by 1983 the risk of HIV infection was known and yet patients were not told of the risk and continued to be treated with Factor VIII.

By 2017 Collins Solicitors, acting for victims and their families, believed that compelling new evidence had been uncovered shedding light on this scandal and that efforts had been made by the Department of Health to keep mattes under wraps and demanded that the Government convene a full Public Inquiry into what went so disastrously wrong for so long. The Public Inquiry was announced by the Prime Minister in July that year and by September the High Court had put in place a Group Action in which Collins were named as Lead Solicitor.

It is estimated that approximately 4,670 haemophiliacs were infected with Hepatitis C whilst 1,243 also contracted HIV, many of whom progressed to AIDS. The government’s failure to act is estimated to have caused over 1,700 Haemophiliac deaths nationwide so far and many victims, including Jonathan Evans, died too early to be subjected to modern life-prolonging medication. Fewer than 250 of the Haemophiliacs who were 'co-infected' with both Hepatitis C & HIV remain alive and they face a lifetime on medication having to cope with both a serious illness and truly shocking discrimination.

If you or a member of your family has been affected please contact us on contaminatedblood@collinslaw.co.uk

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