Serious catastrophic events, incidents of personal injury and cases of negligence are often used by authors and scriptwriters as starting points for interesting plot lines in the latest big screen blockbusters. But in real life, accidents or negligence can often be the basis for making a claim.
Here we take a light-hearted look at popular fictional situations to explore whether a compensation claim could have been made if these incidents had happened in real life.
Luke Skywalker
While it may be an extreme case, it could still be argued that Luke Skywalker lost his hand during an accident at work, as his battle with Darth Vader resulted from working for the rebel forces. Whilst that’s clearly fictional, what’s not is that equipment at work could result in an injury that’s not your fault if it isn’t correctly maintained, stored or operated.
Ghost Town
In the hit Ricky Gervais film, doctors lose the main character for few minutes in what should have been a simple medical procedure. The resulting after effects leave the individual with the ability to see ghosts. Whilst the outcome has been created purely for film, the trauma of something going wrong in a medical procedure is very real and can often be a case for clinical negligence claims.
Mr Bump
The classic Mr Men books tell the tale of Mr Bump suffering from a whole host of slips, trips and falls during his everyday life. Whilst they’re mainly his fault due to his somewhat clumsy nature, that isn’t always the case in real life. If you suffer from a slip, trip or fall in a public place due to factors outside of your control, it may be the basis of a personal injury claim.
Cars 3
Stop reading now if you don’t want a spoiler, but near the start of Cars 3, the main character, Lightning McQueen, is involved in a serious accident. As we see during the film, injuries don’t always end there, with potentially far-reaching psychological effects. Even if you aren’t seriously injured in a traffic incident, mental trauma can still be cause for a claim.
Awakenings
The 1990 film based on a true story, saw Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams star as a patient and doctor respectively. Based around patients who were in a catatonic state, the film looks at how the individuals were treated and which drugs were administered to them. The effects of different medication and the way in which patients are treated are complex issues, but if you feel you have been mistreated in either regard, you could have a claim for medical negligence.
The Santa Claus
We couldn’t publish a list like this in December without looking at the most topical of all, Santa himself! In the 1994 Tim Allen film which will undoubtedly be on a tv near you any day now, Santa falls from a roof, causing Tim Allen to become the new Father Christmas. In such a hazardous job role you would always need to be aware, but was the employer at fault, did they cause him to work in unsafe conditions?
Though the above are all just light-hearted cases from popular fiction, they demonstrate personal injury and medical negligence can happen to anyone in a whole host of different situations and the effects can be serious and ongoing. If you think you have suffered injury or harm and the fault lies with a third party, get in touch with our experts so they can assess your claim.