Accident at Work Claims By Campbell Jenny

This is a dynamic world indeed. Anything can happen at virtually any time of the day and before you realize that you are in some kind of problem, it's too late. The damage has been done. Now it's the time to pay the price and then seek compensation.
This is in simple terms as to how the insurance industry functions and accident at work claims are also a part of its functioning. When you sustain accidental injuries at workplace, then you may need to file the claim in order to receive compensation or financial assistance from the insurance providers or even your employer. In any case, you have to fill the compensation form with utmost care, omitting absolutely no details, lest the process should get delayed unnecessarily and if you are found guilty of misleading the authorities, then they may refuse point black to honour your claim.
I understand that being a person from the normal walks of life, you may not be intimately aware of the claim filing procedure and further proceedings. Moreover, most of the insurance companies leave a lot hidden between the fine prints so as to guile the innocent claimants. Well, it has been the way ever since and none of the parties can be blames. Instead, to make the process easier and less daunting what you can do is, hire a lawyer to look after your accident at work claims.
Don't worry about the fee part because under the no win no fee claim agreement, the solicitor gets paid only if he manages to win the claim. And in that case also, it's the third party who pays the fee to the solicitor while you can happily walk away with the entire claim amount.
Now I will enumerate a few things which you need to keep in mind while filing accident at work claims. First is to determine whether the accident occurs inside the work premises or not. This can be of crucial importance. If it has, then the first thing you do is to report to your immediate supervisor about the occurrences and the injuries sustained. In case you are fatally injured to do this at the moment, then make sure you do it as soon as possible.
Keep your medical record and the written consultation of the medical expert regarding the injuries safe and produce it as evidence before the insurance authorities. In any case, the insurance authorities will assign an officer to look into the whole mishap and if he is convinced with your case and its genuineness, then you will get the compensation settled.
Remember to always file the claim whenever you have an accident at the workplace because these accident at work claims can at least provide you financial assistance in getting the medical treatment done while causing no loss of salary. If you don't file the claim, then not only will you paying from your pocket for the medical expenses but also cause loss of salary while you are nursing your injuries.

It's a Wonderful Life, Mr. Scrooge, and Other Tales From La La Land

Larry E. Ribstein, University of Illinois College of Law, has published "How Movies Created the Financial Crisis", in the Michigan State Law Review for Winter 2009. Here is the abstract.

Narrative makes sense out of reality and can forcefully persuade listeners to a particular point of view. Artists in general have a narrative of business which springs from their belief that at least some aspects of business are antithetical to art. Filmmakers add to this a resentment of the constraints capital places on their art. Film is particularly persuasive because of its vivid images and because of the consistency of filmmakers’ anti-capitalist perspective on business. Filmmakers’ negative portrayal of capitalists has helped to prepare the public to believe that capitalists - and not government, economic cycles, greedy people or business generally - caused the financial crisis. This will help the public accept a regulatory agenda built on this premise, specifically including the regulation of hedge funds.

Download the Article from SSRN at the link.

The History of Branding and Trade Mark Law in the UK

John Mercer is publishing "A Mark of Distinction: Branding and Trade Mark Law in the UK from the 1860s," in Business History (forthcoming). Here is the abstract.

The development of branding is a neglected theme in business history. This article examines the emergence on a large scale of the unique product brand name - distinct from a company name or product descriptor - in the UK in the latter nineteenth century. It looks at the interaction of branding strategies and UK trade mark law, which is shown to have accorded property rights in word-based marks only gradually and shaped the development of branding in the UK. Trademark application data from the 1870s to the 1920s is cited to illustrate the widespread take-up of the brand name in the UK from the 1880s, and to consider its use by different types of consumer goods firms. The article then analyses the effects of such branding into the twentieth century, including its contribution to competitive advantage, the introduction of brand architecture, and the problem of brand genericisation. It is argued that the adoption of the brand name marked a major shift in brands, from descriptions of origin to objects of artifice.

Download the article from SSRN here.

Business Law and Narrative

Michigan State University College of Law is hosting a symposium on business law and film called the Business Law and Narrative Symposium. The symposium takes place in East Lansing on September 11. Here's a description.

Narratives are stories.

Narratives both reflect and influence society, from the broadest popular cultural viewpoints down to the private communications between individuals. This dynamic process begins with the narrator, whose technique and viewpoint influence how the story is told. A successful narrative influences the viewpoint of the audience, modifying public perceptions of the subject. These changing public perceptions in turn influence the viewpoint of future narrators. Through this dynamic narrative process, public viewpoints evolve, leading to changes in the cultural, political, and legal landscapes.

Business narratives include the stories told within the legal profession, as well as those communicated to the general public through a vast array of media, including news, books, movies, and the Internet. Recent business narratives include the Bernard Madoff scam, the auto industry woes, bank bailouts, and the subprime mortgage crisis. From Enron and Martha Stewart to the current crises, new villains emerge, forever changing public perceptions of business and the corporate world.

A symposium at the Michigan State University College of Law invites general treatment of the question of how narrative influences the cultural and political understanding of business and how narrative might–or might not–play a role in corporate law.

Recent events bring to the fore a call on narrative as a means of interpreting what has happened, with possibilities for simple explanations that attempt a narrative form. Distinguished corporate law experts and scholars in history, literature, and narrative will present their papers and discuss the challenges narrators face in creating an accessible, widely shared account of business culture, corporate law, or financial events, given the complexity of business and the abstract nature of the corporation. Do such business narratives supply a widely shared consensus comparable to large narrative understandings of other social enterprises? Do cases or scholarship deploy narrative materials? If so, how might they be evaluated as narrative? Does literature constitute a source of insight that informs the social understanding of business realities and personalities? How does gender influence narrative?

MSU Law Professor Mae Kuykendall organized the symposium to further explore the intersection of business law and narrative, as discussed in her 2007 article, "No Imagination: The Marginal Role of Narrative in Corporate Law." Distinguished corporate law experts and scholars in history, literature, and narrative will gather to address these questions on September 11, 2009, at the Michigan State University College of Law. The Michigan State Law Review will publish the papers presented in what promises to be a trenchant discussion of an important topic. We invite you to join us for our discussion of business law and narrative.

Here's a link to the program.