Tag Archives: personal injury

Claiming Compensation for Accidents at Work

Claiming Compensation for Accidents at WorkIf you are involved in an accident at work, it will be necessary for you to show that your injuries were caused by the negligence of your employer. Your employer is also responsible for the actions of work colleagues who cause accidents involving injury. Please remember that you have an obligation to make your employer aware of any accidents, which occur whilst at work. This information should be properly recorded in the Accident Book. Please note, your employer cannot terminate your employment if you make a claim for compensation. If you are in any doubt or concerned over this, we recommend that you consult us immediately.

If you are an employer, self-employed or in control of work premises you are required under RIDDOR to report some types of work-related accidents and accident at work, diseases and dangerous occurrences.

Reporting accident at work and ill health at work is a legal requirement under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995. The information gathered helps the Local Authority and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to identify where and how risks arise and to prevent reoccurrence and prevent further pain and suffering to employees.

You must report all of the following:

  • A death
  • A major injury
  • An over-three-day injury (this is when an employee or self-employed person has an accident at work and is unable to work for over three days, but does not have a major injury);
  • A work-related disease
  • A dangerous occurrence
  • Where a member of the public is taken directly to hospital

How Soon Do I Have To Report The Incident?

All time limits for reporting accident at work vary depending on the severity and the guide below should be followed.

  • Where the accident has resulted in someone’s death or a major injury we need to be notified immediately
  • Over 3-day injuries need to be reported within 10 days.
  • As soon as possible after the doctor diagnosis a work related disease.
  • Dangerous occurrences need to be reported immediately

Have you suffered an accident at work? If so, you may well be able to claim compensation from your employer’s insurance company.

Work injury can be defined as any accident at work that could have been avoided. And if the work injury were not your fault, you’re entitled to reasonable financial compensation.

Personal Injury Advice: Can You Benefit?

Personal Injury Advice- Can You BenefitYou can benefit from personal injury advice if you have been hurt and it was somebody else’s fault. You may be able to win compensation to cover your medical costs, other expenses and possibly also an award for pain and suffering. However, everything depends on the individual circumstances of your case.

The first thing to keep in mind is that there has to be somebody to blame for your accident or injury. For example, many personal injury cases result from falls. If you trip on a badly maintained pathway or slip on a wet supermarket floor, you may be able to claim against the owners of the property or more likely, their insurance company. However, if the accident was not their fault (e.g. if your fall was caused by icy weather) then you usually cannot claim compensation.

Personal injury advice is not limited to physical injuries. Of course, these are the most common and usually the easiest to prove. However, there are some other situations that are included in personal injury law.

One is psychological injury. For example, somebody who suffers post traumatic stress disorder is often able to receive compensation. However, not all psychological injuries are as easy to prove as PTSD, and courts as well as insurance companies are very suspicious of these cases. Often, you will be required to show that a physical injury happened at the same time as a psychological injury.

Another situation that falls into the realm of personal injury law is legal malpractice. Here, your case would be that your lawyer was negligent and because of that, you suffered in some way (either financially, or in terms of a prison sentence or other punishment). However, as with medical malpractice, it’s not enough just to be disappointed with the outcome of your case. You have to prove that your attorney was negligent: i.e. that he or she did not act as an attorney should.

If you need personal injury advice, the best option is to contact a law firm in your local area. Many law firms specialize in giving personal injury advice and it is probably best to start with these. You will have a consultation either on the telephone or in person, after which the attorney will be able to tell you whether they can take on your case.

In most cases, you do not pay any legal fees for personal injury advice unless you win the case. This is often referred to as ‘no win, no fee’. This means that you have nothing to lose by consulting a lawyer about your case.

Of course, it also means that law firms will usually not take on cases where the rewards are likely to be small, because they would not cover their costs. So the injury needs to be relatively severe to interest a lawyer. Also, they will only take you on as a client if they think they have a good chance of winning your case.

However, even if you do not think your case has much value, it is still worth speaking with a personal injury attorney. You may want to fight the case yourself and it will be helpful to know how an attorney views your case, even if they do not wish to take it on. For this reason, it is a good idea to make notes during any personal injury advice that you have from an attorney, even in the early stages.