A Guide On Claiming For Injuries Due To Unsafe Work Practices
This guide will describe when you could meet the eligibility criteria to make a personal injury claim following an accident caused by unsafe work practices. Your employer owes you a duty of care when you are at work. In this guide, we will outline what this duty of care entails and how your employer breaching this duty could lead to you sustaining injuries. This would meet the criteria of employer negligence, which could form the basis of a personal injury claim.
Additionally, we will explain how you could collect evidence to support your potential claim, as it is important to prove that you meet the eligibility requirements. Also, we will discuss how a personal injury compensation award can be made up of up to two types of damages.
Finally, we will look at how entering into a No Win No Fee arrangement could help you to access the services of a solicitor.
If you have any questions about beginning your potential accident at work claim, do not hesitate to contact one of our advisors for free, 24-hour legal advice. They will not put any obligations on you to further your claim with us, however, they do have access to our specialist solicitors.
You can reach our advisors by:
- Calling 0800 073 8804
- Using our live chat feature
- Filling out our ‘claim online’ form
Select a Section:
- Can I Claim If I Was Injured Due To Unsafe Work Practices?
- What Are Unsafe Work Practices?
- What Evidence Could Help Me Prove My Claim?
- How Much Could I Claim If Injured Due To Unsafe Work Practices?
- Start A Claim With A No Win No Fee Accident At Work Solicitor
- Learn More About Workplace Injury Claims
Can I Claim If I Was Injured Due To Unsafe Work Practices?
If you sustain injuries in the workplace due to unsafe work practices, you may be wondering if you can make a personal injury claim against your employer. To do this, you must prove that employer negligence occurred. This means that you must first show that your employer owed you a duty of care at the time and place your accident occurred. Then, they breached this duty of care, and as a result of this, you sustained physical injuries, psychological harm, or both.
Your employer’s duty of care is outlined in the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HASAWA), which states that they must carry out reasonably practicable steps to ensure the safety of their employees. This may include:
- Carrying out risk assessments to identify hazards.
- Providing employees with proper training.
- Maintaining and repairing equipment within the correct time frame to ensure it is safe to use for its intended purpose.
If an employer fails to carry out these reasonably practicable steps, they could breach their duty of care. In addition to your claim meeting the eligibility requirements laid out above, it must also be within the correct time frame. We will discuss this in the following section.
How Long Do I Have To Claim For Injuries Caused By Unsafe Work Practices?
Generally, you will have three years to begin legal proceedings from the date of your accident at work. However, there are some exceptions to this limitation period, outlined in the Limitation Act 1980. For example:
- If the person is a minor, the time limit is paused. Instead, they would have three years from their 18th birthday to start legal proceedings, provided no claim has been started for them already.
- If the person has a reduced mental capacity to claim, the time limit has a pause placed on it for an indefinite amount of time. If they recover their capacity, they will have three years to start claiming compensation from the recovery date.
For both of these instances, while the time limit is paused, the courts could appoint a litigation friend to begin the claim on the injured person’s behalf.
If you would like to make an enquiry regarding these exceptions in connection to your case, please contact our team at Legal Expert. Also, you can ask our advisors about your eligibility to make a claim for injuries caused by unsafe work practices.
What Are Unsafe Work Practices?
Various causes could result in unsafe work practices. For example, employees working in a warehouse are not given proper training to operate a forklift truck. However, their employer tells them to operate the vehicles regardless of their lack of training. This leads to an employee losing control, crashing the forklift and sustaining a head injury.
Further examples include the following:
- Employers not supplying employees with personal protective equipment (PPE) that is necessary to protect them against a hazard that they are exposed to while at work.
- The failure to carry out any risk assessments in the workplace.
- An employer failing to carry out any maintenance or repairs could lead to defective work equipment, which could cause injuries.
If you would like to discuss your potential claim after unsafe work practices caused you to sustain injuries, please speak to a member of our team. They are available at any time to provide you with advice.
What Evidence Could Help Me Prove My Claim?
In order to make a personal injury claim, you will need to obtain evidence of employer negligence. This will support your claim. This evidence could include:
- CCTV footage of the accident
- The contact details of any witnesses
- Photographs of the scene of the accident and any visible injuries
- Copies of your medical records
- A diary detailing your symptoms and treatment
- A copy of the report made in the accident at work book
Our advisors can provide you with free legal advice regarding the evidence you could use to strengthen your claim. What’s more, if you choose to work with a solicitor, they could help you to gather and compile your evidence.
How Much Could I Claim If Injured Due To Unsafe Work Practices?
When claiming personal injury compensation after an accident caused by unsafe work practices, there are up to two heads of claim you could be eligible to receive. These are called general damages and special damages.
General damages compensates you for any mental or physical pain and suffering caused by your injuries. Below we have provided a table of guideline compensation brackets drawn from the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG), a document solicitors can use to help them value the general damages head of a claim. These brackets are not guaranteed, they are a guide.
Guideline Compensation Table
| Injury | Severity | Notes on the Injury | Guideline Compensation Brackets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple Severe Injuries with Financial Losses | Severe | A payout compensating for the mental and physical effects of an injury plus the financial costs incurred, such as lost income, care costs, and medical bills. | Up to £1,000,000+ |
| Brain Damage | Very Severe (a) | There will be little to no language function or evidence that the person responds meaningfully to their environment. They will need full-time nursing care. | £282,010 to £403,990 |
| Brain Damage | Moderate (c)(ii) | The persons capability to work will be either greatly reduced or removed, there will be an intellectual deficit which is moderate to modest, and there will be some risk of epilepsy. | £90,720 to £150,110 |
| Arm Amputation | Loss of Both Arms (a) | A fully aware person is reduced to a state of considerable helplessness. | £240,790 to £300,000 |
| Arm Amputation | Loss of One Arm (b)(ii) | Above the elbow amputation of the arm. | £109,650 to £130,930 |
| Back Injury | Severe (a)(i) | Instances of the most severe injury that involves harm to the spinal chord and the person's nerve roots, resulting in a combination of very serious consequences. | £91,090 to £160,980 |
| Neck Injury | Severe (a)(i) | Associated with incomplete paraplegia or leading to permanent spastic quadriparesis. | In the region of £148,330 |
| Neck Injury | Moderate (b)(ii) | Involves soft tissue or wrenching injuries and more severe disc lesions that cause cervical spondylosis, serious limitation of movement, and further problems. | £13,740 to £24,990 |
| Wrist Injury | Loss of Function (a) | Injuries resulting in the complete loss of wrist function. | £47,620 to £59,860 |
| Wrist Injury | Less Severe (c) | A less severe wrist injury that results in some permanent disability. | £12,590 to £24,500 |
| Hand Injury | Less Serious (g) | A severe crush injury, for example, which results in significant impairment of function despite operative treatment or without future surgery. | £14,450 to £29,000 |
Special Damages
Special damages can compensate you for the monetary losses which have resulted from your injuries. These may be past or future expenses.
Therefore, you could receive special damages for the following:
- The cost of care
- Travel expenses
- Loss of earnings
- Housing adaptations
It is important to keep evidence of these losses to claim special damages. For example, you could retain travel tickets, invoices and payslips.
If you have any questions about the personal injury compensation you could be eligible to receive, please contact one of our advisors.
Start A Claim With A No Win No Fee Accident At Work Solicitor
When making a personal injury claim for a workplace injury caused by unsafe work practices, you may want to seek the services of a solicitor. They could offer you the option of entering into a type of No Win No Fee agreement known as a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA).
Typically, under this agreement, you:
- Do not pay your solicitor any upfront fees for their services
- Will not pay costs for your solicitor’s services while your claim is ongoing
- Will not make payments for your solicitor’s services should your case fail
However, should your accident at work claim succeed, your solicitor can take a small percentage of the compensation as a success fee. This fee is capped under the relevant legislation, so you cannot be overcharged.
Contact one of our advisors to learn whether you may have an eligible claim. If they find this to be the case, they could put you in contact with one of our No Win No Fee solicitors.
You can contact them by:
- Calling 0800 073 8804
- Using the live chat feature
- Filling out our ‘claim online’ form
Learn More About Workplace Injury Claims
More of our useful workplace injury claims guides:
A useful guide about making a claim for a scaffolding accident
A useful guide to sick pay after an accident at work
Useful external resources:
Reportable incidents – The Health and Safety Executive HSE
Statutory Sick Pay (SSP): Eligibility – GOV.UK
First aid – NHS
If you have any further questions about your eligibility to claim compensation for a workplace injury caused by unsafe work practices, please contact our advisors using the details provided above.
