A Guide To Factory Accident Claims
By Danielle Jordan. Last Updated 10th June 2024. Welcome to our guide on factory accident claims. If you work in a manufacturing environment, and you are injured due to an accident that occurs in the workplace, you may be entitled to make a factory accident claim for compensation.
Employers across England and Wales are expected to maintain certain standards in health and safety. For some types of businesses, such as those in the manufacturing sector, additional safety regulations are applicable, any time an employee is injured in a work-related accident in a factory, and it is due to non-compliance with Health and, a valid compensation claim will surely exist.
If by the end of this factory accident claims guide, you’d like to know more about the process of claiming for a factory injury, or if you would like to get started with your claim on a No Win No Fee basis, you can call us on 0800 073 8804 and we’ll be happy to answer any questions you have regarding how to claim.
Select a Section:
- What Are The Criteria For Factory Accident Claims?
- The Most Common Types Of Accident That Occur In A Factory
- How To Make A Claim For A Factory Accident
- What Can Compensation Payouts In Factory Accident Claims Include?
- Examples Of Factory Accident Compensation Amounts And Payouts
- Factory Accident Claims And No Win No Fee Agreements
What Are The Criteria For Factory Accident Claims?
What are factory accident claims? While at work, whether in a factory, on a construction site or while working in an office, you are owed a duty of care by your employer through the Health and Safety At Work etc Act 1974. Employers must ensure that they take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure the health and safety of their workforce while at work.
To fulfil this duty of care, employers are required to carry out risk assessments, provide personal protective equipment when necessary to do the job safely and provide training so that employees can carry out work duties safely.
Factory accident claims are possible when this duty of care is breached and you are injured as a consequence
To find out more about the injury at work claims process, continue to read this guide or call our advisors for free advice any time of the day or night.
Do Factory Accident Claims Have A Time Limit?
If you are eligible to make a factory accident claim, you must start proceedings before the time limit expires. For personal injury claims, this is generally 3 years from the date of the accident as set out in the Limitation Act 1980.
However, in certain circumstances, there are exceptions to this limitation period, including:
- Those without the mental capacity to launch their own claim. These parties have an indefinite suspension applied to the time limit. During this time, a court-appointed litigation friend can bring forward a claim on their behalf. If the injured party regains this mental capacity and a claim was not made for them already, they will have 3 years from the date of their capacity being regained to begin the process.
- Those under the age of 18 have the limitation period frozen until they turn 18. Prior to this, a litigation friend can claim factory accident compensation on their behalf. However, if they turn 18 and a claim was not initiated for them, they will have 3 years from their 18th birthday to begin proceedings.
If you have any questions about factory accident claims, speak with one of the advisors from our team.
The Most Common Types of Accident that Occur in a Factory
Although there are very many ways that an injury can happen in a manufacturing environment, statistically, some ways are far more common. Below is an overview of the most often seen types of factory accident or incident that result in injuries and subsequent factory accident claims:
- Musculoskeletal-related accidents – in laymen’s terms, these types of injuries are sprains, muscle damage and other injuries that are caused by overexertion. A typical example of this is some form of back injury caused by incorrectly lifting a heavyweight.
- Movement-related accidents – these are akin to the musculoskeletal accidents outlined above. However, instead of them being caused by overexertion, they are caused by forcing the body to move in ways it is not designed to do. An example of this would be having to reach up to grab a piece of machinery requiring the operator to overstretch themselves.
- Industrial vehicle accidents – in many manufacturing environments, especially those that are heavily automated, vehicular accidents can be a common occurrence. This covers everything from a manually driven forklift truck hitting a worker, to an automated materials trolley or shipping van causing an injury.
- Equipment and machinery accidents – especially relevant in heavy industry-related factories, such as a forge or a car works. If misused or faulty, dangerous machinery can cause some of the most severe industrial injuries.
- Fire – unsurprisingly, fire is a significant risk in many types of factories. A fire can result in a number of severe injuries, not just burns, but also respiratory-related health conditions and long-term scarring.
- Chemical hazards – very similar to a fire risk, chemical exposure can cause chemical burns, poisoning and in the most extreme cases, rapid death. The long-term side effects of chemical exposure are hard to quantify. A person can walk away from a chemically related accident with no visible impact, only for them to become seriously ill sometime later, possibly years into the future.
These are the most common ways that accidents causing an injury in a factory occur. There are obviously many more. if you’d like to know more about what kinds of accidents can be claimed for in factory accident claims, or would like to get your claim started on a No Win No Fee basis, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team.
How to Make a Claim for a Factory Accident
If you feel you have a valid factory injury claim, you are going to need professional legal guidance and representation. We offer a completely free initial fact-finding session for all types of personal injury claims, including factory accident claims. During which, we will try and understand all of the circumstances of the accident, and the injury it caused.
Once we have all of this information, we will tell you a) whether we think you have a valid compensation claim for a factory accident and b) what we think you should do next.
Most likely, we will offer you a No Win No Fee form of legal representation for your factory injury compensation claim. You will have nothing to pay unless we win your case for you.
The time limits for personal injury claims is three years, but there’s no need to hesitate, and making a claim sooner rather than later could strengthen your case as the details of the accident are fresh in your mind.
If you’d like to know more about factory accident claims and what can be claimed for, read on as our next section will be of interest to you.
What Can Compensation Payouts In Factory Accident Claims Include?
There are a number of types of damages that compensation for a factory accident will include, and these are:
- General damages – to compensate you for all of the physical effects of the injury; pain, suffering and mental trauma.
- Special damages – to compensate you for tangible losses, such as loss of earnings, that are not related to the injury’s physical effects. For example, having to cancel a significant event such as a wedding, which caused a financial loss, would come under special damages.
- Ongoing care – to compensate you for the financial overhead of either paying for in-home care or having to spend time in a private care facility.
- Medical costs – to compensate you for any money you have spent paying to have your injury treated, or for therapy and treatment during the recovery stage.
- Travel costs – to compensate you for any money spent making journeys you otherwise you would not have had to, due to the accident or the compensation claim itself.
These are the basic categories of damages that make up factory accident claims. There may be others that apply to your specific case, contact us for more information regarding this and see how we could help you on a No Win No Fee basis.
Examples Of Factory Accident Compensation Amounts And Payouts
If your factory accident claim is successful, you will be awarded compensation. As we have discussed in this guide, many different types of accidents and injuries could occur in a factory setting.
This means that factory accident compensation is not set in stone and depends on factors like:
- How many injuries you suffered.
- The nature and extent of those injuries.
- Their effect on your short and long-term quality of life.
For this reason, those responsible for figuring out compensation for factory accident claims might use different resources to inform their decision. For example, they may look at medical records to consider how exactly you were affected.
They may also look at the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). This document features guideline compensation brackets for many different physical and psychological injuries, many of which could be sustained in a factory accident.
We have included JCG figures in the table below to give a general idea of what compensation for different injuries could look like. Only the top entry does not use JCG guideline amounts.
If you don’t see your injury in the table or want to discuss your potential accident at work compensation in more detail, just call us today.
| Injury | Severity | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple Serious Injuries Plus Significant Financial Losses | Serious | Up to £500,000+ |
| Brain | Very Severe | £344,150 to £493,000 |
| Neck | Severe (ii) | £80,240 to £159,770 |
| Foot | Amputation of One Foot | £102,470 to £133,810 |
| Back | Severe (iii) | £47,320 to £85,100 |
| Eye | Total Loss of One Eye | £66,920 to £80,210 |
| Arm | Injuries Resulting in Permanent and Substantial Disablement | £47,810 to £73,050 |
| Facial Disfigurement | Significant Scarring | £21,920 to £59,090 |
| Shoulder | Serious | £15,580 to £23,430 |
| Ankle | Modest | Up to £16,770 |
Factory Accident Claims And No Win No Fee Agreements
The factory accident claims process can seem daunting, but one of our solicitors may be able to help you. Working with a solicitor comes with many benefits; for example, a solicitor can help you gather evidence and can offer more information on the amount of compensation you could receive.
One of our solicitors may offer their services to you under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). This is a kind of No Win No Fee arrangement, which means you won’t pay any upfront or ongoing fees to your solicitor for their work. Furthermore, if your claim fails, then you won’t pay your solicitor for their services.
If your claim succeeds, then your solicitor will deduct a success fee from your compensation award. This success fee is a small percentage that is capped by the law.
To find out if you could be eligible to work with one of our solicitors for your factory accident claim, contact our advisors today. They can offer a free evaluation and can help you identify whether you could be entitled to accident at work compensation.
Call Now for Free Advice On Factory Accident Claims
If you are ready to take the next step towards claiming compensation for an injury you have sustained whilst working in a factory, you should contact us today.
You can telephone us on 0800 073 8804, or use the webchat on this site to speak to us instantly. Or if you would prefer, you can use the contact form to send us your details, and we will arrange a free initial consultation session at a convenient time for you.
Contact us today about your factory accident claims, so that we can begin helping you to claim the compensation you are entitled to on a No Win No Fee basis.
Helpful Links
Slip Trip or Fall at Work Claims
Have you had a slip trip or fall at work? Find out how much compensation you can claim.
Compensation For a Slip Trip or Fall Claim
If you have had a trip at work or fall in a public place, click the link to find more.
Have you suffered from a back injury at work? Claim compensation today with help from our No Win No Fee services.
Other guides you might find useful:
- Learn more about Accident Claims Management services and get more help with the factory accident claims process.
- Find out how to make Electric Shock Accident Claims and learn how our solicitors could help you claim compensation.
- Find out how to claim if you suffered a scalded hand or other burn injuries due to a hot drink.
Thank you for reading our guide on factory accident claims.
