Work accidents
Your immediate concern if you have been involved in an accident at work may be: “If I make a claim will I lose my job?”.
The answer to this is: “No” – all employers are required by law to have insurance in place to pay any compensation.
If you were subsequently dismissed as a direct result of making a claim for compensation for injuries, you would have another legitimate claim.
What sorts of accidents at work is it possible to claim for?
- Construction site claims
- Factory accident claims
- Fall at work claims (e.g. poor lighting leading to a fall on stairs)
- Fish farm accident claims
- Forklift accident claims
- Hotel work accident claims and kitchen accidents
- Office accident claims (e.g defective office equipment including collapsing chairs and malfunctioning machinery; cluttered offices leading to injury (cables on floors and loose wires)
- Slips and trips at work
- Supermarket work accident claims
What should you do first?
The first step is to make sure you obtain early legal advice.
Often, crucial evidence can be lost from the scene of the accident if urgent action is not taken.
If possible, take photographs of the scene of the accident.
Make sure the accident is entered into the accident book at your place of work (and if you are no longer at work ask a colleague to make sure that this happens).
Your employer has a duty to record the facts of the accident.
Intimation of claim and investigation by insurers
We will first make contact with your employer who will then pass the letter of claim to their insurance company.
The insurer will then investigate the facts of the accident to see whether they should accept responsibility for your accident on your employer’s behalf.
Three months or so to investigate your claim
The insurance company generally has three months to investigate the accident before they must inform us whether they accept or dispute the claim.
Even if they state that they dispute it at that stage, in most cases we take on, settlement will be agreed at a later date once they have carried out further enquiries.
Gathering evidence to back up your claim
To succeed with a claim for compensation for a work accident, we will have to establish that your employer failed in their duty of care to protect you whilst you were at work.
We will obtain statements from other employees and use photographic evidence to prove this.
We will also investigate any earlier examples of similar accidents.
Medical evidence
In addition to evidence to prove that your employer has caused the accident, we will get medical evidence to confirm that the accident led to the injuries you sustained.
This evidence may be from a General Practitioner but, in cases of more serious injury (which is most cases), will be from a suitable hospital consultant.
What makes up your claim
In addition to your claim for injuries, you can also claim for other incidental expenses including:
- Earnings lost as a result of your inability to work
- Private medical treatment for your injuries
- Travel costs (to treatment etc)
- Any other losses or expenses you have incurred that were caused by the accident
Settling your claim
When all evidence has been obtained and your medical condition has stabilised, we will look to settle your claim for you.
We will seek offers in settlement from the insurance company and most of the time a negotiated settlement will be achieved without the need for a court hearing.
Even if a court hearing date is fixed, the majority of work accident claims will settle before the date of the hearing.
Contact us for help
Grigor & Young have specialist work accident claims solicitors waiting to help you.
We will provide free initial advice, without obligation.
For further information and a free initial chat, contact Peter Brash or Marie Morrison on 01343 544077 or complete and send us a FREE, no-obligation Online Enquiry.
Note that there is more information about the above matters to be found on our Moray Claims website.