Accidents at work are extremely common, with roughly 118,000 injury claims made per year in the UK. These cases can range from repetitive strain injury to serious work related accidents.
If you feel that you have been injured at work through no fault of your own, you should seek legal representation to help get financial compensation.
Workers are often worried about making insurance claims against their employers as they feel it may jeopardise their job security as well as their relationship with their employer. This shouldn’t be the case as your employer is responsible for the safety of the workforce and you may well be able to sue for unfair dismissal if a claim gets you in hot water with the boss.
If the accident occurred as a result of another employee, you are also liable to make a claim under vicarious liability.
If you’re injured at work, you should immediately contact your supervisor or manager and get them to log it in the accident report book that all employers are legally required to have. This will be essential in validating your claim further down the line. Be sure to note down all the details of the accident in as much detail as possible.
If there were any witnesses at the time of the accident, it’s important that you ask them to make a statement as this can make the claiming process much easier. Some employees may be reluctant to report against your employer and that is something you have to respect.
You should then have your injuries examined by a doctor who can then decide how you need to be treated. If you can, ask your medical practitioner for a letter outlining the injuries sustained to help support your insurance claim.
A successful insurance claim against an employer will depend on being able to conclusively prove that the injuries you sustained were of no fault of your own. This can be especially difficult with things like mesothelioma compensation claims, where significant sums are often sought, because it can take years for the illness to develop.
You should not worry about this affecting your job, your employer is fully insured and is not allowed to make you redundant as they will be faced with further legal action for unfair dismissal. Your employer, if anything, should be understanding of the injury and help you in making your claim. There are many specialist injury lawyers that can help you with your claim so be sure to research into which firm is the best at handling cases similar to yours.