How To Claim Compensation For An Accident At Work That Wasn't Your Fault

If you were injured in an accident at work that wasn’t your fault because your employer failed to take reasonable steps to provide a safe working environment, you could be entitled to make an accident at work claim for compensation. Health and safety legislation gives protections and rights to employees. One of these rights is a working environment where risks to their health and safety are properly controlled.

Accident at work that wasn’t your fault claim guide

This guide will explain more about employer responsibilities and the pieces of legislation that outline them. It will explain how an employer can be found liable for an accident, summarise the evidence you can gather to prove liability and how compensation awarded in claims is calculated.

However, if you would rather speak to someone about your situation or to enquire about making a claim, you can speak to one of our advisers now.

They can be reached via:

The number at the top of the page
The form on our contact page
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Choose A Section

Can You Claim For An Accident At Work That Wasn’t Your Fault?
Types Of Accidents At Work
How Should You Respond To An Accident At Work?
Valuing Compensation For An Accident At Work That Wasn’t Your Fault
Should You Look To Appoint A No Win No Fee Solicitor?
Extra Details About Claiming For An Accident At Work That Wasn’t Your Fault

Can You Claim For An Accident At Work That Wasn’t Your Fault?

A duty of care is in place while you are at work. This is a responsibility placed on your employer to ensure your and your colleague’s health and safety while in the workplace. Your employer is expected to look for and manage risks related both to the physical work environment and the task you’ll be carrying out.

The duty is established in several pieces of health and safety legislation, with the central one being the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HASAWA). If your employer breached this duty by not doing enough to provide a safe working environment, and you were injured as a result, then your employer could be found liable for the injury in a personal injury claim. As a result, they may have to pay you compensation.

There are also other considerations to bear in mind, such as how long you have to claim for an accident at work. You can call our team for more information on the time limit that applies.

If you have a valid claim, they could connect you with a No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel.

Work Accident Statistics 2022

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) requires employers to report various accidents and injuries under Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR).

In each year from 2015 to 2021 slips, trips and falls have been the most common kind of accident and the back has been the most commonly reported site of injury according to reports made under RIDDOR.

Types Of Accidents At Work

Actions to identify risks to an employee’s work, alongside steps to manage them, can help prevent accidents and injuries in the workplace. For example –

Performing risk assessments over areas of work. Risk assessments over an area of work can help an employer identify and avoid potential hazards. A risk assessment could identify a broken or loose step in stairways and help prevent an injury from a trip and fall.
Performing risk assessments over tasks. Before asking employees to perform a task, a risk assessment should be performed to try and identify potential hazards that carrying it out might entail. A risk assessment could identify the dangers of repeatedly carrying out a manual handling task and, as a result, the duty could be shared amongst a number of employees, reducing the risk of a manual handling injury.
Maintaining good housekeeping. For example, clutter should be stored clear of walkways and spills that could cause slips and trips should be cleaned up in a reasonable timeframe.
Providing training. Providing training on how to carry out potentially harmful tasks can help avoid injuries. Before asking an employee to use machinery, free training could ensure that employees are informed on proper procedures. Untrained staff can injure themselves, or others, using machinery they are unfamiliar with.

HASAWA encourages employers to take these or similar actions to reduce the risk of harm in the workplace. You can assess whether your employer might have breached their duty of care, by asking what reasonable actions your employer could have taken to prevent your accident.

For more information about employer liability and claiming for an accident at work that wasn’t your fault, why not reach out to one of our advisers? If you have a valid claim, they could pass your case to a solicitor from our panel.

How Should You Respond To An Accident At Work?

Seek out medical attention if you have suffered an injury in an accident. It can let you know more about your condition. Furthermore, medical records can be used as evidence in a claim. An independent medical assessment can also be requested to generate a report. If you work with a lawyer from our panel, they might be able to arrange this in your general area.

To strengthen your claim, you can gather evidence of what led to the accident. This can come in the form of:

Witness accounts: Collect the contact details of witnesses who can provide testimonies. This can be a colleague that witnessed your accident or a witness to your employer not carrying out required health and safety procedures.
CCTV or similar recordings like photographs: If the incident was caught on CCTV, then you can request this footage. You can use this in support of your claim.
An accident book report: All workplaces with 10 or more employees must have an accident book on-site as a legal requirement. If you’re injured in an accident at work, then you can fill this out and use it as evidence in your claim.

A personal injury solicitor can offer you specific information on the evidence you can use in your claim for harm caused by an accident at work that wasn’t your fault, and help you collect it. You can talk to one of our advisers now to see if one from our panel could represent you.

Valuing Compensation For An Accident At Work That Wasn’t Your Fault

When you make a claim for compensation after an accident at work that wasn’t your fault, your settlement can consist of up to two heads of claim.

General damages is the amount of compensation awarded for the pain and suffering the injury has caused you. The Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) can be used by legal professionals to help value the general damages head of a claim. It is a publication containing guideline settlement brackets based on cases that have been resolved in court in the past.

We’ve included a table below including some figures from the JCG;

Injury	Notes	Award
Minor Brain or Head Injury	Minimal to no brain damage	£2,210 to £12,770
Minor Eye Injuries	That temporarily causes pain or interferes with vision	£3,950 to £8,730
Kidney Injury: (a)	Permanent damage to or loss of both kidneys	£169,400 to £210,400
Bowel Injury: (b)	Loss of bowel function	Up to £150,110
Bladder Injury: (b)	Complete loss of function and bladder control	Up to £140,660
Neck Injury: Moderate (i)	Fractures or dislocations that impair neck function	£24,990 to £38,490
Back Injury: Moderate (ii)	Disturbed muscles and ligaments	£12,510 to £27,760
Shoulder Injury: Serious	Dislocation of the joint affecting hand use	£12,770 to £19,200
Leg Injuries: Less Serious Leg Injuries (i)	Fracture injuries with an incomplete recovery	£17,960 to £27,760
Achilles Tendon: Minor	Turning of the ankle that affects the tendon	£7,270 to £12,590

Special damages are the amount of compensation awarded for any financial losses suffered because of the injury. These could be

A loss of income
Expenses towards treatment/care
Modifications made to a house to cope with the injury

Maintain financial records of how the injury is affecting you. These could be receipts or payslips (as proof of loss of income). You can use this as evidence in a claim.

For more information about the compensation you could recieve for suffering an injury in a work accident that wasn’t your fault, why not reach out to one of our advisers? They offer free legal advice and could potentially value your claim.

Should You Look To Appoint A No Win No Fee Solicitor?

While you do not need legal representation to make a work accident claim, enlisting a solicitor can be beneficial. They can offer experienced help and guide you through every process of the claim.

You can seek out a solicitor offering a No Win No Fee arrangement to represent you. Under the arrangement, your solicitor would not charge you an upfront fee or ongoing fees to represent you. This can take away any concerns you might have about being able to afford a solicitor.

Their payment would only be taken on the condition that your claim was successful and compensation for a workplace accident was awarded; in this case, they’d deduct a success fee. If your claim was not successful, there would be no success fee to pay.

Our panel of personal injury solicitors handle work accident claims and could represent you. You can reach out to one of our advisers to discuss making a claim with them.

Claim Compensation After An Accident At Work That Wasn’t Your Fault

If you wish to make a claim for suffering an injury in a work accident that wasn’t your fault, you can reach out to one of our advisers. They offer free legal advice and can evaluate your claim over an initial consultation.

You can contact them using:

The number at the top of the page
The form on our contact page
Our Live Chat feature

Extra Details About Claiming For An Accident At Work That Wasn’t Your Fault

For other additional information you might need:

How to access Statutory Sick Pay
A resource page for pay and work rights complaints
How to report a health and safety issue

We’ve also included more of our guides below:

Thank you for reading our guide on making a claim for an accident at work that wasn’t your fault. You can reach out to our advisers for any more information you might need,