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An accident at work claim is a type of personal injury claim you could make if your employer failed to protect your health and safety, causing you to be injured. This could include an accident involving faulty equipment or inadequate training. If your claim succeeds, personal injury compensation may reflect your workplace injury and associated financial losses. Eligible claims could be handled by Accident Claims solicitors on a No Win No Fee basis.
A workplace injury can disrupt your everyday life and your ability to work. Pain may limit what you can do, while lost earnings can create financial pressure. Returning to the workplace can also feel daunting, particularly when the conditions that contributed to the accident remain on your mind.
Accident Claims’ solicitors have decades of combined experience and have secured more than £100 million in compensation for our clients. When assessing your claim, we’ll consider whether the safety measures in place were appropriate for the work you were doing and what the available evidence shows about the accident. For example, risk assessments may reveal whether a known danger was properly addressed, while an accident book entry can help establish how the incident was reported.
If you are unsure whether you can claim compensation, our free consultation gives you an opportunity to discuss what happened and understand your legal options.
4.8An accident at work claim is a type of personal injury claim made when someone is injured because appropriate measures were not in place to protect their health and safety while working. A successful claim can provide compensation for the injury and resulting financial losses.
Workplace accidents are not limited to jobs that are considered dangerous. Someone working in an office could be injured because of an unsafe environment, while factory or construction work may expose employees to very different hazards. Being injured at work does not by itself mean you have a workplace injury claim. There must be a connection between the failure to protect your health and safety and the injury you suffered.
Contact Accident Claims for a free consultation. We’ll help you understand whether you may have grounds to claim.
Yes, you could make an accident at work claim if your employer failed to take reasonable steps to protect your health, safety and welfare and this resulted in an accident and injury. To establish eligibility, the circumstances need to show that your employer failed to appropriately manage a workplace risk and that this failure caused you to be injured.
The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 sets out employers’ responsibilities for protecting employees at work. What an employer is expected to do will depend on the risks involved in the work. For example, this could mean providing suitable training for a task or ensuring that work equipment can be used safely.
When assessing whether you have grounds to make a compensation claim, our solicitors will compare what should have been done to manage the particular risk with what actually happened. This can involve establishing:
Your employer has responsibilities for workplace safety that require them to take reasonable steps to protect you from workplace hazards and reduce the risk of an accident at work. What this requires in practice depends on the work being carried out and the hazards employees may encounter.
Employers may need to:
Workplace safety may also need to be reviewed as equipment, working practices or other conditions change.
Understanding whether more should have been done to prevent your accident can be difficult. Contact us for a free consultation, and we’ll assess the circumstances and explain whether you may have grounds to claim compensation.
Accident Claims’ solicitors can help you claim workplace injury compensation by handling the legal and evidential work needed to build your case. If we take on your accident at work claim, we’ll establish what happened and negotiate a settlement in your best interest.
Legal support can be particularly valuable where an employer denies liability, several businesses were involved, or serious injuries make the long-term consequences more difficult to value.
Our workplace injury solicitors tailor their approach to the issues that need to be resolved. Throughout the claims process, we can:
Take the first step towards pursuing workplace injury compensation. Contact our team for a free consultation and let our solicitors handle the legal work while you focus on your recovery.
Workplace accidents that could lead to compensation include slips and falls, machinery accidents and manual handling accidents where inadequate workplace safety measures caused you to be injured. Whether you can claim compensation will depend on how the accident happened and what caused your injury.
Slips, trips and falls at work can result from spills or damaged flooring. How long the hazard existed and whether it had been reported may help establish how the accident occurred.
For example, an employee could slip on a leaking pipe that their employer knew about but had failed to repair, causing them to fracture their wrist.
Falls from height can cause serious injuries, while falling objects may injure employees working below. The equipment used and the organisation of the work may help establish the cause of the accident.
A construction worker could suffer a head injury after being struck by unsecured materials that fall from scaffolding above them.
Machinery accident claims may arise when equipment malfunctions or cannot be used safely. Its condition and the health and safety procedures governing its use may help establish why someone was injured.
A factory worker could suffer a hand injury when using machinery with a defective safety guard that exposes them to moving parts.
A manual handling injury could result from a single lifting accident or develop through repeated handling. How the task was performed may help establish the circumstances of a work-injury compensation claim.
A warehouse worker could suffer a back injury after being instructed to lift a heavy load without suitable manual handling training.
Workplace violence can cause physical or psychological injury where an employee is assaulted by a colleague or member of the public. The circumstances of the assault will influence the legal route available for seeking compensation.
For example, a security worker could be assaulted by a member of the public after their employer failed to implement appropriate measures despite previous incidents of violence.
Workplace vehicle accidents can involve collisions or workers being struck by moving vehicles. How traffic was organised around the site may help establish why the accident happened and support a claim for work injury compensation.
For example, a warehouse employee could suffer a leg injury after being struck by a forklift because pedestrian and vehicle routes had not been adequately separated.
Unsure which type of workplace accident claim applies to you? Contact Accident Claims for a free consultation, and we’ll assess what caused your injury and whether you may have grounds to claim compensation.
Yes, different types of workers could make an accident at work claim. Your working arrangement can affect who was responsible for your safety, so the reality of how the work was organised may matter more than your job title alone.
Agency workers, temporary workers, and zero-hours workers should not assume that their working arrangements prevent them from claiming.
For agency workers, responsibility may depend on the respective roles of the agency and the host business, including who controlled the work at the time of the accident.
Temporary and zero-hour workers are still owed the same duty of care by their employer to take reasonable steps to ensure their health and safety.
Yes, you could potentially claim if you were working for cash. How you are paid does not by itself determine your workplace rights or ability to pursue compensation. Instead, the actual working relationship and circumstances of the accident will need to be considered.
Self-employed workers could make an accident at work claim if another party was responsible for their health and safety and failed to take reasonable steps to protect them. For example, a self-employed construction worker could claim if a site operator provided defective equipment that caused them to suffer an injury.
Whether you can claim will depend on who controlled the relevant aspect of the work and who was responsible for managing the hazard that caused your accident.
Your employment status should not stop you from finding out whether you have grounds to claim. Contact us for a free consultation, and we’ll consider who was responsible for your safety in practice, helping you understand whether your working circumstances could support an accident at work claim.
Workplace accidents can cause injuries such as broken bones, head injuries and back injuries, as well as more severe harm including amputations and psychological injuries.
Injuries sustained at work can include:
The severity and longer-term consequences of your injuries will be important when determining how much compensation could be awarded.
A serious workplace injury such as a brain or spinal injury may require substantial rehabilitation or ongoing care. Some injured employees may also be unable to return to their previous occupation.
For serious injury claims, workplace accident compensation may need to reflect the longer-term consequences of the injury. This could include future loss of earnings and the cost of ongoing care where these losses result from the accident.
Where a workplace accident results in death, certain eligible parties may be able to pursue a fatal accident claim. Eligibility will depend on their relationship to the person who died and the circumstances of the workplace accident.
If you or a loved one has been affected by a serious or fatal workplace accident, contact our team for a free consultation.
How Much Compensation Could I Claim For An Accident At Work?
How much compensation you could receive for an accident at work claim will depend on the injuries you suffered and how they have affected your life and finances. The value can differ considerably between a short-term injury and one with permanent consequences.
When our solicitors value your claim, they will consider:
General damages compensate you for the pain, suffering and loss of amenity caused by your injury. To help estimate this part of a workplace injury claim, solicitors may use the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) alongside your medical evidence. The JCG sets out guideline compensation brackets according to the nature and severity of an injury.
The table below provides examples of JCG compensation brackets for injuries that could result from a workplace accident. The figures are intended as guidance only. Please be aware that the top entry has not been taken from the JCG.
| Injury | Severity | Compensation |
|---|---|---|
| A number of very severe injuries and special damages | Various very severe injuries and special damages including lost wages, private medical costs or professional or domestic care costs | Up to £1 million + |
| Head or Brain | Very Severe - where there will be some ability to follow basic commands but little, if any evidence of a meaningful response to environment | £372,570 to £533,720 |
| Leg amputations | Loss of Both Legs - where both legs have been lost above the knee, or one above the knee at a high level and one below the knee | £318,120 to £372,570 |
| Back injury | Severe (i) - the most severe back injuries including spinal cord damage or nerve root damage | £120,340 to £212,670 |
| Neck injury | Severe (i) - associated with incomplete paralysis with little to no movement in the neck | In the region of £195,970 |
| Arm amputation | Loss of One Arm (iii) – below the elbow amputation | £127,050 to £144,860 |
| Knee injury | Severe (ii) - a fracture of the leg that extends into the knee joint causing permanent ongoing pain, or impairing agility | £68,860 to £92,130 |
| Hand injury | Serious Hand Injuries - injuries that reduce the hand to 50% capacity | £38,310 to £81,790 |
| Shoulder injury | Severe - associated with neck injuries and brachial plexus damage | £25,370 to £63,450 |
| Psychiatric Harm | Moderate - marked improvement and a good prognosis | £7,740 to £25,190 |
Workplace accident compensation could cover financial losses caused by your workplace injury, including lost income, treatment costs and expenses arising from your recovery. These losses are known as special damages, and evidence is needed to show that they resulted from your accident at work and to calculate their value accurately.
As part of your accident at work claim, our solicitors can assess:
Accurate evidence helps demonstrate the full financial impact of your workplace accident rather than relying on estimates. Our solicitors can identify the evidence needed and calculate each recoverable loss so your work injury compensation claim reflects its supported financial consequences.
4.8After being injured at work, your immediate priority should be getting appropriate medical attention so your injuries can be assessed and treated. Medical records of the care you receive may also be used as evidence in your claim regarding the injuries you suffered.
Once you are able, practical steps can include:
You do not need to build the evidence for a potential claim yourself. A solicitor can identify what information is relevant and obtain additional records where necessary.
Yes, workplace accidents should be appropriately recorded where the relevant reporting requirements apply. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) states that employers must keep records of certain workplace injuries and incidents, while workplaces with more than 10 employees are required to keep an accident book on site.
An accident book entry can also become useful evidence if you later make a claim. It may help establish when the accident was reported and what was recorded about how it happened.
Certain workplace accidents and incidents must be reported to the HSE under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR). This includes certain work-related deaths, specified injuries, and dangerous occurrences.
The injured employee is generally not responsible for making the report. This normally falls to the employer or another relevant responsible person.
Contact our team for a free consultation, and our solicitors can assess the circumstances of your workplace accident and explain your options for pursuing compensation.
Yes, you could claim workplace injury compensation on a No Win No Fee basis with us here at Accident Claims if one of our solicitors agrees to take on your case. Eligible claims can be handled under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA), so you do not pay any upfront or ongoing solicitor’s service fees.
If your claim fails for any reason, you will not pay your solicitor’s service fees. If it succeeds, a legally capped percentage, known as a success fee, is deducted from your compensation.
Before you proceed, we’ll explain how the agreement works and what fees could apply, so you understand how a CFA works from the outset.
Getting clear advice can help you understand your options after a workplace accident. Contact Accident Claims for a free consultation, and we’ll assess whether you may have grounds to claim compensation.
Below, we answer some of the most common questions about an accident at work claim:
Compensation for an accident at work claim is commonly paid by the employer’s liability insurer rather than directly by the employer. Employers are required to have employers’ liability insurance to cover eligible workplace injury claims.
Yes, you could still claim if an accident at work was partly your fault, provided your employer was also responsible for the workplace accident and your injuries. If you contributed to the accident, your compensation may be reduced to reflect your share of responsibility.
Yes, you could claim if another employee caused your accident while carrying out their work. Your employer may be held responsible for their actions under the principle of vicarious liability.
Yes, you could make an accident at work claim while still working for the same employer. Remaining employed does not prevent you from pursuing compensation if you otherwise meet the eligibility requirements for a workplace injury claim.
No, you should not be sacked for making an accident at work claim simply because you have exercised your legal right to seek compensation. If you are concerned about dismissal or your treatment at work after claiming, you should seek specialist employment law advice.
Yes, you could claim for an accident while working from home if your employer failed to take reasonable steps to protect your health and safety and this caused you to be injured. Whether you can claim will depend on how the accident happened and your employer’s responsibility for the risk involved.
Yes, you may still be able to make an accident at work claim if your employer has gone out of business. Whether a claim can proceed will depend on the circumstances, including whether relevant employers’ liability insurance was in place at the time of the workplace accident.
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