By Stephen Burke. Last Updated 3rd April 2024. Welcome to this guide that covers making an inadequate lighting compensation claim. Here, we look at how poor lighting or low lighting could cause accidents, and answer questions such as ‘can poor or inadequate lighting create a trip hazard?’ and ‘what are the effects of poor lighting on your health?’ We also explain how much compensation for personal injury caused by bad lighting could be, with an alternative to a compensation calculator. If you are intending to make slip, trip and fall claims for injuries sustained in an accident caused by poor lighting, we could help you claim for a fall if your are eligible to do so.
Accidents that happen due to poor lighting may be more common than you’d think. Whether it’s a fall down the stairs, inability to see a trip hazard, or poor lighting causing machinery to be misused, there are numerous things that can go wrong when you can’t see, and this can lead to a huge array of different injuries.
While it is common sense not to have to feel around in the dark, sometimes this is unavoidable, but if it could have been avoided and someone that should have done failed to light an area correctly, then it may be the case that you could seek compensation for accidents caused by poor and inadequate lighting.
In this guide, we at Accident Claims (0800 073 8801) will be taking you through the risk and hazards that often lead to accidents caused by poor and inadequate lighting, as well as the effect of poor lighting in the workplace, lighting in the workplace regulations, and all about poor lighting claims.
Select A Section
- What Is Poor And Inadequate Lighting?
- My Accident Was Caused By Poor Lighting, Can I Claim Compensation?
- Time Limit For Inadequate Lighting Claims
- Compensation For Personal Injury
- No Win No Fee Poor And Inadequate Lighting Accident Compensation Claims
- Helpful Guides And Further Information Regarding Inadequate Lighting Claims
What Is Poor Or Inadequate Lighting?
According to the HSE, there are minimum lighting conditions that need to be met for people to be able to work safely. These are as follows:
Illuminance that is on the task – This means that the relevant amount of detail can be seen. The level will be dependant on the speed and accuracy of work required as well as the age of the worker in question. Another thing that needs to be assessed is the amount of glare, as this will have an effect on the ability of a person to perform a task too.
The table below illustrates the light level that needs to be maintained in terms of averages and minimums.
| Type of Activity | Type of work | Illuminance (Average) in (lux)1x | Iluminance (Minimum) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vehicle, Machinery and People’s movement | Routes, car parks, corridor | 20 | 5 |
| As above but in dangerous areas (rough work) | Loading bay, site clearance/excavation, soil work, canning or bottling plants | 50 | 20 |
| Limited detail perception required | Potteries, factories (large components assembly), kitchens | 100 | 50 |
| More detail | Bookbinding, office work, sheet metal jobs | 200 | 100 |
| Fine Detail | Electronic component/small assembly, textile productions, drawing offices | 500 | 200 |
Obviously, this is only taking into account the light level needed to do the work at hand. Hazard perception should also be assessed and the HSE’s pdf shows many ways in which risk assessments should and can be undertaken to ensure that lighting conditions are met.
Out of the workplace, accidents caused by poor and inadequate lighting can be deemed the defendant’s fault if you were unable to see hazards, as they failed to install or maintain an adequate level of lighting for you to be safe. Please feel free to call us if you’d like to know more about poor lighting claims.
My Accident Was Caused By Poor Lighting, Can I Claim Compensation?
If you were injured in an accident that was caused by poor lighting, you may be wondering whether you could claim compensation for your injuries. In order to have a valid personal injury claim, you will need to prove:
- Someone owed you a duty of care.
- They breached this duty.
- This breach caused you to suffer an injury.
You are owed a duty of care in various settings. For example, while in public places such as restaurants and shops, the occupier of that space owes you a duty of care under the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957. They must take all steps to ensure your reasonable safety while visiting that space. If they fail to do so, and you suffer an injury as a result, you may be eligible to make a public liability claim.
Additionally, while you are working and in the workplace, you are owed a duty of care by your employer under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Your employer must take reasonably practicable steps to help prevent you from coming to harm and ensure your safety while working. If they fail to adhere to their duty of care, you could be injured in an accident and may be able to make a compensation claim.
To see whether you may have a valid personal injury claim, you can contact one of the advisors on our team.
Time Limit For Inadequate Lighting Claims
The Limitation Act 1980 establishes that there is a three-year time limit for starting a personal injury claim for injuries caused by an accident due to inadequate lighting. This time limit usually applies from the date of your accident.
Under some circumstances, the time limit for claiming can work differently. If a child has been injured due to poor lighting, then the time limit will be suspended until the day they turn 18 years old. A claim could be brought forward on the child’s behalf by a litigation friend during this time. If this doesn’t happen, then the time limit will start for the injured party on the day they turn 18.
The time limit for claiming will be frozen indefinitely if the injured party lacks the mental capacity to start a claim on their own. A litigation friend could claim instead on the injured party’s behalf. If this doesn’t occur and the injured party later recovers their mental capacity, then they will have three years to start their own claim beginning from the day of recovery.
For more advice on inadequate lighting claims and the requirements for starting one, please get in touch with our advisors for free today.
Compensation For Personal Injury
When determining how much compensation could be appropriate for an injury caused by bad lighting, the following factors could be assessed:
- The type and severity of the injury caused by bad lighting
- The long term impact
- The financial impact
- How the injury has impacted the person psychologically
If you want to know how much compensation for personal injury caused by bad lighting you could receive, you might have searched for a compensation calculator. However, instead of a compensation calculator we have provided a table with different compensation brackets in the section below.
You could receive a settlement that comprises general and special damages. General damages seek to compensate for the pain and suffering of your injuries.
The figures in the table below come from the Judicial College Guidelines. The guidelines include compensation brackets that relate to different injuries. Solicitors and other legal professionals can use these to help them value the general damages portion of claims.
This can be used as a compensation calculator. However, please only use the figures as a guide because compensation for a personal injury can differ depending on the specific circumstances of your case.
Please note that the first entry in this table is an estimated figure that is not based on the Judicial College Guidelines.
| Type/Severity | Further information | Common award bracket |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple Serious Injuries Plus Special Damages | If you’ve sustained multiple serious injuries due to an accident caused by inadequate lighting, then you may be compensated for all of these plus related special damages, such as loss of earnings. | Up to £500,000+ |
| Neck Injuries – Severe (a) (i) | Permanent damage that means little to no movement of the neck is possible | In the region of £148,330 |
| Back Injuries – Severe (a) (i) | The most severe injuries to the back | £91,090 to £160,980 |
| Leg injuries – Serious (b)(iii) | Severe/Multiple fractures, leaving the leg immobile long-term | £39,200 to £54,830 |
| Arm fractures – Serious (b) | Reduced function long term, often from multiple fractures | £39,170 to £59,860 |
| Toe Amputation (b) | Amputation of the big toe | In the region of £31,310 |
| Hand Injuries – Serious (e) | Less than half the usual function remains | £29,000 to £61,910 |
| Foot injuries – Serious (e) | Reduced function permanently, often from serious fractures | £24,990 to £39,200 |
| Wrist injury – Serious (b) | Injuries causing permanent disability but where some movement remains. | £24,500 to £39,170 |
| Finger Injuries (k) | Serious injury to ring or middle fingers | £10,320 to £16,340 |
Special damages compensate for the financial losses incurred as a result of your injuries. For example, you could claim back:
- Loss of earnings
- Medical expenses
- Travel expenses
However, you will need to provide evidence, such as receipts or payslips to claim these losses back.
If you would like further guidance on how much compensation could be appropriate for your claim, please call us. We could give you further guidance over the phone.
No Win No Fee Poor And Inadequate Lighting Accident Compensation Claims
One of our specialist solicitors could help you with making a personal injury claim for an accident that was caused by poor and inadequate lighting, provided that you meet the eligibility requirements.
Additionally, our solicitors generally offer to represent their clients on a No Win No Fee basis through a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). When claiming with a solicitor under a CFA, you will not need to pay them for their services prior to the claim starting or while it is underway. You also will not need to pay them for their work should the claim fail.
If the claim succeeds, your solicitor will take a success fee from you. This fee is taken directly from your compensation as a small and legally limited percentage.
Contact Our Team
If you have any questions about starting a personal injury claim, or if you would like to know whether you may be eligible to claim with one of our No Win No Fee solicitors, you can contact our advisors. Contact them today by:
- Calling 0800 073 8801
- Using our live chat.
- Contacting us online.
Helpful Guides And Further Information
We do realise that you may have cause to do a little more digging into poor and inadequate lighting before making a personal injury claim, as well as other injuries you might have received. We do hope the links help below.
Injuries to the head – Head injuries are complex, and when they happen, they can leave devastating circumstances. Our guide explains more.
Injuries (Head) NHS – As well as our guide, read the NHS guide to this kind of injury.
Claims for working accidents – We mentioned work accidents in the guide above, but for more information, you can always read the guide here.
HSE Workplace – The HSE page on workplace accidents can be found here.
Pavement Accidents – Accidents on the pavements can happen for a variety of reasons – find out more about these here.
Thanks for reading our guide about starting poor lighting claims and inadequate lighting claims.