Claiming Compensation For A Work-Related Injury

By Lewis Hendrix. Last Updated 27th July 2023. If you’ve suffered a work-related injury in the UK from an incident you weren’t liable for, you may be able to claim compensation.

Your personal injury claim can be successful if you’re able to prove that your injury was caused by employer negligence.

Work related injury who pays my claim guide

Work related injury who pays my claim guide

However, this still raises the question of “When receiving compensation for a work-related injury, who pays?”

This guide will answer that question as well as other important ones, such as:

  • What are the benefits of using a No Win No Fee personal injury lawyer?
  • What happens if you get injured at work?
  • Can I be sacked for having an accident at work?
  • How do I claim for an accident at work?
  • Do I get paid if I get injured at work?
  • What is my injury at work rights?
  • What is the personal injury claims time limit?

You can get free legal advice from our advisors 24/7 so, if you have any questions or queries, such as wanting to know if you’re eligible to claim, please get in touch.

Read on to discover how you can claim compensation for an injury at work in the UK and how a personal injury solicitor could help you.

Select A Section

  1. What Is A Work-Related Injury?
  2. Employers Health And Safety Duty Of Care
  3. Your Employers Responsibilities
  4. Why Do Employers Need Liability Insurance?
  5. What Happens When Employers Are Uninsured?
  6. What Are Your Rights If Injured In The Workplace?
  7. Calculating Work-Related Injury Settlements And Who Pays
  8. Special Damages
  9. No Win No Fee Work-Related Injury Claims
  10. Talk To An Expert
  11. Useful Resources
  12. How Many Injuries Are There In The Workplace?

What Is A Work-Related Injury?

A work-related injury or illness is one you’ve suffered within your place of work or while working. Whether you can claim or not purely depends on who was liable for the injury. If it was your error that caused the injury, you wouldn’t be able to claim. However, if you feel like your employer was responsible for your injury, you may be able to make a personal injury claim.

Examples of a work-related injury in the UK that you may be able to claim include:

  • Falling off a ladder due to it being faulty. This could lead to you suffering from multiple injuries, such as a spinal fracture and a crushed foot.
  • A slip, trip or fall caused by issues with the work environment. For example, you could slip on a wet floor due to there being no warning signs present.
  • Tripping on exposed wire.

If a workplace incident has badly injured you, you may be unable to work, which could be a strain on your entire family. In some cases, the effects of the injury could be permanent, meaning that you might be unable to return to work at all. Should your claim be successful, the compensation you receive will account for how badly the injury has disrupted and disturbed your everyday life.

Employers Health And Safety Duty Of Care

You may be wondering, “I was injured at work, what are my rights?” This section and the ones further below will help answer this. We’ll start by confirming your employer’s duty of care and how that relates to you.

As mentioned above, making a successful personal injury claim means proving that third party negligence resulted in your injury. There are three requirements for you to be able to prove negligence.

  1. The third-party you’re claiming against needs to have a duty of care to you.
  2. They need to have breached this duty of care.
  3. This breach needs to have resulted in your injury.

Your employer has a duty of care to every employee that works under them. This is established in the Health and Safety At Work etc. Act 1974. Below, we will describe their responsibilities in greater detail and how this links to their duty of care potentially being breached.

Your Employers Responsibilities

So, your employer has a responsibility to make sure that the workplace is safe and secure to a reasonably practicable degree. This means that all of its facilities need to be able to be used without causing pain and suffering to employees. Employers also need to make sure that employees are trained sufficiently to use the tools and facilities without causing undue harm to themselves or others.

Other examples of their responsibilities include:

  • Providing you with personal safety and protective equipment to be able to perform your role safely. This includes things like safety goggles.
  • Informing you of potential safety risks.
  • Rick assessing not only the working environment but also the job roles.

Your employer’s duty of care is a legal requirement, meaning that they need to fulfil the necessary obligations within it. If they don’t adhere to their duty of care, and you are injured because of this, you could claim due to negligence. So, for instance, if they provide you with insufficient safety goggles and you injure yourself as a result, you can claim because they have been negligent.

If you have any queries about personal injury claims, such as wondering with a work-related injury who pays the compensation, please get in touch. Our experienced advisors offer free legal advice and are available 24/7. You can contact them using the phone number at the top of this page.

Why Do Employers Need Liability Insurance?

You may be concerned that, by making a personal injury claim against your employer, you might be putting your employer at financial risk. However, this will most likely not be the case because it is a legal requirement for them to have Employers’ liability (EL) insurance.

Employers’ liability insurance insures them in case an employee becomes ill or suffers an injury they are liable for. There are two requirements to the policy they need to take out:

  1. It needs to cover them for at least £5 million.
  2. The policy must come with an authorised insurer.

With your employer requiring this, it means that you shouldn’t be worried about seeking accident at work compensation from them. This means that if you make a successful claim for a work-related injury, who pays will be the insurer.

What Happens When Employers Are Uninsured?

This usually isn’t the case, as generally, employers are legally required to have EL insurance. They can be fined for not having it. This is because, in relation to you suffering an injury at work, your rights include making a claim.

If they don’t have insurance, you may be wondering, “if I’ve suffered a work-related injury who pays?” The answer is the employer if they are liable for the injury. If you caused the injury they would not be required to pay you compensation. This is why it’s within their best interests to have insurance. It takes the pressure of paying compensation to employees in successful personal injury claims.

If you’d like to see if you’re eligible to claim or if you’d like a reliable compensation estimate over the phone, our advisors can help. Call them today for free legal advice using the phone number above.

What Are Your Rights If Injured In The Workplace?

Regarding suffering a work-related injury, you may have questions like, “do I get full pay if injured at work?” and “what happens if you get injured at work?” This section will help answer these questions.

After an accident you should:

  1. Seek medical attention upon the injury occurring.
  2. Record the details. If you have a work-related illness or injury, ensure that your employer is aware of this. If the company has more than 10 employees they must have an accident log book. In the case of an accident, you should record it in the accident book in a way that, from your perspective, satisfactorily reflects how the incident occurred.
  3. Confirm the amount of sick pay you could receive. Your employer may pay you full sick pay if you have time off work for being ill or injured. Whether you receive full pay or not depends on the nature of your employment contract. Alternatively, all employees are entitled to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) for up to 28 weeks.
  4. Take the time you need to recover. This will ultimately benefit both you and your employer as it means you’ll be able to return to work performing full duties sooner.
  5. You have the right to make a personal injury claim if you are injured because your employer has been negligent. We are often asked… “Can I be sacked for having an accident at work?” If you have made an honest claim you cannot be sacked for making a personal injury claim against your employer. The employer is legally not allowed to do this.

What if I’m an agency worker? 

Your rights as an agency worker are slightly different. To get the same rights as permanent staff members, you need to have worked the role for 12 weeks (60 working days). If you’re on sick leave, the days you’re off won’t count towards this. For more information about being an agency worker, please refer to the Government website.

Calculating Work-Related Injury Settlements And Who Pays

We’ve provided information regarding work-related injury and who pays. However, you also might not be aware of the kind of things you can claim for when you’re looking to claim for compensation.

There are two potential heads of claim when making any personal injury claim.

  • General damages relate to the physical and psychological pain caused by the injury, as well as the general decline in your quality of life.
  • Special damages, meanwhile, relate to the financial losses suffered due to the injury.

They are both calculated independently based on the evidence provided. This means that if you receive compensation for general damages, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll receive special damages compensation. But to receive special damages you must qualify for general damages.

Concerning general damages, the Judicial College has spent years analysing payouts regarding different types of injuries in relation to their severity. Therefore, they’ve built reliable compensation brackets that help indicate what you could receive should your claim be successful. We use these brackets so we can provide you with useful information regarding potential compensation.

Below is a list of injuries and their respective compensation brackets. The Judicial College provided these figures.

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Area of Injury Amount of Compensation Description
Brain £140,870 to £205,580 Injuries in this bracket include moderate to severe intellectual deficit, a change in personality, sight, speech and senses being negatively affected with a substantial risk of epilepsy and no prospect of employement.
Back £69,600 to £82,980 This bracket is for injuries resulting in symptoms like nerve root damage, mobility impairment, sexual difficulties and unsightly scarring.
Chest £94,470 to £140,870 The worst-case scenarios in this bracket will involve the total removal of one lung and/or significant heart damage with prolonged pain and suffering.
Shoulder £11,980 to £18,020 Injuries in this bracket include a dislocated shoulder and lower brachial plexus damage resulting in neck and shoulder pain.
Injuries to Pelvis and Hips £58,100 to £73,580 Injuries in this bracket include complex ones such as pelvis fracture dislocation resulting in impotence and traumatic myositis ossificans with formation of ectopic bone around the hip.
Arm £90,250 to £102,890 Below-elbow amputation through the forearm that may cause lasting symptoms such as phantom pains.
Bladder £21,970 to £29,380 The injury in this bracket will result in an almost complete recovery with some fairly prolonged interference regarding natural function.
Elbow £36,770 to £51,460 A severely disabling injury.
Wrist £11,820 to £22,990 This bracket includes injuries that result in some form of disability that causes continuous stiffness and pain.
Knee £13,920 to £24,580 Injuries in this bracket include torn cartilage causing minor instability, dislocation, weakness, wasting or other mild future disabilities.

You may, however, want a more accurate compensation estimate for your injury, whether it be a fractured toe or a broken leg. So we can do this for you, please get in touch. Our advisors offer free legal advice, are available 24/7 and use a personal injury claims calculator over the phone to give you as accurate an estimate as possible. Call us today using the phone number above.

Special Damages 

Special damages relate to the financial losses caused by the injury. If you’re suffering from injuries requiring long-term treatment, such as a serious eye injury, or ones that permanently affect your ability to work, such as hand-arm vibration syndrome, claiming for financial losses can be very important.

The kind of things you can claim for include:

  • Loss of earnings
  • Loss of future earnings
  • Travel expenses
  • Medical costs, such as prescriptions
  • Care costs, such as needing a care bed or a nurse
  • Recreational activities that you’re now unable to attend

However, to claim for these successfully, you need to provide evidence of the losses. This can come in the form of receipts, bank statements and invoices. If you’re unable to provide these, you may not receive compensation for special damages.

You might also be unsure about the personal injury claims time limit. You need to begin the claims process within 3 years or within 3 years of being made aware of the injury. The latter option is if, for example, if you’ve suffered from a lung disease caused by asbestos. You may not be aware of such an injury until years after the damage began.

No Win No Fee Work-Related Injury Claims

If you have suffered an injury that is work related, our accident at work solicitors could assist you during the personal injury claims process. They could help you collect evidence and ensure your claim is submitted within the time limit.

Furthermore, they may offer to represent you on a No Win No Fee basis with a Conditional Fee Agreement. Under this agreement, they usually won’t ask for any payment upfront or whilst your claim is ongoing for their services. Furthermore, they won’t charge you for their work at all if your claim is unsuccessful.

Should our solicitors help you secure workplace injury compensation, they’ll take a success fee from your award. The percentage they can deduct as this success fee is legally capped.

To find out if you could be eligible to work with one of our solicitors for your work-related injury claim, you can contact our advisors.

Talk To An Expert 

Useful Resources 

For more useful information, please use the links below.

Do you think you’ve suffered from a broken bone? If so, and you’d like more guidance, please visit the NHS website.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) provide information about work-related fatal injuries in the UK.

They also offer guidance about safety concerning manual handling jobs.

If you’ve suffered from a fractured collarbone at work, click on our website to see if you can claim.

Suffered an injury to your radial forearm? If so, click here.

More Useful Compensation Guides

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