Claim financial compensation

Accidents in the workplace can have a significant impact on the physical, mental and financial well being of those affected. If you have been injured at work as a result of negligence on the part of your employer, you could be entitled to financial compensation.

Smith Partnership's experienced personal injury solicitors have helped countless clients make a successful compensation claim, supporting their recovery in the process. Don't hesitate to contact our experts to see what we can do for you.

Can I Claim for an Accident at Work?

Employers are legally required to follow a variety of health and safety regulations designed to ensure maximum safety in the workplace. A failure to adequately implement these measures – for example as a result of negligence – can pave the way for workplace accidents to occur. As such, employers are expected to ensure that: 

  • Employees are properly trained to carry out the work expected of them
  • Safe work practices are adhered to
  • Risk assessments have been carried out
  • Workers are supplied with secure, functioning and protective equipment
  • Steps are taken to prevent, minimise or manage exposure to harmful substances
  • Materials are handled and stored in a safe manner 

The above list is not exhaustive, and employers are expected to implement a wide range of further measures to protect employees in the workplace. You may be able to make a claim for compensation if your employer has failed to do so adequately.

Examples of Workplace Accidents

Workplace accidents can take on many forms, common examples of which include:

  • Falls from height, for example from ladders or scaffolding
  • Accidents that occur when operating machinery, such as forklifts
  • Manual handling injuries, for example as a result of heavy lifting
  • Injuries related to the handling of hazardous substances or materials
  • Slips and trips
  • Injuries sustained due to faulty or defective equipment
  • Industrial injuries, such as exposure to asbestos

Whatever the cause may be, accidents that occur as a result of negligent conduct can have serious consequences. Aside from negatively impacting your health, they can also lead to lost earnings, medical bills and further expenses. A compensation claim can go a long way in compensating you for these losses.

How Much Compensation Can I Expect?

The amount of compensation varies greatly depending on the circumstances. The severity of your injuries and the financial losses which you have incurred are key factors in determining the extent of your compensation. 

Our legal team will assess your case and use their expertise to advise you on the likely amount of compensation you could be entitled to.

What We Can Do For You

Our partner-led personal injury team has extensive experience dealing with all manner of workplace accidents and diseases. We understand that the consequences of an injury can be very distressing, and we focus on making the process as straightforward as possible for you. 

This starts by providing you with expert legal advice in whichever way is most convenient to you, whether that be at our offices in Derby, Leicester, Stoke-on-Trent, Burton upon Trent and Swadlincote or at home.

We offer our clients peace of mind that their injury claims are in safe hands. Independently recognised by the Legal 500 and backed by many years of practical experience, our team works tirelessly to help you to try to return to normal life.

Offering No Win No Fee arrangements, we can help you secure compensation at little to no financial risk to you.

Contact our team today

To find out how our expert team of solicitors can help you, contact us today on 0330 123 1229, send us an email via info@smithpartnership.co.uk or complete our contact form.

FAQs

Yes, we will always offer you a free initial interview and free initial advice, even if we then conclude that we are unable to take your case on a ‘no win no fee’ basis. It will never cost you anything to seek initial advice from us and you have nothing to lose in doing so.

You should try to ensure that any accident or injury has been recorded by your employer in an accident book. You should then contact your solicitor as soon as possible to seek legal advice and you should write out a straightforward account of what happened while the events are still fresh in your mind. You may have a claim for this so long as under the law your accident has been caused or even partially caused by the negligence of your employer or by your employer’s breach of health & safety legislation. We can assess this at an early stage.

No, your compensation is tax free, although you can only recover loss of earnings net of income tax and national insurance.

This varies considerably depending on several factors, including how cooperative the defendant and their insurers are, and whether they are prepared to admit liability for your claim at an early stage, but also depending on your recovery period and length of time that it takes to obtain the full medical evidence to support your case. On average, and depending on these factors, most cases take anything between six months and three years to conclude, although complex cases can take longer than this if they proceed all the way to a court hearing.

A success fee is the element of legal costs that we are entitled to charge if we win the case, to compensation us for having taken a risk that we would not be paid if we had been unsuccessful, as not all of our costs are recoverable from the Defendant. It is the success fee that you are asked to contribute out of your compensation as we are no longer able to recover that element of legal fees from the defendant, even if we win the case, because of legal changes made by the government in 2013. The Success fee is capped at 25% but may be less depending on the risks associated with your claim and/or the amount of work we do to finalise it. 

Your claim will cost you nothing at all if we are unsuccessful as you will be protected from having to pay any legal costs in those circumstances. If we are successful with your claim, you will be asked to make a contribution towards your legal costs out of your compensation, but this deduction will be 25% (the Success Fee, see below for more information) and is to compensate us for the risk that if your claim was unsuccessful then we would not be paid at all. Your basic legal costs, if we are successful, are recovered from your opponent, but are capped dependant on the complexity and value of your claim.  If there are any legal costs not paid by your opponent, then they may be deducted from the compensation that you receive. We will discuss this with you beforehand, so that you know what to expect at the conclusion of your claim and will always strive to keep any deductions to your compensation to a minimum.