Personal Injury Claims

Accidents at Work Claims

Here to guide you through

Accidents can happen in any part of your life, but when they occur in the workplace, they often bring many added complications.

The team at Browell Smith & Co Solicitors has many years of experience specialising in seeking No Win No Fee compensation for employed people injured at work. It is often difficult for an employee to pursue his/her employer for compensation. Nevertheless, the experienced Browell Smith & Co team can guide you, successfully, through this process.

If you, or anyone else you know, has been involved in an accident at work and suffered an injury, or illness as a result, please do not hesitate to contact the team at Browell Smith & Co Solicitors for clear advice.

Contact our expert team today to arrange a free initial consultation at any of our offices, in Newcastle, Cramlington, Ashington, and Sunderland, or alternatively at your home, to discuss your particular requirements.

Dawn Bagley

Solicitor - Director of Personal Injury & Medical Negligence

Kathryn Shingles

Associate Solicitor - Personal Injury

Hayley Watson

Legal Clerk - Personal Injury

John Muxworthy

Costs Director and Solicitor

Kirsty Dockerty

Legal Clerk - Personal Injury & Medical Negligence

Lauren Gray

Legal Clerk - Personal Injury

Duties of the employers

Employers are subject to the Common Law and enshrined in many laws enacted by Parliament over the years, as well as following Directives of the EU. Consequently, employers have a duty to do all they reasonably can to prevent employees from suffering injuries or illness caused by negligence or breach of statutory duty within the workplace.

When an employer fails to do this, resulting in an injury that was not the employee’s fault, then the employee is entitled to bring a claim for damages against the employer and its insurer.

Types of injuries you could face at work

Such accidents can arise for a number of reasons including (but not exclusively):

  • Faulty equipment
  • Lack of personal protective equipment
  • Poor system of work/inappropriate supervision/breach of manual lifting regulations
  • Exposure to dangerous substances resulting in injury or illness
  • Failure to maintain a workplace in safe conditions
  • Falls from heights
  • Negligence of a fellow employee/third party or even assault by a fellow employee

Making an injury at work claim

It is important to obtain expert legal advice in relation to any type of accident at work to ensure that the appropriate duties and obligations on both the employer’s and employee’s sides are fully considered and the appropriate level of compensation is recovered where possible.

At Browell Smith & Co we know that each accident affects the individual in a unique way and for this reason each compensation case is very different. Some are settled within a matter of months, others can take years. The important factor is that we achieve the compensation deserved and put you back in the position you were in before your accident.

Are there time limits when making an accident at work claim?

As with all claims for personal injury compensation there are strict time limits within which a claim must be lodged with the Court. For accident claims, court proceedings must be started within three years from the date of your accident.

For occupational disease cases court proceedings must be started within three years from the date when you first had reasonable grounds to believe that you may be suffering from a condition which has been caused by a third party. This may be your employer or it could be another organisation with whom you worked, as a contractor, or who operated in premises close by.

In the event that court proceedings are not started within three years from the relevant date, the negligent party may be able to escape paying compensation on the basis that your claim is out of time.

The law surrounding the time limits for industrial disease compensation is extremely complex and issues will differ from case to case, particularly when seeking compensation on behalf of a former family member. It is not always necessary to have a firm diagnosis from a medical practitioner for the time limit to commence. In these circumstances you must seek legal advice from a specialist as soon as possible, delay will damage your claim.

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