In this article I want to address work accident claims and some of the issues that your solicitor will want to know in order to effectively prosecute a successful claim on your behalf against your employer.
One of the biggest concerns expressed by injured employees that come to see me for help is the possible repercussions, if they were to pursue a work accident claim against their employer, on their continued employment.
Many of these fears however are largely unfounded, because the reality is that claims for personal injury claim aren't dealt with by the employer but by the employer's Liability Insurers. When an employer receives notification of a potential claim, the details of that claim are simply passed on to their insurers, who manage the claim on their behalf.
If you're contemplating a work accident claim for ill-health or injury, your solicitor will want to understand the background to the accident and the nature of the tasks that you carried out in order to assess the likely cause of the accident and whether there is sufficient evidence that the employer was at fault.
Your solicitor will therefore require information about your employment and your employer, such as the size and location of the business, the nature of the work that it carries out, the number of employees it engages, the nature of the tasks that you undertake and details of the process which gave rise to the accident or incident for which you're seeking compensation.
Once your solicitor has a good understanding of the working environment, he will want to know details of the accident itself. If it was machinery that you say was at fault that caused the accident, it will be helpful to draw the relevant piece of machinery so that your solicitor has a visual representation of what you say caused the accident. Add annotations to the diagram to explain the process and explain why you say the machinery was at fault with your explanation of what you think could have been different that would have avoided the accident.
Only when your solicitor has a clearer picture of the workplace and any relevant equipment, can he begin to unravel the likely cause of the accident or the ill-health and what or who was responsible for it.
Witnesses are always very important in accident claims not least in relation to work accidents involving issues of health and safety. Try to identify at an early stage whether there are any suitable witnesses. A witness may not necessarily be a person who witnessed the accident, it could be someone who can provide useful information about the system of work, or a known hazard in using a particular piece of equipment.
A shop steward or perhaps a safety representative may be good witnesses to the accident. Consider any person that has or may have useful information to give that may shed further light on the particular hazard that caused the injury.
Your solicitor is likely to want photographs of the accident scene and any relevant equipment. Bear in mind it may take some time for your solicitor to arrange to have photographs taken of the accident scene and any relevant equipment. In part this can be due to delays in obtaining agreement with the employer's solicitors on a date and time that the solicitor's photographer can attend the employer's premises. On occasion, such permission is refused. If so, an application will need to be made to the court to get a court order for inspection of the work premises. Naturally, this will take time.
Given that there may be a time delay between the accident and your solicitor obtaining photographs of the scene of the accident, if there is any doubt or concern that changes will be made to the workplace by your employer, it would be prudent that you or a work colleague take photographs as soon as possible in order to preserve evidence.
Your solicitor is also likely to want to make other inquiries in in order to ascertain whether there is any other evidence that would corroborate the accident. This could be such things as entries in an accident book, first aid records, any accident investigations carried out by your employer or perhaps entries made in a complaint book.
It's important therefore that you let your solicitor know of any documentary procedures adopted by your employer that may assist you in your claim so that he may specifically request copies of such records at the earliest opportunity.
As you will appreciate, there is undoubtedly a lot of information required by your solicitor in order to build up a case. In addition, workplace accident raise statutory issues of health and safety that can be very complex cases to run. It is therefore imperative that you seek out the services of a solicitor that specialises in work accident claims since a general personal injury solicitor may not possess the requisite knowledge and experience to deal with the particular nuances and challenges of work accidents.
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