Making an Accident at Work Claim

Liability for the Accident

In order to succeed with your claim, it’s necessary to prove who was to blame and that your employer/third party responsible was negligent or at fault, either entirely or partly, for your accident and the resulting injuries.

Under the Personal Injury Protocol, the defendants are given up to 3 months from the date they receive the Letter of Claim to investigate your allegations. By the end of this time, they must confirm if they admit fault (liability) for your injuries or not. If denied, the defendants must provide evidence in support. Defendants will deal with this by way of disclosure of documents. Your Personal Injury Solicitor will have to examine the available evidence and also gather evidence in support.

Medical Evidence

Your Personal Injury Solicitor will arrange an independent medical examination, so a report that outlines the extent of your injuries and what caused them can be put together. The report will also explain how your injuries have affected your life. You must give honest and accurate information to the medical expert, who will include their opinion on your prognosis in their final medical report.

Once the medical report is complete, this will be sent to you so you can approve it and check its accuracy. If you’re happy with it, then it can be disclosed to the third party’s insurer. If the medical report provides a diagnosis and definitive prognosis, then an assessment regarding the valuation of your claim can be carried out.

At this stage, the third party insurers may be invited to consider compensation settlement proposals.

Alternatively, your Personal Injury Solicitor may seek your instructions about a suggested compensation settlement offer to put to the other side.

The third party insurers will have the opportunity to agree the report or to ask questions to the medical expert to clarify their opinion. You need to be aware that the third party insurers will look through the report to try to spot any inconsistences which might weaken or undermine your case.

Provided the third party insurers agree with the report, the next stages will involve a period of negotiations to secure a compensation settlement figure for your claim. It’s not always possible to reach an agreement and your Personal Injury Solicitor will advise you if Court proceedings need to be issued. But even if this happens, your Solicitor will still work to negotiate compensation settlement of your case outside of Court.

Other Evidence

We may collect witness evidence from work colleagues, as they may have witnessed your accident, or can give evidence of similar accidents, poor working conditions or unsafe working practices in your workplace.

Photographic evidence taken at the time could also help prove fault, while we may ask for documents to show your financial losses and receipts of all the expenses you’ve incurred.

Finally, we often advise people making an accident at work claim to keep a diary to record their symptoms, progress and recovery. This should include treatment received and medication you’re taking.