Have you suffered a knee injury at work as the result of your employer’s negligence? If so, you could be entitled to make a personal injury claim for compensation. To hold a valid claim you must be able to demonstrate three key areas:
- You were owed a duty of care
- This duty was breached
- And as a result, you were injured or suffered an illness.
Knee injuries can be very painful. In some cases, particularly if your ability to walk is affected in the long term, these kinds of injuries can be life-changing. This can feel unfair if you’ve sustained these injuries through no fault of your own.
Knee injury at work claims guide
In this guide, we’ll offer you advice and guidance on the process of claiming compensation. We will illustrate the claims process through an example case study in which someone is awarded compensation for a knee injury at work. If you would like to get in touch with us to discuss either of these options, you can call us on 0161 696 9685, arrange a call-back with the form on this page or send us a message through the live chat feature at the bottom of this page.
Select a Section
- A Guide To Claiming Compensation Payouts For A Knee Injury At Work
- What Is A Knee Injury?
- Top 3 Common Knee Injury At Work Causes
- Let Our Team Calculate Your Personal Injury Compensation
- What Are Special Damages?
- Case Study: £22,000 For A Knee Injury At Work Claim
- Get Free Legal Advice For Your Potential Total Claim
- Who Can Benefit From No Win No Fee Policies?
- Our Friendly Advisors Can Provide Free Legal Advice
- More Resources And Guides On Knee Injuries At Work
- Knee Injury At Work FAQs
A Guide To Claiming Compensation Payouts For A Knee Injury At Work
This page centres around looking at compensation payouts for knee injuries at work. We will look at what a knee injury is and what the treatment and recovery for an injury of this nature might look like. Additionally, we’ll cover the duty of care that is owed to you by your employer and how you can tell if this duty has been breached.
Accidents in work causing knee injuries can happen in various ways. We’ll look at some common kinds of accidents that occur in the workplace that may lead you to be able to claim.
Compensation has to be calculated to match your particular individual circumstances. It is based on the severity of your injuries and the extent to which you have lost out financially as a result of the injuries. We will look at the different damages that might be included in a typical claim for knee injury compensation and how these are calculated.
Our example case study will illustrate the process of making a claim for a knee injury. It will outline the whole process of claiming, from the injury occurring to compensation being paid out.
We’ll finish our guide by outlining the benefits that a No Win No Fee agreement can offer you when making a claim. Furthermore, we’ll provide you with some useful resources and answer some frequently asked questions about knee injury at work claims.
What Is A Knee Injury?
The knees can be injured by strenuous physical activities or physical blows. The knees are made up of:
- Tendons and ligaments. These connect the bones to the muscles and allow the legs to move.
- Articular cartilage. This covers the surface of the bones where they meet. It allows the bones to glide over one another and absorbs impact.
- The kneecap. This protects the tendons and ligaments of the knee and provides support.
Injuries to the knee can range in severity from causing temporary pain and stiffness to permanent loss of mobility. Due to the importance of the knee and all of its component parts in allowing the legs to move, a knee injury can have a serious impact on your ability to live your life as normal. You can find more details about knee injuries, their causes and available treatments on this NHS page.
Top 3 Common Knee Injury At Work Causes
Your employer is bound under the Health and Safety At Work Act 1974 to ensure your safety as much as it is reasonably possible for them to do so. Because of this, you may be entitled to make a personal injury claim for an accident at work if you suffer an injury due to your employer’s negligence. If you wish to make an accident at work claim, then you must be able to show that these three conditions have been met;
- That your employer owed you a duty of care
- That this duty of care was neglected
- That you were injured as a result of the breach of the duty of care.
You may not need to prove that you were owed a duty of care by your employer; if you are employed by someone, they will always owe you a duty of care. You need to be able to show that this duty was breached and that your injuries were a direct result of this.
The following are some of the common ways in which a person could injure their knees in a workplace accident as a result of a breach of duty of care. In each of the situations described in the sections below, you could potentially have grounds to make an accident at work claim.
Slips, Trips And Falls
Your employer is obligated to maintain good housekeeping to reduce the risk of slips and trips. This includes making sure that any trip hazards, such as wires or boxes, are tidied away.
Your employer is also required to undertake regular risk assessments. These can identify any hazards that have the potential to cause injury. These risks should then be removed if possible; if they cannot be removed, they should be reduced. An example of this might be if a rug or mat is consistently gathered up as a door is opened or closed, creating a trip hazard. An employer may decide to use a non-slip material underneath to reduce the risk of this happening.
Tripping or slipping could lead to an employee spraining or twisting their leg or landing badly on their knee. A knee injury caused by a preventable trip hazard could be grounds for making a workplace accident claim.
Manual Handling Injuries
When lifting and moving heavy objects by hand, your knees can absorb a lot of the pressure of the load you’re carrying. 19% of injuries in British workplaces stemmed from accidents involving the moving and carrying of heavy objects in 2019/20.
Employers are obliged to make sure that employees are able to do these sorts of tasks as safely as possible. They can do this by giving you the correct training, not forcing you to carry out manual handling tasks beyond your ability. They should also ensure that, wherever possible, lifting aids are used to reduce the risk of injury to employees. If you’ve suffered a preventable knee injury while manual handling, you could be entitled to make a claim.
Struck By Moving And Falling Objects
Allowing objects to be stacked or shelved haphazardly so that they fall on and injure employees could be a breach of an employers duty of care. Risk assessments should be undertaken to determine what steps can be taken to reduce the risk of injury. Failure to do so could lead to a claim if an injury occurred.
Moving objects are not just limited to objects falling from a height. Workplace vehicles, such as forklift trucks, could be the cause of a preventable knee injury at work. Your employer has a duty of care to make sure that all machinery used in the workplace is well-maintained and safe to use. They should also ensure that anyone using the machinery is sufficiently trained to do so safely.
If you’ve suffered a knee injury due to being struck by a falling or moving object, you could be entitled to make a compensation claim. Get in touch with our team today for more information.
Let Our Team Calculate Your Personal Injury Compensation
There are two heads of claim that will make up a compensation payout for a knee injury in the workplace. The first we’ll look at is general damages.
The term general damages refers to the part of your compensation that is awarded for the pain and suffering caused by your injuries. Calculating general damages compensation involves looking at how severe your injuries are and how they have impacted your quality of life.
In order for the general damages head of your claim to be calculated, a medical assessment will be arranged by your solicitor. Here, an independent expert will look at your injuries and speak with you about the effect that they have had on you. They’ll detail their findings and prognosis in a medical report, which will be sent to your solicitor.
Then, your solicitor will use this report to value your compensation claim. They will also refer to the Judicial College Guidelines. This document sets out guideline compensation brackets for injuries of varying types and severities.
Call us today to get free legal advice about how much your knee injury compensation claim might be worth. Or, to find out more about what can be included in a claim for compensation, please read on.
What Are Special Damages?
The second head which makes up a knee injury compensation claim is special damages. Special damages are awarded to cover the losses and expenses brought on by the injury.
Injuries can often lead to the injured person losing money or having to spend money as a result of their treatment and recovery. Knee injuries are no exception and may also cause long-term financial impact if they have a permanent effect on mobility.
Losses that can be compensated following a workplace injury include;
- Wages lost from taking time off work
- Bonuses or pay rises lost because of time taken off work
- The cost of prescriptions or treatment not available on the NHS
- Home care and home adaptation costs for injuries with long-term effects
- Lost deposits, for example, if a holiday needs to be cancelled
- Transport costs to and from medical appointments. If your injury prevents you from driving or walking, you may be able to include taxi fare or public transport costs for getting around.
In order to claim losses as part of your special damages, you have to provide evidence to support the claim. It’s a good idea to keep a record of any costs or expenses that you’ve incurred as a direct result of your injuries, no matter how small.
Get in touch with us if you would like to know more about what kinds of special damages you could be entitled to as part of your compensation claim. Alternatively, you can read on to our case study for a complete view of the claims process as a whole.
Case Study: £22,000 For A Knee Injury At Work Claim
Ms Gibbons worked full-time in a well-known supermarket retailer chain. She carried out various tasks around the shop floor, including shelf stacking.
One day while working, Ms Gibbons was the victim of a serious and preventable accident. While stacking stock on a shelf, her foot became caught in a wire that had been left trailing next to the shelf. She tripped and landed on her knee when she fell.
Ms Gibbons was in a great deal of pain and was unable to get herself up after the accident. She called over to a colleague who helped her to her feet. It was clear that she needed medical attention, and she was taken to the hospital for treatment. Before leaving, she filled out the accident book with the details of her accident.
At the hospital, Ms Gibbons was told that the impact of the fall had dislocated her kneecap and tore the cartilage in her knee. She was advised that she’d be unable to walk unaided for a few months and that she may be left with some residual injury in her knee. In addition, she’d need physiotherapy sessions and had to take some time off work while she was recovering.
Ms Gibbons’ recovery
The first course of physiotherapy was available on the NHS, but she had to pay for additional sessions. Ms Gibbons not only lost money because of having to take time off work and pay for treatment, but she also lost the money she had spent on a holiday. As an avid walker, she and her partner had planned a hiking trip abroad; without the ability to walk unassisted, she was forced to call off her plans. This was despite having already paid for her flights and accommodation.
To add to her financial difficulties, she was also obliged to spend money on using public transport. Without the use of her left leg, she had no option but to use public transport to travel where she would otherwise have driven herself. She also had to hire someone to clean her house and walk her dog when she was unable to. This brought on hundreds of pounds of additional costs that she would not have otherwise spent.
The whole situation left Ms Gibbons feeling extremely frustrated. She’d been injured and lost out through no fault of her own. Because of this, she decided to seek legal advice about making a personal injury claim.
As she’d recorded the incident in the accident book and CCTV had captured what happened, she was able to show that the accident was a result of negligence on the part of her employer, and she received a settlement of £22,000. The table below shows a breakdown of the compensation that Ms Gibbons was awarded in general and special damages.
| General damages | Special damages |
|---|---|
| £17,000 for a moderate knee injury causing dislocation and soft tissue damage | £3,000 in lost income |
| £1250 for a cancelled holiday | |
| £100 Public transport expenses | |
| £500 for cleaning and dog walking | |
| £150 physiotherapy sessions |
The case of Mrs Gibbons is an example. It is based on our experiences of how claims are handled and valued. It serves purely as an illustration of the claims process.
Get Free Legal Advice For Your Potential Total Claim
We have a team of advisors. They can tell you a lot about whether or not you could be entitled to make a claim and how much you could be entitled to receive in compensation.
However, we cannot give an estimation of how much compensation you could receive for your claim without finding out more about your injury. Each claim is valued on a case by case basis by looking at the severity and impact of your injury and the value of any special damages.
For a free evaluation about how much your claim might potentially be worth, contact our free legal advice team.
Who Can Benefit From No Win No Fee Policies?
Some people who’ve suffered injuries due to another’s negligence are worried about claiming because of the costs associated with legal representation. There is no legal requirement to have a solicitor represent your case. However, they do have the knowledge and work experience to know how to file a case correctly. And importantly you could use a No Win No Fee agreement to fund a solicitor.
A No Win No Fee agreement (sometimes referred to as a Conditional Fee Agreement) dictates the conditions your solicitor needs to meet before they’re paid. A No Win No Fee agreement means that:
- You won’t be asked to pay your solicitor a thing in order for them to start working on your case.
- While your claim is ongoing, you won’t need to pay your solicitor’s fees.
- If you aren’t awarded any compensation, you won’t be asked to pay anything to your solicitor.
- In the event that you win your claim, your solicitor’s fees will be deducted from your compensation in the form of a success fee, which is legally capped. This means you’ll always receive the majority of the compensation you’re awarded.
The solicitors on our panel work on a No Win No Fee basis. If your claim has a good chance of success, they could start to work on your claim today. Call us to find out more.
Our Friendly Advisors Can Provide Free Legal Advice
We hope that this guide on making a knee injury at work claim has been useful to you. If you would like to receive free advice from our team of advisors, then call us today on 0161 696 9685, fill your details in on this page, or send us a message via our websites live chat feature at the bottom of the page.
More Resources And Guides On Knee Injuries At Work
NHS website on a dislocated kneecap
Website of the Health and Safety at Work Executive – HSE
I injured myself at work – how do I claim compensation?
Knee Injury At Work FAQs
How Much Could I Get For A Knee Injury At Work?
How much compensation you could receive depends on your individual circumstances. This includes the severity of your injury and the degree to which you have been impacted financially by it. Call us today to get an evaluation of your knee injury at work claim.
How Can I Tell If My Knee Injury Is Serious?
You should always see a doctor if you have recently hurt your knee and think it may be injured. Visit this NHS page for some information about knee injury symptoms.
Page by KT
Published by NS.