By Cat Grayson. Last Updated 1st December 2023. While you are at work, your employer owes you a duty of care to try and keep you as safe as possible. If they breach that duty of care, it might be possible for you to claim compensation if you’re injured in a workplace accident.
Doing so can be a tricky process involving many legal complexities. If you’re asking the question, ‘Do I need a lawyer if I get hurt at work?’, then this guide can help. We’ll explain what services worker injury lawyers provide, the types of workplace accidents they could help with, and what amount of compensation you could receive.
Advice.co.uk is a specialist in personal injury claims. Our team will review any case without obligation and provide free legal advice and honest feedback on your chances of being compensated.
If you have a reasonable chance of winning your claim, they could also refer you to a personal injury lawyer from our panel. If they agree to work for you, they’ll provide their services on a No Win No Fee basis.
To find out more about how a lawyer can help with workplace injury claims, please read on. Alternatively, you can contact us today on 0161 696 9685 if you’d like free advice on starting a claim right away.
Do I Need A Lawyer To Make An Accident At Work Claim?
Select A Section
- Do I Need A Lawyer If I Get Hurt At Work?
- Will You Need A Lawyer To Check If You Are Eligible To Claim?
- Compensation For An Accident At Work
- Worker Injury Lawyers – Do They Need To Be Local?
- What To Do If An Accident Occurs In The Workplace
- No Win No Fee Workplace Accident Lawyers
Do I Need A Lawyer If I Get Hurt At Work?
If you have an accident at work, that was caused by employer negligence, you could appoint a lawyer to help you claim compensation for any injuries. This is entirely your decision. Your lawyer should carry out the tasks listed in the previous section to try and provide evidence to back up your claims.
In our opinion, a personal injury lawyer is important because, with their legal knowledge, they can:
- Compile your claim so that it includes all of the information you’ll need.
- Deal with all communication with the defendant on your behalf.
- Try to counter any objections that arise.
Using a personal injury lawyer could also help you achieve the correct level of compensation if the case is won. Without a lawyer on your side, even if the defendant admitted liability, their legal team might try to settle the claim for much less than it’s worth. That’s important because compensation is paid to try and help you recover from your injuries. If you don’t receive the correct level of compensation, you may find that you struggle in the future.
Why not get in touch with our team today? You’ll receive free legal advice and a no-obligation review of your case.
Will You Need A Lawyer To Check If You Are Eligible To Claim?
You might be wondering if you need a work injury lawyer to find out if you are eligible to make a claim. The short answer is no, you don’t; in most cases, a work accident lawyer or solicitor will only take on your case if they’re sure that you are eligible to claim.
However, one of our helpful advisors can help you identify whether you have good grounds to claim based on the following criteria, which all accident at work claims must meet:
- Someone owed you a duty of care: While in the workplace, your employer owes you a duty of care under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. This means they have to take reasonably practicable steps to keep you safe while working.
- This duty was breached: There are many ways that your employer could breach their duty of care, for example, if they fail to provide adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), or if they don’t undertake a risk assessment before asking you to complete a task.
- You were injured because of this: A breach in their duty of care alone is not enough to make a claim; you also have to be able to prove that this breach caused your injuries.
Our advisors can evaluate the validity of your claim for free when you get in touch. Then, if they find your claim to be valid, they may connect you with an accident at work lawyer from our panel. Contact us today to get started, or read on to learn more.
Compensation For An Accident At Work
You could have grounds to pursue compensation for an accident at work if your employer’s negligence caused your injury. When calculating how much your claim may be worth, bracketed accidents at work compensation examples for injuries from the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) serve as a guide for legal professionals. Other factors that can determine your payout are the severity of your injury and its impact.
Your accident at work claim could comprise general damages and special damages. The general damages part of the compensation covers pain and suffering, while any related financial losses are covered by the special damages.
The compensation amounts listed in the table are from the 2022 updated version of the JCG. The amounts only relate to the general damages aspect of your compensation. Also, your award may not match the amounts in the table, as it is decided on a case-by-case basis.
| Injury | Severity Level | Settlement Bracket | Additional Information |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple Severe Injuries + Special Damages | Severe | Up to £1,000,000+ | Several severe injuries, combined with significant financial losses of the likes of lost earnings, travel costs, the cost of mobility aids and pension contributions. |
| Head Injury | Severe | £282,010 to £403,990 | While there is some ability to follow basic commands, there is little to no language function and no meaningful response to the surrounding environment, resulting in a need for full-time professional care. |
| Back | Severe (a) (i) | £91,090 to £160,980 | This bracket includes the most serious injuries, such as damage to the spinal cord and nerve roots, resulting in substantial disability and pain. |
| Fractured Jaw | Serious | £17,960 to £30,490 | Serious fractures which lead to permanent problems such as difficulty opening the mouth or eating. |
| Arm | Fracture | £6,610 to £19,200 | Covers simple forearm fractures. |
| Elbow | Severe | £39,170 to £54,830 | Severly disabling elbow injuries. |
| Leg | Fracture | Up to £11,840 | Soft tissue injuries or simple Fibula or Tibia fractures. |
| Knee | Moderate | Up to £26,190 | A torn cartilage or meniscus or a dislocated knee are the types of injuries within this category. |
| Ankle | Severe | £31,310 to £50,060 | Injuries that need to be fixed with plates and pins and result in ongoing disabilities or those which require an extensive treatment period. |
For a more accurate estimate of your compensation for an accident at work, call our solicitors for a free consultation.
What Are Special Damages For Injury Claims?
As well as claiming for your injuries, it might also be possible to ask for any expenses or financial losses to be claimed back too. This part of the claim is known as special damages. The idea here is that, after settling the claim, you should be left in the same financial position as you were prior to the accident. Again, each claim will be different from the next, but you could claim compensation for:
- Travel-related costs. This could include fuel costs or parking fees related to medical appointments.
- Care costs. This could apply if you were helped with daily tasks during your recovery period. You may be able to calculate a rate for the support of a loved one. Alternatively, you could claim back any professional carer’s fees.
- Medical expenses. It is true that you will usually be treated for free by the NHS. However, you may have to pay for non-NHS treatments and prescription fees. Therefore, you could be entitled to claim these back.
- Adaptations to your home or vehicle. For injuries that result in a disability, it might be possible to ask for adaptations to be paid for which make coping with the disability easier.
- Lost earnings. When you need time away from work to recover, you might lose some or all of your income. If that happens, you could ask for those losses to be paid back.
- Future loss of income. Similarly, for cases where your long-term ability to work is affected, you could seek future lost income too.
For free legal advice about what could be included in your claim, please contact our team today.
Worker Injury Lawyers – Do They Need To Be Local?
Have you been injured at work? If you seek legal advice, you may be under the impression that you can only use local workplace injury lawyers. However, it’s possible to work with worker injury lawyers anywhere in the UK.
Our panel of accident at work lawyers, for example, are able to help claimants anywhere in the country as they can help you with all aspects of your claim remotely.
With years of experience, our panel of expert lawyers have helped a multitude of clients settle their injury claims. Furthermore, they could help you on a No Win No Fee basis, which could be beneficial if you are concerned about the costs of hiring a lawyer upfront.
Get in touch with our advisors and they can verify your eligibility to claim free of charge. Furthermore, they can answer any questions you may have about your injury at work rights.
What To Do If An Accident Occurs In The Workplace
As we have mentioned already, you will need evidence to substantiate your claim. Having the right evidence behind you can make the process of proving liability a lot easier. Therefore, if you are injured at work, we would advise that you:
- Report the incident to a supervisor. An accident report should be completed, which you can request a copy of later on.
- Photograph the accident scene before the cause of the accident is removed or repaired.
- Attend A&E or a medical facility to have your injuries treated. Medical records could help prove the severity of your injuries.
- Ask witnesses for their contact details. Your lawyer may need them to provide witness statements as part of your claim.
- Photograph any visible injuries.
- Obtain any CCTV footage that covers the area where the accident took place.
Don’t worry if you don’t have all of the evidence when you call. Your lawyer could help you obtain it if you are struggling to do so yourself.
No Win No Fee Workplace Accident Lawyers
If you wish to work with an accident at work lawyer but are concerned about paying upfront, there are other options available. A No Win No Fee arrangement would allow you to work with a work injury lawyer on the basis that if your claim is unsuccessful, you won’t pay for their services.
Typically, there are also no upfront fees to work with a No Win No Fee workplace accident lawyer. Additionally, you may not be required to make payments during the claims process.
Should your injured workers’ lawyer help you settle your claim, they’ll deduct a success fee from your payout. However, this is capped under the Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013, so you won’t be overcharged.
To learn more about making an accident at work claim with a No Win No Fee solicitor, you can reach out to one of our advisors now by:
- Calling us at 0161 696 9685
- Using our live chat feature
- Using our contact us page
More Information
Thanks for reading about how a lawyer could help you if you’ve been injured in an accident at work. In this final section of our guide, we are going to list some useful resources that could help if you do decide to claim.
- The Solicitors Act 1974 – Legislation that sets out the responsibilities and regulations that solicitors and law firms must follow.
- Health And Safety Executive – Lots of useful information and guides relating to workplace safety.
- NHS UK – The main NHS website where you’ll find information about how different injuries are diagnosed and treated.
Below, you can find links to lots more guides on accidents at work:
- Accidents at work FAQ
- How to make an accident at work claim
- Agency worker accident claims
- How to make a claim if injured as a temporary worker
- I hurt myself at work, can I make a claim?
Thank you for reading our guide that answers, ‘Do I need a lawyer if I get hurt at work?’