How To Prove An Injury At Work

By Danielle Nicholson. Last Updated 9th January 2023. When you suffer an injury following a workplace accident, you might be able to claim compensation. If you can show employer negligence led to the accident, then compensation for your pain and suffering could be payable. However, what do you need to do to prove an injury at work was not your fault? In this article, we’ll look at what an employer might have done wrong, what evidence you will need to support your claim and the compensation amounts that could be paid for your injuries. Additionally, we’ll look at some commonly asked questions about health and safety law.

How to prove an injury at work guide

Examples of why you could claim include being provided with inadequate equipment, not being trained properly or because you’re working too many hours without rest breaks. Therefore, we’ll explain what responsibility your employer has in trying to keep the workplace as safe as possible.

Proving that your employer is liable for your workplace accident can be tricky. That’s where we can help. Our team offer to review your case on a no-obligation basis. Furthermore, they’ll provide free legal advice on how to proceed with your claim. If the case seems to have good grounds, you could be connected with a personal injury solicitor from our panel. To make the process less stressful, all claims that are taken on are handled on a No Win No Fee basis.

For more information on how to sue for an injury at work, please keep reading. Alternatively, if you’re ready to start right away, why not call our team on 0161 696 9685 today? Remember, you can ask as many questions about claiming as you like and our advice will be free.

Select A Section

A Guide On How To Prove An Injury At Work
Accidents In Work – Example Compensation Amounts
How To Claim Special Damage For An Injury At Work
What Is An Injury At Work?
Why Do You Need To Prove Your Employers Liability?
How Do I Prove My Employer Is Liable For My Accident?
Prove An Injury At Work Caused By A Health And Safety Breach
Proving You Were Given The Wrong Equipment
Recording Your Accident To Prove An Injury At Work
How To Prove An Injury At Work – No Win No Fee Claims
Contact Us
More Information

A Guide On How To Prove An Injury At Work

Employers, large or small, have a duty of care to protect the welfare of their staff while at work. That goes for full-time and part-time workers as well as contractors, temps and zero-hours workers. Basically, the duty of care means that employers need to take steps to reduce risks in the workplace. If you’re injured in an accident that your employer could’ve prevented, you might be entitled to seek compensation.

By law, employers cannot prevent you from making a claim. Legislation exists which makes it illegal to treat you differently if you are making an honest claim. If you are pressurised or disciplined for making a claim, we could also help you claim for constructive or unfair dismissal.

The amount of compensation paid will depend on the type of injury. Therefore, we will explain what evidence you’ll need to supply to try and achieve the correct level of compensation. We will also show how a personal injury solicitor could help you with the complexities of claiming.

If you are thinking of claiming for an injury at work, you’ll need to abide by the time limits. Generally, this is 3-years from the date of your accident. However, there are occasions when your injuries aren’t diagnosed until later on. If that’s the case, your time limit could begin on the date of discovery. Call our team for other exceptions to this time limit.

Once you are ready, please give our team of specialists a call. They’ll answer any questions that you may have about workplace injury claims. Furthermore, if you’re ready to begin, they could connect you with a specialist personal injury solicitor.

Accidents In Work – Example Compensation Amounts

Personal injury at work compensation could be made up of two heads: general damages and special damages. In this section, we examine general damages for accidents in work claims.

In successful personal injury at work claims, this head compensates for pain and suffering. As every work injury claim is different, we can only provide rough guideline examples in our table. The figures are from the latest edition of the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). This document provides legal professionals with rough claiming guidelines when valuing general damages in a personal injury at work claim.

Type of Injury	Assessment of Severity	Compensation Bracket	Further Details
Face	Very severe	£29,780 to £97,330	A bracket that covers severe facial scarring. The age of the claimant is considered as well as the amount of cosmetic effect.
Legs	Moderate	£27,760 to £39,200	Covers multiple or complex fractures (usually to a single leg). The extent of treatment, employment impact and future vulnerability are some of the factors that will determine compensation levels.
Feet	Serious	£24,990 to £39,200	Covers injuries where there is prolonged treatment, the risk of future surgery and continuing pain from traumatic arthritis.
Arms	Less Severe	£19,200 to £39,170	Cases in this category will lead to significant disabilities. However, there will a large amount of recovery (or it will be expected).
Back	Moderate (ii)	£12,510 to £27,760	Examples in this category include soft tissue damage that accelerates a pre-existing back injury or muscle damage that leads to backache. Factors considered in this case include the amount of pain, length of suffering and amount of treatment.
Jaw (iii)	Simple	£6,460 to £8,730	This bracket is for fractured jaws which do require immobilisation but where a complete recovery is made.
Neck	Minor (i)	£4,350 to £7,890	Covers soft tissue injuries (like those associated with whiplash) where full recovery occurs in a year or two.

Call our advisors for free injury at work advice.

How To Claim Special Damage For An Injury At Work

As well as claiming for the pain caused by your injuries, you may need to look at any expenses you’ve incurred. Any financial losses you claim for are known as special damages. This allows your financial position to be as it was before the injury. Every special damages claim is different but you might be able to claim for:

Medical expenses. You will be treated for free by the NHS usually. However, you may need to claim back the cost of prescriptions. Also, there may be occasions where non-NHS treatments need to be claimed for too.
Care costs. If you need support with daily activities while you recover, the cost of a carer could be claimed back. An amount could be claimed for the time a friend spent looking after you or you could ask for professional carer’s fees to be paid too.
Travel-related expenses. The cost of trips to a hospital or doctor’s surgery can soon build up (fuel, parking etc). Therefore, you could request these costs back in your claim.
Lost earnings. When you lose money because you need time off because of your injuries, you could ask for those losses back.
Future lost income. For cases where injuries affect your ability to work in the long-term, you could request future lost income losses to be paid. Your age and career prospects will usually be factors in how much is paid.
Adaptations to your vehicle or home. The cost of these changes might be claimed if you’re left with a disability. The changes could be claimed for if they will make it easier for you to cope.

For free legal advice on what could be claimed for in your case, please get in touch with our specialists today.

What Is An Injury At Work?

There is no workplace in the world that is completely risk-free. However, all employers have a legal duty of care to try and reduce as many risks as possible. According to the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, employer’s need to secure the health, welfare and safety of staff at work as much as possible.

Generally, this means that employers will need to conduct regular risk assessments of the workplace. If they identify any dangers, steps need to be taken to reduce or remove them.

For the purposes of this article, when we talk about workplace accidents, we mean those which:

Are caused by some form of employer or employee negligence.
Lead to you suffering an injury or becoming ill.

If you would like free legal advice about staring a workplace injury claim, why not call Advice.co.uk today?

Why Do You Need To Prove Your Employers Liability?

The process of proving employer liability for an accident at work can be quite complex. It is for this reason that we advise taking on specialist legal representation. You will need to prove liability for the accident to be able to claim compensation for your injuries. If you can’t your employer can simply deny that they have done anything wrong and you won’t be compensated.

If you decide to work with a solicitor from our panel you’ll receive the legal representation that could help you achieve the correct level of compensation.

Your solicitor will work with you to gather evidence to substantiate your allegations. They will then compile your claim and submit it to your employer or their insurance. Importantly, they will manage all communication with your employer’s legal team and try to counter any objections that are raised.

If you’d like to find out more about how we could help you claim, please feel free to call our team today.

How Do I Prove My Employer Is Liable For My Accident?

In any type of compensation claim, evidence is vital if you want to prove somebody else’s liability for your injuries. So, if you’re involved in an accident at work that was not your fault, what can you do to prove who’s to blame? Well, we’d advise you to:

Capture the accident scene on your phone or camera. Where possible, ensure you capture the cause of the accident in case it’s removed or repaired.
Report the incident to your employer as soon as possible. By doing so, an accident report will be logged which will help prove when and where the accident took place.
Seek medical attention from your GP or at A&E. Not only will your injuries be treated but you’ll also be able to use medical records to prove how you suffered.
Ask witnesses for their details. Their statements could be used to help prove liability for the accident.
Keep track of any visible injuries by photographing them.
Write your own statement of what happened as soon as possible. That’s because it is easier to remember what happened in the days and weeks following the accident than it is later down the road.

If you contact us for free legal advice, our team can review all of the evidence you have available. They can advise if there’s anything else you’ll need and could pass your claim to a personal injury solicitor if you’re ready to proceed.

Prove An Injury At Work Caused By A Health And Safety Breach

As mentioned earlier, your employer needs to assess workplace risk and remove dangers where possible. You may be entitled to compensation if they don’t and you suffer an injury as a result. For example, you could begin a claim if an injury was caused by:

Insufficient health and safety training.
Not being informed of dangers related to the task you were completing while injured.
Being supplied with inadequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
Equipment that was damaged, faulty or poorly maintained.

Essentially, if there is anything your employer could’ve practically done to prevent the accident in which you were injured, you could start a claim. If you have gathered some of the evidence listed previously, you might already have enough to prove liability. Our team can review your case and let you know if you have enough evidence to proceed. For free legal advice on your options, why not get in touch with our specialists today?

Proving You Were Given The Wrong Equipment

Providing the right equipment for the job is one thing employers can do to help keep staff safe. For example, providing low vibration drills and diggers can help reduce the risk of long-term injuries in the construction industry. Similarly, providing equipment to help with heavy lifting can prevent back injuries caused by manual handling.

If you believe that you were provided with inadequate, incorrect, or faulty equipment and it led to you becoming injured, we could help you begin a compensation claim. To help with this sort of claim, you should report the injury to your supervisor as soon as possible. Additionally, you could photograph the equipment and record make, model and serial numbers as further evidence.

To discuss how we could help you claim for injuries caused by the wrong equipment, please call today.

Recording Your Accident To Prove An Injury At Work

When a workplace accident occurs, your employer must record it in an accident book. Therefore, it’s important that you inform them of any accident as soon as it’s possible to do so. Importantly, all accidents need to be recorded regardless of how minor they are.

The accident report will include dates, times and the location of the accident. It will also show what first aid was administered at the time. As discussed earlier, we advise that your injuries are also assessed at A&E or a GP so that the correct treatment is administered.

Before you sign any accident report, we’d advise checking the details thoroughly. You should also ask for a copy of the report.

Filling In A Workplace Accident Questionnaire

In addition to the accident report, you may be asked to complete a questionnaire. This gives you the opportunity to write down what happened. In the questionnaire, you should be able to detail what happened and the injuries you sustained.

Additionally, your workplace supervisor might need to explain what they saw happen and provide details of any witnesses. Again, before signing the questionnaire, ask for a copy and check that all details are accurate.

Filling In A Workplace Health And Safety Report

Finally, a report about the accident may need to be filed with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR), here.

How To Prove An Injury At Work – No Win No Fee Claims

Our panel of personal injury solicitors provides a No Win No Fee solution for any case that’s taken on. Not only does that mean you’ll get legal representation with reduced financial risk, but you will find the process of claiming less stressful too.

The solicitor will need to verify that your case has some chance of success before agreeing to work for you. After the review, if they are happy to proceed, the solicitor will prepare a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). This contract sets out how the claim will be handled and what your solicitor will need to do to get paid. Additionally, it will show you that :

You won’t need to pay money upfront to your solicitor.
Solicitor’s fees won’t be charged while the claim proceeds.
If the claim doesn’t succeed, you won’t have to cover the solicitor’s fees.

The only time you will need to pay solicitor’s fees is if they win compensation for you. In that scenario, they’ll deduct a success fee from your settlement figure. The fee is a percentage of your compensation. Your percentage will be explained in the CFA, so you’ll know about it before you agree to work with the lawyer. Importantly, success fees are legally capped to stop overcharging.

Would you like us to check if you could claim on a No Win No Fee basis? If so, please call the number above today.

Contact Us

We would like to thank you for reading our guide. We hope that we’ve shown you how to prove an injury happened at work. If you are now considering starting a claim, and you’d like us to help, you can:

Call our friendly team to discuss your claim on 0161 696 9685.
Let us know what happened via live chat.
Complete our enquiry form so that we can call you back when it’s convenient.

Our claims line is open 24-hours a day. When you contact us, an advisor will help by reviewing your case with you. We provide a no-obligation assessment of all claims along with free legal advice. So that your time is not wasted, we’ll be honest about the chances of winning your case from the start. If the claim does appear strong enough, we could refer you to a specialist personal injury lawyer from our panel. If they’re happy to take on your case, they’ll provide a No Win No Fee service.

More Information

We hope that this article has shown you how you can prove an injury at work. In our last section, we are going to list some resources that you might find helpful during the claims process:

Manual Handling Advice – An overview of manual handling safety advice from the HSE.

Employment Contracts – Details of what should be included in your contract of employment.

Employee Rights – A government hub page where you’ll find articles relating to employee rights.

Below, you can find links to lots more guides on accidents at work:

Please take a look at our other guides or get in touch if there’s any further support we can offer.

Page by TE

Published by AL.

Accident At Work Claims

Road Traffic Accident Claims

Public Place Claims

Medical Negligence Claims

Personal Injury Claims

Accident At Work Compensation Claim Specialists

Get Free Advice