If you suffer an injury at work that was caused by an accident that you were not responsible for, could you be entitled to claim compensation? All employers have a legal duty of care to try and keep staff safe. Providing training, protective equipment and well-maintained equipment are some of the things they can do to help protect you. As well as claiming for your injuries, you could claim additional costs if you’re left out of pocket as a result of the injury. Therefore, this guide is going to look at when you could claim for work injury medical expenses.
We will review what type of workplace accident that could lead to a compensation claim. We’ll also use a compensation table to show how much could be awarded for certain injuries. Then we’ll look at special damages, the claim which covers any financial costs linked to your injuries. If you are concerned about starting an accident at work claim, then we should tell you that you cannot be fired or disciplined for doing so. This is so long as the claim is honest. Furthermore, all employers are obliged to have insurance to cover the cost of any claims. This means your claim won’t affect the company’s profits.
In order to claim medical expenses as part of a compensation claim, you would have to prove your employer’s liability. Your employer or another employee would have had to cause your accident through negligence. Resulting in an avoidable injury.
Advice.co.uk can support you if you’re thinking of claiming. We start by reviewing what happened in a no-obligation consultation. The specialist advisor will then give free legal advice about your claim. If there appear to be grounds to continue, we could appoint a personal injury solicitor from our panel. Importantly, any case they take on will be completed on a No Win No Fee basis.
To learn more about who pays the medical costs for workplace injuries, please read on. Alternatively, get in touch today by calling 0161 696 9685 if you’d like to talk to us about making a claim.
Who pays my work injury medical expenses guide
Select A Section
- A Guide On Who Pays Work Injury Medical Expenses
- How Do You Calculate Work Injury Compensation Settlements?
- How To Calculate Special Damages
- What Is A Work Injury?
- Information On Workplace Injury Medical Costs
- What Work Injury Medical Expenses Could I Claim For?
- When Are Employers Responsible For Medical Expenses?
- No Win No Fee Work Injury Medical Expenses Claims
- Discuss Your Case With An Expert
- Resources
A Guide On Who Pays Work Injury Medical Expenses
In order to hold a valid claim for an injury suffered in a workplace accident that was not your fault, you must be able to prove employer negligence. In accordance with the Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969, all employers need insurance to cover them if an accident happens. This is quite important because some people worry that making a claim could have an adverse effect on their employer’s business.
As well as compensating you for the pain and inconvenience caused by your injuries, you could also claim financial losses. This could include any medical expenses you incur. You may think that you wouldn’t have to pay for any treatment because the NHS is free. However, we will explain later how medication from the pharmacy, prescriptions and some non NHS treatments can all prove costly.
Time Limits
If you are thinking of making a claim, you should be aware that there is a 3-year time limit. Generally, this will start from the date you were injured. In some cases, though, the 3-year period might begin from the date you come aware your injuries were due to negligence.
In the next couple of sections, we’ll provide some example compensation figures to show what amount might be paid for a range of injuries. We’ll also look at some financial costs, besides medical expenses, that could also be claimed back. Then we’ll explain what evidence you’ll need to support your claim. Finally, we’ll look at why claiming using a No Win No Fee agreement might make the claim less stressful.
After you have finished reading, why not call our team for a free review of your case? An advisor will listen to what happened, consider any evidence and provide free legal advice. Should your claim be suitable, we could refer you to a personal injury lawyer from our panel.
How Do You Calculate Work Injury Compensation Settlements?
OK, let’s begin by looking at injury compensation. Technically, this is called general damages. This type of claim is used to cover the pain, suffering and loss of amenity that results from your injuries. Our compensation table includes some example amounts for different injuries. It isn’t a complete list so don’t worry if your injury isn’t included. As claims differ from case to case, we advise you to contact an advisor for an assessment of what your claim might be worth.
The amounts listed in our table are extracted from the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). Lawyers, insurers, personal injury solicitors and courts use the JCG to help determine the correct level of compensation.
Compensation Table
| Injury | Level of Severity | Settlement Range | Additional Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jaw | Very Serious | £28,610 to £42,730 | This category is used for very serious multiple jaw fractures which require extensive treatment and cause permanent problems. |
| Teeth | Loss | £8,200 to £10,710 | This bracket is used for injuries with cause serious damage (or loss) to several front teeth. |
| Neck | Moderate | £23,460 to £36,120 | A bracket used for dislocations and fractures which lead to severe immediate symptoms and may need spinal fusion. |
| Back | Severe | £85,470 to £151,070 | These are the most severe injuries of the back. They will involve damage to nerve roots and the spinal cord. Issues will be very serious and not usually associated with back injuries. Symptoms will include severe pain and disability. |
| Wrist | Significant | £22,990 to £36,770 | This type of injury will cause a significant permanent disability. There will, however, be some level of useful movement. |
| Leg | Less Serious | £16,860 to £26,050 | Includes a range of serious soft tissue injuries and fractures which lead to an incomplete recovery. |
| Achilles Tendon | Serious | £23,460 to £28,240 | Includes injuries where a complete division of the tendon has been successfully repaired but leaves a limp, limited ankle movement or residual weakness. |
The main factor that helps set the compensation level is the severity of the injury. Therefore, during the claims process, you’ll need to attend a medical assessment. This isn’t something you need to worry about though! If you work with a solicitor from our panel, they’ll arrange your appointment locally.
During the meeting, an independent medical specialist will examine you. They will also refer to medical records and ask questions about how you’ve suffered following the accident. Once they have completed their review, they will write their findings in a report for your lawyer.
How To Calculate Special Damages
Any financial cost that you’ve incurred because of your injuries could be included in a special damages claim. We should point out that you are not allowed to benefit from special damages. They are not a penalty or a fine. Quite simply, they aim to put you back in the same financial position as you were before the accident occurred.
Once again, it’s important to note that each claim is unique, so what you could include will vary from case to case. Aside from medical expenses, which we’ll look at later, special damages could include:
- Travelling costs. When you visit your GP, a hospital, or the pharmacy, you may incur expenses like fuel or parking fees. Therefore, it may be possible to claim these back.
- Care costs. For some claimants, it is difficult to complete daily tasks without support while recovering. That means you could claim back any care costs. For some, this might be for the time a relative spent looking after you. In other cases, you might need to claim for a professional carer’s fees.
- Lost income. Taking time off work for treatment or to recover can be costly. The good news here is that if you lose income as a result of your injuries, you could claim your losses back.
- Home or vehicle adaptations. Claimants who are left disabled following a workplace accident might need changes to be made to help them cope day to day. If that’s the case, the cost of the changes might be added to the claim.
- Future lost income. Some injuries could impact your ability to work in the future. They may prevent all forms of work or reduce your capacity to work at the same level. If that’s the case, future loss of earnings could be considered in your claim.
What Is A Work Injury?
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 places a legal duty on employers to try to protect the health and welfare of staff in the workplace. That means that, amongst other things, they could do the following to improve workplace safety:
- Carry out regular risk assessments of the workplace and remove any dangers where possible.
- Provide adequate health and safety information.
- Train staff on their tasks properly.
- Allow sufficient rest breaks.
- Provide suitable protective equipment where needed.
- Maintain equipment in accordance with the manufacturer’s guidelines.
- Repair damaged equipment in a timely manner.
The three criteria you’ll need to prove to entitle you to claim are:
- That you were owed a duty of care (we have already shown this is the case above).
- Your employer’s negligence led to an accident.
- You sustained an injury or were made ill as a direct result of the accident.
Evidence to Support Your Claim
As with any type of compensation claim, evidence will need to be supplied to prove your allegations. Therefore, we’d advise you to take the following steps after an accident at work:
- Take photos of the scene of the accident as soon as you’re able to do so. Preferably, this should be done before the cause is fixed or removed.
- Report the accident to a supervisor. Accident reports need to be completed following an accident at work. This report could be used to prove that the accident took place, where it happened and what injuries were reported.
- Seek medical treatment for your injuries. This should go beyond first aid where necessary. After treatment at a hospital or GP surgery, you could obtain medical records to show what injuries were sustained.
- Write down the details of any witnesses. A personal injury lawyer may contact them later to request their statement of events.
- If possible, request copies of CCTV footage if there is any. Bear in mind, this might not be retained forever so you should act quickly.
- Keep a record of any expense you incur following your accident. This could help your claim for special damages.
After you have collected as much evidence as you can, your next step could be to call our team. They’ll review the work you’ve done so far and let you know if there’s enough evidence to continue. Remember, you call for free legal advice even if you don’t go on to claim.
Information On Workplace Injury Medical Costs
It’s quite common to assume that all the treatment you’ll need will be free on the NHS. However, it’s quite easy for other medical expenses to build up while you’re recovering from your injuries. For instance, you might end up paying for:
- Medical treatment that is required but not available on the NHS.
- The cost of prescription medication. While in hospital, medication is usually dispensed for free but any you need to collect from a pharmacy may be charged for.
- Medical equipment to help you at home. For instance, if you have a back injury, walking aids might be required to support you during recovery.
- Over the counter medication.
Our advice is to keep a diary of your spending along with receipts and bank statements. If you’re not sure if you can claim something back, we’d recommend checking with your legal support if you have any. However please remember that in order to have such costs received you would need to make a successful personal injury claim. Meaning the accident and subsequent injuries must be proven to have occurred due to your employer’s negligence.
What Work Injury Medical Expenses Could I Claim For?
In the last section, we provided some common workplace injury medical costs that you could incur. The ones you can claim for are usually any that have been caused as a direct result of your workplace injury. And only in a successful personal injury claim. Costs will be received through compensation awarded if the claim succeeds. As part of your personal injury claim, you will need evidence of any expenses you want to claim for. Itemised receipts or invoices will need to be shown to prove how the money you are claiming was spent.
With regards to non-NHS services, you will need to have a very good reason to claim this. For example, your lawyer might request that you are treated privately for your injury because there is a very long waiting list on the NHS. Alternatively, it might be that a private company can perform your treatment locally whereas you might have to travel for the same treatment on the NHS.
As previously explained, so that you aren’t left out of pocket, we’d advise you to check before you commit to an expense. You could ask our team for free legal advice or your lawyer.
When Are Employers Responsible For Medical Expenses?
Essentially, if you have been injured at work, because of employer or colleague negligence, you could be entitled to claim compensation. You would have to prove your employer’s liability. A compensation claim has two Heads of Loss. The first part of the claim will usually cover the injuries you’ve sustained. After that, you could look to claim for any medical expenses you’ve incurred along with any other financial losses.
If you were to blame for an accident at work, you wouldn’t usually be able to make a claim for medical expenses or other losses. Or for the injury sustained. If you’re not sure who was to blame, why not call our team? We’ll offer free legal advice during a no-obligation consultation and let you know if you could be entitled to claim. If we think you are, we could pass the case to a personal injury solicitor from our panel. Should they take the case on, they will represent you on a No Win No Fee basis.
No Win No Fee Work Injury Medical Expenses Claims
It is fairly common for claims to not be made or delayed because the claimant is concerned about how much it will cost to hire legal support. Solicitors are not a legal requirement to make a personal injury claIm. However, they can prove very useful. Our panel of personal injury solicitors offer a No Win No Fee service for any claim that’s accepted. If your case is taken on, you’ll benefit from specialist legal support with a lower financial risk. In turn, this will make the process of claiming less stressful.
At the start of your claim, the solicitor will need to check over everything for you. They will vet the claim to check that it meets the criteria for claiming and there is a reasonable chance of success.
Conditional Fee Agreement
If the solicitor decides to take on the claim, they will prepare a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) for you. This will provide details of what the lawyer needs to do before they are paid. For instance, it will show that:
- To start the claim, you won’t need to pay any upfront charges to your solicitor for their fees.
- During the claim, solicitor’s fees will not be billed to you.
- Should the claim fail, you will not be liable to pay the solicitor’s fees.
In the CFA, a success fee will be listed. This is a percentage of your compensation. The only time you will pay the success fee is if the solicitor wins compensation for you. Should that be the case, the percentage will be deducted from the compensation before you are paid.
You don’t need to worry too much as success fees are legally capped to prevent overcharging. If you would like to know whether your solicitor can be funded by a No Win No Fee agreement, why not get in touch with us today?
Responsibilities Of Your Solicitor:
- Consider all aspects of your suffering thoroughly.
- Arrange your medical assessment.
- Be contactable to answer any questions or explain any legal technicalities.
- Collate evidence to support your claim before sending it to the defendant.
- Deal with the defendant’s insurer or legal representative so you don’t have to.
- Keep you up to date.
- Try to achieve the maximum amount of compensation possible.
Discuss Your Case With An Expert
You are coming towards the end of this article about compensation payouts to cover work injury medical expenses. If you are now thinking about beginning a claim, our team are ready to help. To discuss your workplace accident with a member of our team, you can:
- Speak to a specialist advisor on the phone by calling 0161 696 9685
- Ask an online advisor to explain your options in live chat.
- Explain the details of your claim using our online enquiry form. A specially trained advisor will then call you when it is convenient.
Please call today if you would like to find out if you have a chance of being compensated.
Resources
Thanks for visiting Advice.co.uk today. We hope this guide about claiming for a workplace injury medical bill has helped you. If you’d like any further information about beginning a claim, please get in touch. You can chat online or begin your claim 24-hours a day.
In this last part of our guide, we have included some resources from external sources that might prove useful.
Health And Safety Guidance – A range of guides relating to workplace safety from the Health and Safety Executive.
Disciplinary Procedures – Acas advice on the procedures employers should follow during the disciplinary process.
Find NHS Services – This helpful site is useful if you need to look up the address of an NHS service to request medical records from them.
Below, you can find links to lots more guides on accidents at work:
- Accidents at work FAQ
- If you’ve suffered an electric shock at work, you may be unsure of your legal rights. If so, this guide offers lots of advice on claiming compensation for your injury and what steps your employer should take to make your workplace safe.
- 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?
- Can you sue your employer for an accident while still employed?
- How to prove an injury at work
- Will claiming against my employer create problems?
- Advice on claims if injured working for cash
- Do I need accident at work solicitors near me?
- Employers’ responsibilities after an accident at work
- What happens if an employee does not report an accident or injury at work?
- How long after an accident at work do you have to claim?
- Do I need a lawyer if I get an injury at work?
- New employee had an accident at work – can they claim?
- I had an accident at work, what are my employers’ responsibilities?
- I didn’t take time off work after an accident, can I still claim?
- How to claim for a work accident
- What to do if I injured myself at work?
- Workplace accident claim time limits
- Accidents caused by tiredness and fatigue
- Can you be fired for a work-related accident?
- Foot injuries caused by a lack of safety books
- Could I make a workplace injury claim if I’m not an employee?
- Tendon injury at work claims
- Can you claim for an accident at work if you suffered no injury?
- How to claim for an injury at work when self-employed
- Can I claim if assaulted at work?
- Can I be sacked for having an accident at work?
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