Personal injury solicitors for clients throughout England & Wales
England & Wales
Nobody should be injured simply for doing their job. Our personal injury solicitors act for employees and workers injured in construction, factories, warehouses, offices and every other kind of workplace across England and Wales, where unsafe conditions or an employer's negligence caused the injury.
The law places a clear duty on employers to keep their staff safe, backed by insurance they are required to hold. Bringing a claim is not about taking action against the people you work with. It is about the insurer meeting the cost of an injury that should not have happened.
You can claim if you were injured at work because your employer failed to take reasonable care for your safety. Employers must provide a safe place of work, safe equipment and safe systems of work, and they must give you proper training and protective equipment where it is needed. Where those duties are not met and you are injured as a result, you can bring a claim. The claim is met by the employer's compulsory employers' liability insurance, not by the employer personally.
What makes workplace claims different from most other personal injury claims is that the employer's obligations are set out in law and backed by regulation. Employers are required to assess risks, maintain equipment, provide training, and record and report certain incidents. That means there is usually a paper trail, and where an employer has fallen short, the records often show it.
We know that many people hesitate before claiming against an employer, particularly where they still work there. It is worth saying plainly that employers' liability insurance exists specifically for this, that the claim is handled by the insurer rather than by your colleagues, and that it is unlawful for an employer to dismiss you or treat you unfairly because you have brought a claim.
The right to a safe workplace applies to everyone working, whatever the arrangement, and more people can claim than usually realise.
Construction workers
Work on building sites carries some of the highest risks of any industry. Falls from height, being struck by falling objects, collapses, machinery incidents and unsafe scaffolding are all common causes of serious injury.
How workplace claims workFactory and manufacturing staff
Machinery without adequate guarding, unsafe processes, exposure to noise, dust and chemicals, and repetitive production line work all cause injuries and conditions that develop over time.
How workplace claims workWarehouse and distribution workers
Manual handling of heavy or awkward loads, racking collapses, moving vehicles in loading bays, falls from order pickers and repetitive picking work are the main causes of injury in this sector.
How workplace claims workOffice and shop staff
Slips and trips, injuries from poorly planned workplace moves, inadequate workstations and violence from members of the public are all capable of giving rise to a claim against an employer.
How workplace claims workDrivers and mobile workers
People who drive for work are injured in road collisions, and also when loading and unloading, securing loads or working on vehicles at the roadside. The employer's responsibilities run beyond the driving itself.
Road traffic claimsAgency and temporary workers
Agency staff, subcontractors and self employed people working under another's direction can often claim. Responsibility may rest with the host employer, the agency, the principal contractor, or more than one of them.
Everyone we act forSome of these happen in a moment. Others develop over months or years of doing the same work. Both can give rise to a claim where the employer failed to protect you.
The single most common cause of fatal and serious workplace injury in the UK. Falls from ladders, scaffolds, roofs, mezzanine floors and vehicles are almost always foreseeable, which means the employer should have planned the work, provided the right equipment and supervised it properly.
Lifting, carrying, pushing and pulling loads that are too heavy, awkwardly shaped or handled in a confined space. Employers must assess manual handling risks and reduce them where reasonably practicable, and injuries to the back, shoulders and limbs follow when they do not.
Unguarded moving parts, inadequate isolation procedures, missing emergency stops and equipment used without proper training. Machine accidents frequently cause severe injuries to hands, arms and fingers, and the guarding requirements are set out in specific regulations.
Falling objects, moving vehicles in yards and loading bays, collapsing structures and materials that were not stacked or secured properly. These incidents often result in head injuries, fractures and crush injuries to limbs.
Forklift incidents, being struck by a moving vehicle on site, and injuries during loading and unloading. Where the work involves driving, the employer's duties cover the vehicle, the load, the route planning and the time allowed for the journey.
Noise leading to hearing loss, vibration causing hand arm vibration syndrome, dust and fumes causing respiratory conditions, chemicals causing burns or dermatitis, and asbestos exposure. These claims often follow years of exposure before the effects become clear.
Not a single incident but a way of working that was never properly planned: no risk assessment, inadequate training, unrealistic time pressure, or safety measures skipped to save time. Where the system itself was unsafe, responsibility rests firmly with the employer.
Wet floors without signage, trailing cables, obstructed walkways, poor lighting and uneven surfaces. These are less dramatic than a fall from height but can still cause serious fractures and long term problems, particularly as people get older.
Employers are under a duty to take reasonable care for the safety of the people who work for them. That duty is not vague: it is supported by health and safety legislation that sets out specific obligations, and by regulations dealing with particular risks such as working at height, manual handling, machinery and the provision of protective equipment.
The practical consequence is that a workplace accident is rarely an unlucky one-off. Where something has gone wrong, there is usually a step that was missed: a risk that was not assessed, equipment that was not maintained, training that was not given, a job that was rushed to meet a deadline. Identifying that missed step is what establishes responsibility.
It also means there is usually documentary evidence. Employers must keep records of risk assessments, training, equipment inspections and maintenance, and incidents. Serious and specified accidents must be reported to the Health and Safety Executive or the local authority under RIDDOR, and an enforcement investigation can produce material that is very useful in a claim. We request these records as a matter of course.
After the free assessment, where a claim is accepted the solicitor writes to the employer's liability insurer setting out the accident and the basis on which the employer is said to have been at fault. The insurer investigates, usually by obtaining the employer's records and speaking to those involved.
Medical evidence is arranged at the same time. An independent expert examines you and reports on the injury and its likely course. For conditions that developed over time, or where exposure to noise, vibration or dust is in issue, specialist evidence may be needed on the cause of the condition as well as its effects.
The financial losses are then worked through, and the claim is presented with a figure. Most work accident claims are settled by negotiation with the insurer. Where responsibility is denied, particularly where an employer disputes that an accident happened or blames your own conduct, the claim may need to be decided by the court.
Compensation is built from the injury itself and from the financial consequences it has caused. Both have to be evidenced, and what is recoverable depends on your own circumstances.
Pain, suffering and loss of amenity
General damages for the injury and the effect it has on your life, including the work, hobbies and everyday tasks you can no longer manage as before.
Loss of earnings
Pay lost while you were off recovering, including overtime and shift allowances, and where the injury affects your future work, the difference in what you can earn.
Medical and treatment costs
Treatment you have paid for, physiotherapy, prescriptions and private care, along with the cost of treatment you are likely to need in future.
Care and assistance
Help with household tasks, childcare, gardening and personal care while you recover, whether paid for or provided by family members who stepped in.
Future losses
Where the injury has lasting effects, compensation can include future treatment, ongoing care, equipment, and the longer term effect on your earning capacity.
Pension loss
Where the injury forces you out of work or into lower paid work earlier than planned, the effect on your pension can be a substantial element of the claim in its own right.
We do not publish figures for particular injuries, because compensation is not decided by the injury name alone. Two people with the same diagnosis can receive very different awards depending on severity, how long symptoms last, the medical prognosis and the financial losses each has suffered. Any reliable figure has to come from the medical evidence in your own case.
How personal injury compensation is assessedYes, if your injury was caused by your employer's failure to take reasonable care for your safety. Employers owe their staff a duty to provide a safe workplace, safe equipment and safe systems of work. Where that duty is broken and you are injured as a result, you can bring a claim against the employer, and the claim is met by their compulsory employers' liability insurance rather than by the employer personally.
It is unlawful for an employer to dismiss or treat you unfairly because you have brought a personal injury claim. Employers are required by law to hold employers' liability insurance precisely so that claims like this are covered, and almost all work accident claims are dealt with by the insurer rather than by your manager or your employer's own money. Many claims are concluded without any day to day involvement from the employer at all.
For most accidents at work claims in England and Wales, the limitation period is three years from the date of the accident. Where the injury developed over time rather than happening on a particular day, such as a repetitive strain injury or hearing loss, the three years usually runs from the date you knew or ought to have known that the injury was connected to your work. Different rules apply to children and to people who lack capacity.
You should report it to your employer as soon as you can, and many workplaces have an accident book for this purpose. The law also requires employers to report certain serious incidents to the Health and Safety Executive or the local authority under RIDDOR. A recorded report is useful evidence, but the absence of one does not prevent a claim, and we can help establish what happened from other sources.
A claim can often still be brought. Where an employee is partly responsible, compensation is usually reduced to reflect their share of the blame rather than refused, which is known as contributory negligence. It might arise, for example, if you did not follow training or did not wear provided protective equipment. The reduction is a percentage applied to the total value of the claim, and the position is often more nuanced than it first appears.
Yes. Many work related conditions develop over months or years rather than in a single incident. Repetitive strain injuries, manual handling damage, vibration white finger, industrial deafness, dermatitis and respiratory conditions linked to dust or chemicals can all give rise to a claim where the employer failed to protect you. Time limits in these cases run from the date of knowledge rather than the date of exposure.
Often yes, and the position is more favourable than many people expect. A claim can be brought against whichever party owed you a duty of care, which may be the host employer where you were working, the agency, the principal contractor on a site, or more than one of them. We will identify who was responsible and pursue the right parties.
The accident book entry, any internal report, photographs of the location and equipment, the details of witnesses, maintenance and training records, and your medical records all help. Your employer has a legal duty to keep records of risk assessments, training, inspections and equipment maintenance, and those records can be requested as part of the claim. If a regulator has investigated, their report can be valuable.
The answers above explain the position generally. Every claim turns on its own facts, and the applicable rules are those in force at the relevant time.
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Read our Regulatory InformationTell us what happened and a member of our team can explain whether there may be grounds to claim, what evidence would be needed and how the process would work. The assessment is free, and speaking to us does not commit you to anything.
