Making An Accident Claim For Your Workplace Injury
Following car accidents or slips and trips on local council maintained property, making an accident claim is very often the logical course of action to compensate victims for their injuries and any loss. However, it is also possible to make a work accident claim in the event of being injured in a work accident that wasn’t your fault.
The notion of making a work accident claim isn’t as familiar to everyone as other types of claims and many people feel afraid to make one, worrying about the repercussions of claiming against an employer. Victims shouldn’t worry though, employers who have failed in their duty to protect employees from accident or injury at work cannot terminate the contract of an employee purely because they make a claim. What’s more any compensation money comes from the insurance that the employer has, so the claim poses no threat to the company or the security of the jobs of other employees. Victims of injury shouldn’t feel guilty about making an accident claim: taking time off work to recover from an injury can lead to financial problems and it is the point of the compensation to prevent this.
Many types of accident can constitute a work accident. The term covers accidents which take place in offices, shops, factories, warehouses, construction sites, restaurant or even farms. If driving is part of a person’s job then injuries sustained in the car, van, forklift, lorry or tractor could count as workplace accidents.
In an ideal world, employers would all comply perfectly with strict health and safety laws so that their employees could be protected from any risk of injury. Sadly though, accidents do happen. Common examples include fork lift truck accidents and accidents on scaffolding and ladders.
If you think you might have a case for your workplace injury but aren’t sure then it is a good idea to consult an accident claim laywer. If you have a case it is important to be aware that victims must start their compensation claim within three years of the accident happening. That is, unless the victim is a minor, in which case they have three years from the date they turn eighteen to make a claim. However, different timescale limitation rules apply in cases of industrial disease.