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All manual handling activities at work require at least two key things: training, and risk assessments. Any employee who is instructed to undertake manual handling activities at work absolutely must receive quality training from the employer in safe and correct lifting techniques. On top of that, any activities must be fully risk assessed to make sure that the task is safe to carry out. These are legal requirements.

Even with proper training, if a task is not safe due to some form of other risk, then the task needs to be looked at carefully. Common examples are the size and weight of an object, obstacles on the route of the lift, and whether the objects are in a location that is safe to lift from. A classic example is that of the beer barrel deliveryman who in the past may have been subjected to lifting heavy kegs of alcohol in a basement whilst crouched down low due to a low lying roof. This can be a killer to your back!

Another example as the title of this article suggests, is that of stacked boxes or loads being on a shelf or at any other form of height. If you need to lift a box from stomach height, you can normally apply the manual handling regulations and safely lift the load so long as it is of a weight and size that is suitable to do so. However, if the box is above head height, you are at risk of injuring yourself as you try and lift the load from the height due to the position of your back.
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Manual handling is important to get right. Getting it wrong can result in serious injuries; so it’s key for employers to make sure that they deal with manual handling activities in the correct way.

The two key things are training and risk assessments. Anyone, no matter what industry or working environment you are in, must have manual handling training if manual handling tasks are encompassed in their role. This training is not just a one off thing; there must be ongoing training to ensure that people receive refreshed training on a continual basis.

The second key thing is risk assessing a task. An employer should fully risk assess a manual handling activity to look at things such as:
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If you know the basic rules of the road, you should know that when you are emerging from a parked position, you need to make sure that the road is clear in both directions so that you don’t pull out on anybody. That means checking your blind spots as well as your mirrors with a good gaze over your shoulder, and looking ahead to make sure the entire road is clear.

So what happens if you are happily driving along and another driver ignorantly pulls out of a parked position and collides with your car? In theory you have a fairly straightforward claim for compensation. The damage areas to your car should show that your version of events is correct, and it’s always wise to whip out your smart phone and take some snaps at the scene of the accident, and call the police if necessary. If there are any witnesses to the accident, please make sure you take their information.
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Normally it can be fairly easy to tell who is at fault in a straightforward road traffic accident. However, in some cases like accidents on a roundabout or a head on collision, the damage areas on both vehicles may not clearly show who is to blame. I’d like to think people would be honest and admit if they were at fault, but we all know we don’t live in an ideal world. As such, you can end up in a situation where the other driver won’t admit liability for the accident even though they were at fault.

There are commonly two scenarios when this kind of thing happens. The first is that you instruct a quality personal injury lawyer like us to fight for your claim for compensation. As specialists in personal injury claiming, we can instruct experts and obtain all sorts of evidence to help prove your case. Make the claim as quickly as you can as there may even be CCTV covering the surrounding area that we can obtain. However, most places get rid of footage after a mere few weeks so we need to secure it as quickly as possible.
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This is probably more relevant for anyone working in a warehouse, an industrial site, and even those who work in offices (if boxes of files are being moved for archiving or something similar). Workplace regulations are numerous, and they’re there to protect employees from being injured in the line of duty.

When it comes to boxes, if these need to be stacked, then your employer is responsible to risk assess the process to make sure that any stacked boxes are done in a way that is safe to ensure they don’t fall over or cause anyone harm.

This ranges from what sorts of boxes can be stacked atop another, given weights and sizes, to where boxes should be stacked, and how high to ensure a stack is stable. At the same time, employees must be instructed in the correct procedure for stacking boxes safely.
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It’s so common nowadays for people to end up injured in a supermarket. With so many things all under one roof that items can be knocked over and cause an obvious slipping or tripping hazards from stock falling on the floor – it’s a constant problem.

Ultimately, all this leads to supermarkets being pretty dangerous places. As much as you can look out for your own wellbeing by keeping an eye out for hazards on the floors, there are certain things like water or oil that aren’t easy to spot; and when you’re distracted by the bargain prices, the last thing you are doing is watching where you’re walking. As a result, the Occupiers Liability Act is a pretty important piece of legislation for supermarkets to uphold.

By law, whoever is responsible or in charge of a premises has a duty to do all they reasonably can to ensure people are not injured. Whether you have a claim or not is not so much down to the individual circumstances. Many people are unfortunately under the illusion that if you slip or trip in a supermarket due to an item being on the floor, or a slipping hazard that isn’t cordoned off or doesn’t have signs in the area, you have a claim. This is not the case at all I’m afraid.
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In today’s current economic climate, it isn’t easy to find a new job. When you do get a new job, you want to make sure you make a fantastic impression and go the extra mile so you pass the probationary period and settle in to a new career. But as with anything in life, things don’t always go the way you plan them.

Having an accident at work can be stressful enough – having one in a new job can be even worse. The thing is, your wellbeing is the responsibility of your employer, so when you start a new job, it’s your employers responsibility to make sure that you are quickly trained in all things health and safety, and that you are trained in how to use equipment and do your job without ending up injured.

Firms should have a health and safety induction. It’s not the most thrilling thing in the world to read through pages and pages of information that ranges from important manual handling training to how to wash your hands properly; but it has to be done. But what I want to focus on more, in this blog post, is starting a new job where there is a very real risk of being injured quite easily.
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The amount of compensation you are entitled to receive is all about the severity of the injury, the affect it has on your everyday life, and how long you will be suffering for. On top of that, there are losses and expenses to consider – like lost earnings from time off work, medical expenses, treatment fees, etc.

This all takes medical evidence and collating your individual losses. It can end up being a great deal of work. So when people ask us the question “how much can I claim for – just give me a ballpark figure – I won’t hold you to it!” it’s not as easy as it sounds. For straightforward injuries we can perhaps give you averages and statistics, but it still maybe nowhere near the figure you’re actually entitled to receive.
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We take on a lot of work accident claims, and a lot of them relate to workers injured on the back of the lorry they are either driving or working from. I’ll give you a few examples and explain a little about how the law works when it comes to who is at fault and how to make a claim for personal injury compensation.

First and foremost, a lorry is classed as work equipment – and under the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations, your employer has a specific duty to inspect and maintain all work equipment to make sure no one comes to harm when using it. As it so happens, there are also some strict liability regulations that mean that if you are injured due to defective work equipment, you may have a very strong case. Say for example the shutters break and fall on you because a catch is broken, or they get stuck as you’re pushing them and cause you to badly jerk your back. Even if there was no way your employer could have stopped this from happening, you may still have a very good claim.
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This is a fairly common question that is asked of our expert claims team here at The Injury Lawyers. The answer is no; you don’t HAVE to go to hospital if you don’t need to.

It is highly recommended that you see some form of medical expert. You don’t have to go to hospital if you can see your GP for an appointment instead. As long as you have some form of medical attention which leads to your medical records being updated with information about the injuries you have sustained and how they were caused, you should be fine.

The reason you need medical attention is that we will later value your claim for compensation based on medical evidence from a report we will obtain from a suitable expert. It is a great help to the expert to see your medical records to show that you sought help after sustaining the injuries. They can use this as part of the report.
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