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What should you do if you have an accident at work?

Naturally, you should firstly seek medical attention to make sure you are okay!  At the end of the day, nothing is more important than your wellbeing.  Once you are sure you are fine you should report your accident to your manager or supervisor and make sure that a record is properly kept of your accident by your employer.

All employers are legally required to keep an accident book.  It is necessary to record all accidents in this book and it is good practice to even record near misses in the workplace.  For example, if you trip over something that shouldn’t have been there but don’t fall and hit the ground or injure yourself, you should still report this so that action be taken in order to prevent such incidents happening again.
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Any injury can end up being debilitating – but when it’s a vital limb we use as part of our everyday lives, the things we are normally able to do can end up being severely restricted.

A trip over a dangerous hazard or a slip on a wet floor can leave you falling to the ground, and doing what we all do when we are falling – instinctively put out your arms to break your fall! Whilst this vital instinctive defensive mechanism can minimise the damage to your body, you are likely to suffer a hard knock at the very least, if not a break in any area of your arm caused by the impact of the fall.

The common injuries we see here are fractures and dislocations to the wrists, fingers, and elbows, unless you’re luck enough to escape with soft tissue damage instead. The soft tissue injuries you can get can be equally as damaging and may leave you feeling tender for quite some time. If you suffer from ligament damage you could be in an even worse position as many ligament ruptures can be impossible to repair, leaving you needing some from of reconstructive surgery.
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One of the most important things in helping to bring a successful claim for compensation if you have had an accident at work is to ensure that you have reported your accident.  If you do this there is a hard record of your accident and there should not be any disputes later on as to whether the accident happened or not.  Reporting your accident really is an excellent staring point.

Naturally, if you require urgent medical attention this you should be the first thing you seek.  At the end of the day, nothing is more important than your being okay.  But, once you have sought medical attention, make sure to get your accident recorded in the accident book at work and to inform your Manager of what has happened.

It is important to know that all employers are required by law to have an accident book and you should be made aware as to where it is kept.  You should also know that all accidents should be reported in the accident book, and near misses should be reported as well. 
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Given that work takes up such a huge amount of our lives nowadays, we expect to be safe when working; i.e. not running in to any hazards whilst we get on with our jobs. Health and Safety in the workplace is of paramount importance, and employers must adhere to loads of rules and regulations to make sure employees do not come to harm whilst in the workplace.

Whilst differing rules and regulations apply more to varying areas of employment, one of the most basic areas of health and safety law that applies to any employment situation is tripping hazards!

We get a lot of enquiries from people looking to make compensation claims for tripping injuries at work. At the end of the day, it’s so easy to get caught out. A tile on the floor becomes raised and isn’t inspected or maintained regularly enough by the employer, and you have yourself an employee tripping over an obvious and dangerous defect. A colleague leaves some bags in a corridor and you walk straight in to them; the likelihood is you ending up on the floor, humiliated, and injured.
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If you ever injure yourself in the workplace, its good practice to report it to a superior as soon after the accident as possible; permitting you don’t need urgent medical attention or anything. No matter how big or small the injury is, you would be wise to notify someone and get it properly recorded to make sure there is a solid record of exactly what happened.

This is especially useful for making a claim for compensation. So if you are considering making one and haven’t yet reported the injury, I’d speak to your employer as soon as you can!

So, here’s a little advice on reporting the accident and what happens next:
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Manual handling injuries can be devastating; the back is, after all, one of the most important parts of our bodies. Injuring your back can range from discomfort to immobility. Its important that we look after our backs, so its important that we lift in the right way to make sure that we never end up injuring ourselves in the line of duty for our employers.

Manual Handling affects everyone – even the office workers that every now and then need to carry a stack of files or a box of paper from A to B need to make sure that they are doing it in the right way to avoid injury. For those of you where manual handling is an active part of your daily routine, I’d like to think you know the dangers and the health and safety rules inside out.

Rules and Regulations
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Depending on your choice of profession, you may find yourself exposed to all sorts of weird, wonderful, and potentially dangerous equipment that is necessary for you to use to carry out your job. If you’re mainly office based like me, the only equipment I use other than my computer is a phone, a pen, and a stapler now and then! So there isn’t much danger in it for me – although if you are computer based, make sure you’ve done your Display Screen Equipment tests…

Alternatively, those of you working on a construction site will be using power tools, ladders, cement mixers, plant machinery, and all sorts of potentially lethal things; so it goes without saying that adequate training and supervision is needed for the use of this kind of work equipment…

The Law
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We are The Injury Lawyers – and we think our name says it all. We are THE INJURY LAWYERS, meaning we only deal with personal injury compensation claims, so we can offer you a more specialist service and a lawyer with specialist experience and skills. To narrow it down a little more, we specialise in all forms of personal injury claims; with work accident compensation claims making up a large percentage of our client base.

So, if you’ve had an accident at work, and you’re looking for a work accident compensation claim lawyer, look no further, and take note of this three part guide that will fill you in on what you need to know.

1. Your Position and Employment is Protected
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If you ever find yourself injured in an accident as a consequence of someone’s negligence, leaving you distressed and at harm either from a physical or psychological injury, it is only justifiable to ensure that you are well compensated as a result of this injury for your pain suffering, and loss of amenity.

With this in mind then, it is important to understand that it is not possible to seek compensation directly from an individual who caused the accident as, from a financial perspective, they would certainly struggle to compensate you properly. Therefore the preferable route would be to seek damages against their employer as chances are they will posses adequate insurance for you to claim from.

Having said this, in order for a case of vicarious liability to be successfully brought a distinction must be made between what qualifies an individual to being under a ‘contract of employment’ and under a ‘contract for services’.
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It is no exaggeration when I tell you that injuries caused by the incorrect lifting of objects, whether it be in the course of your employment or indeed otherwise, are some of the most common and worryingly easy to get.

It is important to understand that it doesn’t matter whether you are the utmost prime condition, or if you are like me, after somewhat overindulging through Christmas, you’re feeling a little snug around the midriff – lifting injuries are not dictated by how fit you are, it is all do to with how you position yourself before and during the process of lifting, and also, which is similarly important, how you place the object down after moving can also have identical repercussions on your back and spine if not carried out correctly.

With this in mind then, and if you have ever been asked to move around objects at work and have done so without ever really giving it a second thought (I know I have before), it is worth understanding that from your employers perspective it is a legal obligation to ensure that, before any carrying of any kind is carried out, a course of sufficient and reasonable training and practice is compulsory to show all employees how to lift in a way which ensures a good centre of gravity over the object at all times, and covers all bases and precautions which must be undertaken before any lifting is attempted.
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