Before you can claim compensation for a burn injury you suffered at work there is a simple three-part test to confirm that you would be eligible to make such a claim. Essentially, you have to be able to show that you weren’t to blame for your injury and that your employer was.
1. This is done by firstly demonstrating that your employer owed you a duty of care. This common law duty of care means that your employer needed to have taken every reasonable step possible to ensure that their employees came to no harm in the workplace, carrying out their work duties, by ensuring that all necessary risk assessments had been carried out and acted on and that he was in compliance with all the current health and safety legislation. In other words, your workplace should have been a safe place to work if your employer had fully discharged his duty of care.
2. Secondly, it needs to be shown that your employer was in breach of his duty or care or other health and safety obligations, as legislated. Perhaps he had neglected to install a guard to prevent skin coming into contact with a hot machine or a warning sign stating that the machines was hot, or had failed to maintain a floor in good repair, causing a trip, slip or fall hazard, or he might have failed to issue effective respiratory protection to people who might come into contact with corrosive vapours.
3. Finally the link needs to be made between the reason for the accident that caused your burn injury and any breach of your employer’s duty of care, sufficient to show that it was that breach that caused or contributed towards your injury. So, using an example in the previous paragraph, that link might be your employer’s negligence in failing to put a guard on a machine that you were using causing to burn your hand on it, whereas if the necessary safety measures had been taken you would have been prevented from suffering that injury by the presence of a guard.
One of our specialist work accident claim compensation solicitors will rapidly be able to determine if there was a breach and if it did indeed contribute towards or cause you to have your accident – and that is exactly what you need to know before any claim for compensation can be considered.
Want to claim compensation for a burn injury at work? We can help you
Want help with how to claim work injury compensation ? Simply email us today for free initial advice and a free first appointment.
- Call our compensation claims solicitors now on 0800 1404544, or
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