If you have been involved in an accident at work causing you an injury, often you will be prevented from returning to work. If this happens to you one of the first concerns you might have is losing earnings whilst you are away from work. Can you ensure that you do not lose out, and if so how?
To see whether you are able to claim for any lost earnings as a result of an accident, it is first worth looking at the reason why anyone has a legal entitlement to claim compensation for injuries sustained as a result of an accident at work. We can then look in more detail at the ability to recover any lost earnings.
Duty of Care
Every employer owes each of his employees a duty of care to ensure that they are safe whilst they are at work. In addition to the normal laws of negligence which ensure that this duty of care exists, other laws have come into force to provide even greater protection such as the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations.
An employee is well protected, and on many occasions an employer’s insurance company will admit liability for an employee injured at work quite quickly.
Once your experienced work accident claim solicitor has dealt with liability for the accident, they will begin to assess your claim for Lost Earnings. This will include all aspects of your lost earnings including:
- Your basic salary
- Any lost overtime
- Any missed promotions due to your injuries and the basic and overtime salary lost as a result of this
Evidence
To support all of these lost earnings your work accident claim solicitor will need to obtain evidence to prove to your employer’s insurance company and to the court that your claim is reasonable. The purpose of compensation is, as far as possible, to return you to the position that you would have been in if the accident had not happened. Therefore, the claim for lost earnings should ensure that you recover any of the earnings you would have received if you had not been injured.
The claim for your basic salary should be quite straightforward, based on your standard salary and the period of time over which you were unable to work.
The claim for your overtime will be based on the average overtime you carried out each week, unless you can prove that the time you were away from work was a time when you would normally earn more overtime (holiday periods, busy periods of work etc).
Claiming for a lost promotion opportunity is more difficult, and will depend on evidence from your colleagues and managers. Whilst it can be more difficult to prove, if there is sufficient evidence you will be able to recover compensation for this element of your claim also.
Whilst many people are concerned about taking a claim against their employer, all employers must have insurance to cover such claims. Therefore, it is the insurance company that will settle any compensation claim.
If you ask an experienced Work Accident Claim solicitor you will be able to recover your lost earnings if you can prove that you have a valid personal injury claim.
Want To Claim Compensation For An Accident At Work? Contact us now
Our specialist work accident solicitors have the expertise you need to make a successful compensation for an accident or illness sustained in the workplace.
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