Back Injury At Work – Can You Claim Compensation?

It is unlikely that you would be able to establish that the vehicle in question is unduly dangerous or that the employer has been negligent. If the vehicle is unmodified and legally roadworthy, it would not seem that you can take any action.

Sadly, the courts are likely to find that you are outside of the 3 year claim limitation period – even though your symptoms appeared to have worsened in the past 2-3 years. As such, it is highly unlikely that any Solicitor would be able to offer you a No Win No Fee service to pursue your claim as there is a high prospect that you would not be able to succeed in the time that has lapsed.

Lifting of such items if done unsafely could certainly cause injury and spinal damage. This is why employers are mandated to provide manual handling training and ensure that appropriate equipment and assistance is provided so that workers can work safely.

In your case, it would seem that your employer has failed to uphold their duty of care and it is certainly reasonable for you to therefore want to pursue a claim for personal injury compensation. Given your description of your injury and the work you were doing, we would like to speak with you to find out a little more and advise as to whether you can make a claim for personal injury compensation.

Did your employer provide you with the appropriate training to enable to you lift and move such weight safely and did they provide the correct amount of assistance and the right equipment to enable safe moving of the items being delivered?

If not, we can establish employer negligence and assist you to make a claim for personal injury compensation.

You have a valid claim for compensation as a result of your employers negligence. Our specialist Solicitor can assist you on a No Win No Fee basis.

Has your Father been given training regarding safe lifting and moving manual handling? Does the employer ensure that no workers are expected to lift items exceeding the safe lifting limit and is the working environment a safe one? If you can answer ‘no’ to any of these initial questions, then there is merit in further discussing this matter with your Father and for our Solicitors to investigate the potential to pursue a claim.

You are totally right in that the employer is obliged to ensure that the working environment is as safe as it can be and that the risks of injury to employees is minimised. In this case, the broken/not working equipment is clearly a failure on the part of your employer and you have a right to pursue a claim for your serious back injury against their insurance cover.

If successful with your claim, our Solicitors would recover your loss of income and also a compensation settlement appropriate for the pain and distress caused to you by your back injury.

It is clearly important that the injury is recorded correctly. The workplace on the day should have allowed you to make a record of it and the company who sub-contracted you should have also recorded the details. You should make your own written report of the injury and send a copy to both parties, requesting that they record the details.

Whether or not you would be in a position to pursue a claim is unclear as it appears that you were not being asked to lift an item that exceeds the safe limit and you state that you were following the correct manual handling training guidance. As such, unless the workplace environment meant that it was impossible to work safely, it is hard to see how you could pursue a claim.

Providing training is only one part of an employers responsibility to ensure that the risks of injury through manual handling in the workplace are minimised. Along with training, an employer must also ensure that the working environment enables staff to follow the guidance given in any manual handling training and that the items that staff are expected to lift and move, can be lifted and moved safely by a staff member.

In your case, our Solicitors can discuss the situation in detail and potentially pursue a claim against your employer for the pain and discomfort caused to you along with recovery of any lost income.

If an employer has provided manual handling training and an employee then injures themselves through lifting, having chosen to ignore or not follow the training guidance, they cannot then pursue a claim against the employer for personal injury as the employer has not acted negligently.

As to whether the employer could then dismiss the employee is unclear. Failing to follow training to lift safely, is unlikely to be seen as gross misconduct, so dismissal from the workplace for such an incident would seem unfair and unreasonable. However, if the employee has repeatedly failed to follow training and has an existing disciplinary record, the employer may dismiss them.

The denial of liability is something that is frustrating, but given the defective equipment and your ignored requests for assistance prior to sustaining your injury, it is not something that should overly concern you at this stage.

In your case, if your injury was reported promptly and medical attention was obtained quickly, there can be no argument that the injury was caused at work and the two sides will then fight over liability and based on your description, you appear to be in a good position on that count.

In terms of the investigator, that will be the defendant insurers who have decided to undertake this surveillance of you. They will be checking on you periodically over the coming weeks and months in order to see if they can obtain evidence of you undertaking activities that you have claimed you cannot do. As an example, if your claim states that you are limited with mobility and strength due to your back injury, they’ll be hoping to get footage of you running, mowing the lawn and undertaking the activities of a person who is not claiming for a disabling injury. So long as you are not doing anything you’ve claimed you cannot do, you have nothing to worry about and if you do notice an investigator, just wave to them!

Thank you ian just one more question please if the insurance company didnt think I had a good case against them would they still send out a private investigator or would they still do it if I didnt have a case against them?? Can you please explain if you can I’d greatly appreciate it.

Thank you

It is impossible to be certain, but it would be highly unlikely that an insurer would go to the cost of instructing a private investigator (it is quite an expensive speciality to recruit) to undertake surveillance on you and your activities if they didn’t feel that your case had good prospects of succeeding. Defendant insurers would usually use such operatives in an effort to discredit or undermine a claimant that would otherwise succeed with their claim and at a substantial settlement cost.

Have you informed your Solicitor that you are being followed? If you have had a medical examination for the purposes of your claim and both sides have agreed on the contents of the medical experts report, it may well be possible to get the defendant to withdraw the covert surveillance.

Has your new employer provided you with manual handling training? Were you expected to move items of excessive weight or in a position that would make following manual handling guidance impossible? These are some of the questions we need to get the answers from in order to advise you fully, but it would certainly seem that you have valid grounds to make a further and more detailed enquiry with us.

Were any of the injuries you had at work within the last 3 years recorded in the employers accident book? If so, you can seek to pursue a claim for compensation.

You should make sure that any injury symptoms are reported to the employer in writing. It is unlikely that an accident book would be the right place to log the injury as there hasn’t been a one off incident or accident, but you can write to or email your employer stating what symptoms you are having as a result of their failure to provide you with manual handling training to prevent back injuries or a site induction.

Given the failure of the employer to provide adequate training, it’s more than likely that you have a strong case to succeed with a claim for personal injury compensation. We can certainly help you to pursue such a claim which if successful, would see you recover compensation for the pain and discomfort of the injury but also open the possibility of obtaining specialist rehabilitation therapy to ensure that your injury is sorted as quickly as possible and that you can return to normal activity at the earliest opportunity.

Your employer appears to have failed to ensure that the risks of you being injured whilst performing your duties were minimised. An initial health and safety induction is vitally important in workplaces where physical work such as lifting and moving or the use of machinery will be undertaken. In your case, not only should you have had an initial induction, but you should also have had the appropriate manual handling training to ensure that you knew how to lift and move packages safely and how to identify any items that exceeded the safe lifting limit.

We can help you to recover compensation for your injuries and recover lost income if our Solicitors are successful with your claim. To give your claim the best chance of success, make sure that the details of your injuries are recorded within the employers accident book and also ensure that you seek medical attention from your GP to ensure that medical evidence will be available to support your Solicitor.

Unfortunately, unless your contract of employment specifies that your employer will pay your usual salary during a period of sickness, there is no legal obligation for the employer to pay anything more than statutory sick pay (SSP) if you qualify for the scheme.

The only way you can recover your lost income (the difference between the SSP you have received and your usual salary which is £229.70 per week) or any other costs you have incurred because of the back injury, will be by pursuing and succeeding with a claim for personal injury compensation against your employers insurance cover. As your back was injured whilst lifting and moving items it may well be a matter our specialist Solicitors can assist with successfully.

You may well be able to pursue a claim for compensation against the employer, if it can be established that your employer has been negligent and could have taken action to reduce the risk of the injuries you have sustained, but failed to do so. Negligence in this scenario would likely be the employers failure to make provision of adequate and regular training, inadequate tools and equipment to enable you to work safely and requiring you to lift or move items that exceed safe lifting limits.

You have up to 3 years from the date of the onset of symptoms (the date at which you became aware that they were more than just a minor niggle and were likely to be work related) in which you can make a claim.

When did your symptoms develop? To pursue a claim, you would have to act within 3 years of the date at which you became aware of the symptoms.

You can make a claim as long as you are doing so within 3 years of suffering the injuries. This is clearly a factor in whether or not you can pursue a claim for compensation. You need to consider when you first realised that your symptoms were work related and when you first attended the Doctors regarding the same.

It would seem that your former employer was negligent in their handling of your safety at work. However, the time that has lapsed between you suffering the injuries mentioned and being left unable to work and now puts you out of limitation and unable to make a claim for personal injury. Unfortunately, all claims MUST be made within 3 years of the date of an injury or date at which you became aware of the severity of your injuries.

You have a right to make a claim for compensation so long as you do so within 3 years of the onset of any symptoms. The issue that needs to be considered carefully is causation – that is to establish that the injury is related to heavy lifting at work and not due to degeneration or some other trauma.

Did your employer provide you with manual handling training and equipment to assist with the lifting and moving of the washing machines, fridges and other white goods?

The tribunal and employment issues should be seen separately to any injuries that you may have sustained at work and the tribunal hearing that you won for discrimination is not relevant to personal injury compensation – although it does indicate that your employer may not have acted appropriately towards your health and safety at work. As such, if you have not yet already made a claim for the injury you sustained in January 2019, please contact us at the earliest opportunity on 01225430285 as you have just over 12 months of your 3 year claim limitation period remaining available. With this in mind, it is important to act quickly and avoid any further delay in making your claim for injury compensation.

When did you have the injury? If the incident happened within the past 3 years, you have a right to make a claim. Of course, the lack of an accident book entry and a lack of medical records could make succeeding with your claim less likely, but as things stand you can still claim without having seen a doctor yet, we would be happy to have our Solicitors further consider this for you.

Please call us on 01225430285 to provide further details.

Your employer is obliged to ensure that you are provided with the correct manual handling training to enable you to lift safely and identify items too heavy to lift without assistance or equipment. If your employer fails to provide the same and you sustain injury, you could pursue a claim against their insurance for compensation for the injuries sustained and loss of income.

In reality, if you are concerned about injury, you should ask your employer for training and see if they are willing to do the right thing.

It is likely that the item you were asked to lift exceeded the safe lifting limit and the way that your employer was asking you to work was negligent. We actually help quite a few support workers injured in this way.

Please call us on 01225430285 to start your claim. Your employer has a duty of care towards you if you are doing lifting or handling items of weight at work. If the employer has failed in that regard, you have a valid claim for compensation and we would be happy to help you.

On face value, you have a valid claim that should be further considered in detail by our specialist Solicitors. Your employer is obliged to ensure that you are given proper manual handling training and provided with the correct guidance for how to lift items safely and lifting aids to help with items of heavier weight. As the employer had failed to fulfill these statutory obligations, you may well succeed with a claim.

It would be sensible to attend your GP to discuss the symptoms and your working regime (you should mention the limited working space and the lack of training and equipment to move heavier items too) and you should also report your symptoms to your employer and query the same issues with them – this would help later on in the process should you make a claim as it will give your Solicitor some evidence to support your claim and help with holding the employer to account.

We look forward to speaking with you and helping you understand your rights regarding back injury compensation.

You should not be expected to lift an item of such weight without assistance or without equipment to assist with the lifting. Furthermore, you should also receive training for the safe movement of the generator and use of the same. I would recommend that advise your employer in writing that you are deeply concerned about the weight of the item and believe you should have assistance to lift and move it and training regarding the same. If you then sustain injury and the employer has not acted on the fact that you have raised justified concerns, it would greatly help you should any claim then be made.

Employers must ensure that staff members are made aware as to how to lift safely and they must ensure that the risk of injury in the workplace is minimised. In work places where any lifting is involved (especially where heavy lifting or repetitive lifting forms part of the workload), employers have a duty of care to ensure that their staff are provided with manual handling training, assist equipment to lift items safely and given guidance about safe lifting limits.

In your case, if your employer has failed to provide training, equipment and guidance you may well be able to hold them liable for the injury you have sustained.

If your GP has failed to properly record the details of symptoms you have presented with, diagnosis of injuries and treatments provided, you may have a second claim against them for professional negligence.

Have you had a Solicitor representing you in your claim to date?

To make a claim against your employer for injuries caused through working practices, you would be best served by instructing a specialist Claims Management Company or personal injury Solicitor to represent you in your claim. This is the exact service that we provide and we can assist you with this.

In your work, you are clearly expected to lift and move items of weight. Has your employer ever provided you with manual handling training or equipment to help you move the items? If not, there may well be a case of employer negligence and it would be suitable to pursue a claim for compensation.

The most sensible next step would be for you to call us on 01225430285, so that we can fully discuss your situation and the cause of your injury. We can then advise you as to whether or not you have a potential claim. If you do, our team will explain the No Win No Fee process to you and can take some initial instructions and pass your enquiry to our specialist Solicitors for you.

Hi
Thanks for replying.
Manual handling was completed but no equipment to help move items. I did also damage my tendon in my arm too from pulling the base of the parasol.

If you would like to make a claim on the basis that the employer has not provided equipment to move the items, please let us know.

If your employer requires you to lift items, they must ensure that you are provided with manual handling training and given the correct equipment to enable you to work safely (trolleys to move items, assistance with heavier items and the knowledge as to how to identify the weight of items). If the employer has failed in these obligations towards your safety at work, employer negligence may attach and a claim could proceed.

There is likely to be an issue of both limitation and causation if you were to make a claim. Firstly, to make a claim you MUST do so within 3 years of the onset of any symptoms. Secondly, can you establish a link between the work you were doing and the injury.

As you mention that you worked for this employer in the late 80’s, that is 30 years ago now. It is likely that you are too late to make a claim.

Whether or not it is your responsibility to arrange your own training, including health and safety training such as manual handling training will depend on your job description and to what extent you have control over such matters. It is certainly reasonable for you to make a claim against your employer if you have not been given such training as there is a likelihood that such a claim would succeed and we would be happy to assist you in this matter.

150 kgs is a considerable weight and should be moved appropriately. An employer needs to ensure that the staff moving such a weight have had both manual handling training, but are also provided with the appropriate equipment to move such an item safely. In this case, the item should have been on some sort of trolley or pallet truck. It is likely that there should have had 2 persons moving it also.

We would be happy to help you make your claim and would recommend that you ensure that an accident book entry is made with the employer. Please call us on 01225430285 or ask us to call you to find out how we can help and learn more about your options.

You have valid grounds to pursue a claim for compensation from the employers insurance cover – we can certainly help you in pursuing your claim. However, before you do, you need to do two things to protect your interests and give your claim the maximum prospects of succeeding.

Firstly, ensure that the incident is properly recorded within an accident book. If you struggle to have the employer record it, you should make your own written report and email a copy to your line manager and you should also request that the CCTV footage is retained.

Secondly, you should make a GP appointment to discuss your injury. The symptoms you describe could well indicate that you have suffered a soft tissue injury and it is common for the symptoms of such injuries to become more evident over 24/48 hours post incident. As such, the fact that you are hurting more this evening than you were yesterday makes sense.

The key issue here is that you appear to have been caused injury through employer negligence and as such, you should pursue a claim against your former employer for the injury you have sustained and the associated losses incurred.

The pallet that you were asked to move alone was 28kg’s which exceeds the safe lifting limit of 25kg’s which indicates your employer was negligent towards your health and safety at work in preventing back injuries. Further, if your employer failed to provide you with manual handling training so that you could work safely and know what you could or could not lift or move, the employer will have a tough time defending any claim you may go on to make.

We would certainly like to help you make a claim for compensation for your injury and feel that on face value, you have a valid claim that should be presented to our specialist Solicitors for detailed consideration.

Lifting weights of 80kg without assistance or equipment is unsafe and would see your employer struggling to defend a claim if you sustain injury. You mention that you are already suffering occasional symptoms with your lower back and you need to be extremely careful as injury may already have occurred. You should make a report at work of your back injury and the lifting and seek medical attention before making your claim for compensation.

In most cases, employees would not be expected to lift an item exceeding 25kg without having assistance or equipment to aid the lifting.

UK law would not only require your employer to provide you with adequate manual handling training, but would also require the employer to ensure that you have a working environment that enables you to follow such training.

Whilst your employer is likely to cite the piece of paper you have signed regarding training to claim that they have provided you with adequate guidance for safe lifting, it is clear that they have put you at risk of injury by the way that they expect you to lift an item of 40kg’s without support or help.

You need to make sure that an injury report is given to your work (accident book or similar) outlining your injury and the work you have been doing. We would be happy to help you make a claim for compensation on a No Win No Fee basis. Please contact us to start your claim or to find out how we can help you.

Thank you for a reply, my only concern that the company gonna twist things that it’s my fault that I did not ask for a help, but it’s very hard to get someone to help you because of lack of space and a position the steel parts need to be stacked and in fact it’s even more dangerous to lift them by two people because of uneven weight distribution. My company is really dodgy, before they used to hire only polish guys who can’t speak English to abuse them in bad working conditions, now things getting a little better but the management is almost the same and I think they gonna find a way to get around it.

Your concern about your employer acting in a dishonest way should not prevent you from pursuing a claim if you believe that you are in the right. You should document any issues and obtain evidence where possible (by taking photographs etc) to strengthen your claim so that should you pursue action in due course, the employer is confronted with strong evidence.

You do have 3 years to make a claim, so you do have the option of obtaining the evidence needed and securing new employment elsewhere before you start your claim.

You can look in to making a claim on the basis of being asked to lift and move dangerous items of excessive weight. The issue you may have is one of limitation and being out of time.

Given the apparent lack of training and guidance in terms of safe manual handling and the apparent lack of equipment to move heavy items safely (trolleys etc), it would appear that your employer has been negligent towards your health and safety.

Before you leave the company, you should make a written complaint/report to them regarding why you have left and the injury/pain to your back. You should make mention of the lack of training, the repeated heavy lifting and the fact that you are expected to lift items exceeding 25kgs without assistance.

We work on a No Win No Fee basis and given your description of the situation, my initial view is that you have a valid claim for compensation.

Self-Employed workers do have a right to claim compensation, but it can be harder to prove negligence against a contractor or company that has employed the self-employed worker.

It is important that you make sure that your injury is recorded at work and that the cause of your injury (working alone to lift items exceeding 25kgs) are noted with the employer.

The best course of action would be to use the ‘start a claim’ page of our website to make further contact with us so that we can look further in to making a claim for you.

The lack of an accident book entry could make life more difficult with regards to a claim for compensation, but it wouldn’t in and of itself prevent you from succeeding with a claim for compensation.

An accident book entry is one of the forms of evidence that can be used to support a claim for personal injury compensation. In this case, there is also an obligation on the employer to have evidence to support their defence of any claim – such as providing training records to show that they had fulfilled their obligations and trained you properly to work safely. As they are unlikely to be able to provide the same, there is still a chance that your claim for the slipped disc could succeed.

To succeed with a claim for compensation from the nhs for the injury to your back, we would need to establish negligence against the employer and show that the injury was avoidable. In this case, we need to know how you were injured and whether there was a fault with the operating table end that caused you to be injured or whether the end of the table was heavy and you were unaware of this as a risk of injury.

If you could elaborate further on these points, I can advise you further as to whether or not you have a valid claim for compensation.

The injury wasn’t avoidable the operating table end is heavy . I was injured by taking the end off the table two other people had to push the button either side for me to be able to take the end of the table off, this resulted in me injuring my back as I pulled it off.

Unfortunately, it would appear that you are now out of limitation with regards to taking action against your former employer. UK Personal Injury Compensation law applies a strict claim limitation period of 3-years from the date of an injury in which a claim must be made.

Your employers failure to provide training in manual handling lifting and equipment (pallet truck) to move this item is likely to be seen as employer negligence. As such, my initial view is that you have a valid claim for compensation. Given the lack of an accident book at work, I feel that you should put something in writing to your employer (perhaps in email or by letter) outlining what happened to your back and the lack of a pump trolley.

We would be very happy to pursue a claim for you in this matter and I therefore invite you to use the ‘start a claim’ page of our website to take this further.

Sadly, if you are no longer fit to carry out the duties that you were employed to do, your employer is not obliged to retain your services. An employer may provide light duties if they are able to do so but if not, they will have to go through due process with you before terminating your employment.

If you have suffered this injury within the last 3 years, you should make a claim for compensation against the employer as their failure to provide you with training and a safe working environment is employer negligence.

Regarding a possible settlement value, when you make a claim for compensation the appropriate value of your claim will be reached on the basis of medical evidence of the injuries sustained. Therefore if you have more than one injury, the value of the claim would be higher than if you just had one.

Under UK Law, employers have a statutory duty to ensure that the risk of injury to all staff is minimised so far as practically possible. Therefore, if an employer requires employees to perform lifting duties, they are obliged to ensure that the staff are provided with manual handling training to reduce the risk of lifting related injuries, along with being given appropriate equipment and tools to lift heavy items.

If your employer hasn’t provided you with training, you could seek to make a claim against them on the grounds of inadequate manual handling training, which is likely to succeed on the basis of employer negligence.

You would have a claim for compensation if your employer has either failed to provide you with Manual Handling Training and create a working enviornment that allows you to work in accordance with safe lifting guidelines and the use of equipment such as trolleys to lift and move heavy items. If your employer hasn’t ticked all of these boxes, you may well have a claim for compensation.

Even if your employer has provided such training, you could still claim successfully if the nature of the work means that you can’t work or lift safely. I would strongly suggest that we speak with you to find out more and help you understand your rights.

This sounds like a clear cut case of employer negligence. The way that they have asked you to lift a live animal would appear to be in breach of safe manual handling guidance and as such, you could well have a valid claim for accident at work compensation. We have an article on slipped disc injuries at work which will give you an idea of possible compensation amounts.

The failure of your former employer to provide you with adequate manual handling training before you sustained an injury is an act of employer negligence and would give you good prospects of succeeding with a claim for back injury at work compensation against the employer.

The fact that they showed you a manual handling training video the day after you sustained a back injury does not alter this fact as employers must provide manual handling training to employees tasked with lifting and moving items before they are placed at risk and in this case, your employer has failed to do that. As such, we believe that you have a viable and strong claim against that employer. As such, we invite you to contact us for further assistance as we would like to pursue your back injury at work compensation claim.

Whether or not you work via an agency or directly for an employer, all workers are afforded the same rights to health and safety and also to any possible claim for compensation when an employer has failed in their duty of care towards health and safety at work. In this case, did the employer provide training with regards to lifting and moving items (manual handling training)? Did they provide assistance or equipment to lift heavy items? Was the working environment and practices such that it made safe lifting impossible?

I think it best that we speak with your Husband directly to find out more about the work and what happened as he may well have a valid claim for compensation that would – if he was successful with the claim – enable him to recover any lost income as well as compensation for the injury.

The damage to your back is clearly serious and I hope that your treatment and recovery goes well.

Given the injuries/damage you describe, it would certainly match with a repetitive strain injury and the continual lifting you cite would appear to the the cause.

I think we should pursue a claim for compensation here. Of course, there can be no guarantee of success, but we can guarantee that it would not cost you any fees should the claim fail.

Shaun

Thanks for coming back to us. If your employer is refusing to acknowledge your accident and is denying that you have reported the matter (that it isn’t in the accident book) I would suggest that you either write to the employer or email them to report your injuries and how they happened at work. You should outline what happened to your back, what you were doing and the pain. You can then advise them that you left for the day and subsequently had to see your GP. You should simply state that you want the details of your injury recorded and you DON’T need to mention anything about making a claim.

If you would like us to help you pursue a claim for the back injury as a workplace injury claim against the employer, we’d be happy to do this for you. If so, please send me your phone number – or call us on 01225430285

Yours sincerely

Ian

Debbie

Thank you for letting us know about your situation. On the basis of what you have disclosed so far, it would certainly be fair to say that your employers do have a case to answer with regards to an allegation of employer negligence towards your health and safety at work.

It is good that they have given you manual handling training, but failing to ensure that you have been trained and supported to safely use an important and commonly used item needed for your work (the 2 man lift) has exposed you to the risk of injury.

Given that you have recorded the details of this matter within the accident book at work and your employers are aware of the situation, we would certainly be keen to address this matter with them and represent you with a claim for compensation. Please contact us on 01225430285 to discuss your situation in greater depth and help you to better understand your rights and how the No Win No Fee claims process works. We have excellent specialist personal injury solicitors available to help you pursue this matter.

We very much look forward to helping you and I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

Ian Morris

Lucy

You can most definitely still make a claim for injury compensation and given that it seems that your employer isn’t really too caring about your situation and your health, I would expect that you have every intention of doing just that.

We would be more than happy to help you get this claim up and running. I will email you directly also and look forward to hearing from you and helping with your claim.

Best wishes

Ian