There are many careers which obviously involve working at a height. These include tree surgeons, builders – especially roofers and scaffolders, and TV aerial installers. These people put themselves in danger on a daily basis to give us their essential services and we are of course grateful to them for that. Therefore it is an obvious assumption that working at height injuries are most common with people in careers as listed above. This assumption maybe correct, however, people in all sorts of different careers can suffer a working at height injury – for example, a librarian stacking shelving, or a shelf replenishment assistant in a supermarket falling whilst filling up products on shelves.
If you have had an accident whilst working at a height and it was not your fault then you may have a claim for compensation. Employers must comply with legislation as set out in the Working at Height Regulations 2005. The full facts of this legislation need not be the topic of this blog – however, there are a few points which can be taken from it. These being that the working at height situation should be properly supervised and planned, the correct safety gear and equipment should be checked prior to use and should be used in the correct manner.
If an accident does occur whilst at work it is important to report it to a supervisor as a record of it may need to be placed in an accident book. It is also important that you seek medical assistance to allow a medic to place a record of it in your medical notes and assist you with stabilising your injuries. You may want to check if there were any witnesses to your accident and obtain their contact details as they may be able to support any later claim you may have. After the accident, you may want to take a note of accident details, such as the time and exact location, to keep events fresh in your mind. Lastly, but probably most importantly, you need to seek the assistance of a specialist personal injury lawyer to bring your claim for compensation. This should be done directly with the solicitor; I say this as there are many referral agents out there who will simply sell on your claim to the highest bidder rather than you getting the firm who will give you the best service.
At The Injury Lawyers we do not use referral agencies as all our clients come to us directly. We have a vast amount of experience in this area of the law and can give a free assessment of any claim. We work on a genuine no win no fee basis, so there are never any costs for you to pay.
