To say someone is at a disadvantage on the open labour market means that, as a result of an accident or injury, they are disadvantaged in finding work, holding down work, gaining a promotion – general career type things etc. You can try and recover compensation if an accident or injury had caused you some kind of disadvantage on the open labour market.
Awards in respect of disadvantage on the open labour market can often be quite big. However this will always depend on the facts of the particular case and the level of handicap.
Say for example you had been working as a painter and decorator all of your life and you sustained a severe injury such as the loss of your right hand. You would have great difficulty carrying on with your job as a painter and decorator because you may need both hands to hold a brush in one and a paint tin in the other. In finding alternative employment you are also at a disadvantage – the potential jobs that you could do are restricted because of your injury.
Another example is a builder who suffers a back injury meaning that he or she can longer carry on in the building trade as they cannot do heavy manual work. They would also be disadvantaged in finding other work as they cannot do other heavy manual jobs and this would potentially exclude many jobs on the market. In essence there would be a restriction on the types of jobs that the injured person would be able to do because of the injury in question.
The difficulty with disadvantage on the open labour market always seems to be with quantification, which is putting a value or level of award on the disadvantage. It can be very difficult to value the level of the award. It is difficult to say exactly how a Court would value damages for disadvantage on the open labour market. Lord Justice Taylor in Forey v London Buses [1990] is often quoted for his comments of “taking a stab at what is the appropriate figure.” Other Judges have attempted to create an element of certainty when valuing damages for disadvantage on the open labour market by using a multiplicand/multiplier method (which essentially means trying to work out a correct figure).
Here at The Injury Lawyers we deal with all types of personal injury claims.
We deal solely with personal injury law and this is why we are experts in the field. Do not hesitate to call us today on 0800 634 75 75.
