Vicarious liability for a work accident compensation claim essentially means that you have been injured due to the negligence of a colleague. If you are injured due to the negligence of a colleague, in UK law, your employer is vicariously can be found liable which means they have the duty (normally through their insurers) to compensate you. So for example : if your co-worker, let’s call him “Jim”, runs in to you whilst driving a forklift truck because he wasn’t looking where he was going, fear not; you don’t have to sue “Jim” personally! In this situation, the claim can be brought against your employer.
Employers Liability Insurance covers vicarious liability claims.
Claims that fall within the realm of vicarious liability usually have pretty high success rates. Here are a few examples of cases where your employer can be vicariously liable (aside from the forklift one above):
Your colleague:
- Hits you with a trolley or roll cage as they weren’t looking where they were going.
- Drops something whilst up on some scaffolding which hits you on the head.
- Drops or poorly manoeuvres a heavy item that you are both handling; perhaps causing you to suddenly take the weight of it or being jerked down as the object falls to the ground under the weight.
- Leaves something in a walkway resulting in you tripping over it.
- Fails to properly cover a hole in the ground they have made or opened causing you to fall in to it.
- Trips up and ends up covering you in boiling water from a tub they were carrying.
- Throws something across a stockroom whilst aiming for a box where the item should belong, but hits you in the crossfire.
The gist of a work accident vicarious liability claim comes down to whether there is negligence arising from a colleague’s actions. Generally speaking we’re talking accidents here; if your colleague takes a disliking to you and assaults you, this isn’t something that is normally covered under vicarious liability. It’s a little out of your employers control when it comes to someone deciding they are going to physically hurt you on purpose.
As I touched on earlier, claims where we can prove vicarious liability are normally quite successful. The policy of insurance your employer must legally hold covers claims for vicarious liability; so you’re covered, there is insurance there, and you have the right to claim from it.
Don’t miss out! Give us a call ASAP on our free claims helpline on 0800 634 75 75 to find out if you have a claim today!
