As a firm of specialist personal injury solicitors we represent high volumes of workers who need to claim for personal injury compensation for accidents and injuries in the workplace. There are a lot of workplace health and safety regulations that are designed to safeguard workers from being at risk of injury – but when employers fall short, people can claim.
The Derby Telegraph reports of the Staveley firm that has been fined after a worker lost his thumb and had to have it replaced with his big toe.
Forty five year old Mark Evans was working for CNC Rotary, situated in Staveley, in June last year when his thumb was trapped because a tool he was using to rebuild a rotary table that was suspended from the prongs of a forklift truck came loose. The prongs were being used to raise the tool up and the mechanism of it falling completely severed his right thumb and caused tendon damage in the hand.
A Health and Safety Executive investigation found that there was no attachment securing the sling to the forklift truck prongs and that the equipment was not being thoroughly examined enough, according to the report. Several other health and safety breaches were also identified resulting in the owner being fined £6,000 and being ordered to pay £1,514 in costs after he pleaded guilty to the charges.
The report doesn’t go in to any detail of whether Mr Evans has pursued a civil claim for personal injury compensation for his injuries, of which he is perfectly entitled to do. Compensation for loss of thumb injuries, when it comes to the payouts for the injury alone, can typically be anywhere between £25,000 to £40,000. It’s worth understanding though that you can also claim for expenses and losses, which includes future lost earnings or loss on the open labour market if the injury impedes your ability to work in certain industries.
Work accidents are one of the more common forms of personal injury claims that negligence victims need to pursue. There are a lot of dangers out there; despite the fact we have rather stringent health and safety legislation which is designed to safeguard employees from being injured.
Where an employer has failed in their duties to protect an employee they are legally entitled to claim compensation which is usually sought from the employer’s insurance. It’s important to instruct the right lawyer to represent you though because changes in the law that happened last year have resulted in a lot of people facing huge deductions from their payout for a claim is successful.
We always advise victims of accidents to speak to us for a full insight in to where they stand and how we can save our clients a lot of money. For free and friendly advice call our claims helpline on 0800 634 7575 today.
