Employers have a legal obligation to provide all their employees with Manual Handling Training; if they don’t then they could be liable if an employee injures themselves when handling heavy / awkward objects. They must instruct all their employees on how to bend and lift in the right way, and ensure that heavier items are picked up using equipment to prevent an employee injuring themselves. However, commonly employers fail to conform to the rules surrounding the correct way of training their staff in manual handling techniques.

The most common injuries incurred as a result of negligence and / or none existent manual handling procedures are mostly to the back. The back is one of the most important parts of your body, and back pain could stop all aspects of your day to day life in its tracks. It can range from being an uncomfortable feeling in the affected area to unbearable and debilitating pain depending on the severity of the injury you have.

Manual handling affects everyone from factory workers to office staff; pretty much every job in one way another can include some form of manual handling.  Manual Handling is not just specified to lifting, but to pulling, pushing, carrying and lowering items.
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Falling from a height can rather obviously end up with some serious injuries sustained. I’m sure everyone knows that the higher the height, the more serious the injuries; and depending on what you’re falling on to could also make a huge difference.  For this reason, health and safety rules and regulations surrounding working at height, or accessing high places, or in areas where risks of falls are there, are numerous.

For example, anyone who has to work at height must have appropriate training, guidance, and supervision for the task they are doing at height. If you must use high catwalks, or perhaps access scaffolding, rails should be in place to prevent anyone from falling. If you need to access a height using a ladder, the correct ladders must be used to ensure you do not end up falling and seriously injuring yourself.

In a none workplace scenario – I’m sure you’ve all noticed that bridges have rails and guards in place: to stop you from falling over the edge. Staircases and stepped areas will normally have handrails to hold o to as well, which is all in the name of preventing a fall from height.
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There are many road traffic accidents occurring on roundabouts – and even though they may involve low speed collisions you can still be prone to whiplash injuries.

If you have been involved in a road traffic accident that was not your fault and have been injured as a result you have the right to claim for compensation.

Roundabouts can often seem like a very stressful and manic place to be, and if you are involved in an accident it can be difficult to determine who is at fault! The main failings that govern someone liable for roundabout accidents are:
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There are a lot of rules and regulations in place that employees must abide by to ensure that their employees are not injured during the course of their employment. These regulations range from general health and safety at work, use of equipment at work, personal protective equipment at work, manual handling at work, and much more.

Whilst we have a good array of rules and regulations in place to protect employees, there are still high volumes of compensation claims that we deal with here that we often cannot understand how the employer has allowed it to happen. Simple things are missed, and employers fall foul of not taking health and safety in the workplace seriously enough to ensure people are not hurt at work.

Take for example a supermarket, that employs people to use delivery cages to distribute stock on to the shelves from the delivery lorries. The cages are work equipment, and must be regularly inspected and maintained by the employer to ensure they are safe to use. Staff should know to report any issues or difficulties in using them t prevent anyone from coming to harm. It’s simple enough to do, right? Why then does John Smith end up injured because the shelf on the cage he was using was being propped up by a surplus box of crisps and collapses as he innocently tried to remove the box to place it on a shelf? How has the employer allowed the cage to be in such disrepair that staff are using boxes to prop up shelves; and why weren’t staff more vigilant to report those kinds of problems? Normally because the employer isn’t doing enough to ensure it doesn’t happen.
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Depending on the type of industry you work in, workplaces can be very dangerous. If you work with machinery or plant equipment for example, the potential dangers involved are numerous. For this reason, health and safety rules and regulations for the use of machinery and equipment at work are numerous.

If you work with machinery and equipment, your employer is responsible for training you as well as supervision of its use; and inspecting and maintaining machinery and equipment to ensure that it is continually safe to use. Machinery and equipment must be safe to use at all times – so appropriate guards, rails, or emergency stop buttons should be in place at all times to ensure no one is harmed through the use of the equipment.

If you are injured at work due to machinery and equipment, you may be covered for compensation with your employers insurance if the accident was caused through no fault of your own. Unfortunately, injuries involving machinery and equipment can be often significant – so you need to make sure you have a specialist personal injury lawyer representing you for your claim for compensation.
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For a man who is responsible for looking after our new clients in a busy, leading, personal injury law firm, as well as writing informative articles for you folks to digest, you may not have thought I’d be the sort of guy who has done my fair share of work up on a scaffold rig!

A fair few years back, as a recent graduate in an economic meltdown, I did a little light renovating work for a family friend that involved scaffolding to reach the high ceilings in a former swimming hall being turned in to a modern dance studio. It was good work – I enjoyed getting my hands dirty – but as a former rock climber as well, with a little instructing experience, my knowledge of dangers at height is pretty good!

This hands on experience combined with my hands on legal knowledge allows me to write a nice little blog about scaffolding injuries and whether you can claim compensation for them.
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I can’t tell you how many cases we deal with that relate to what people might call “stereotypical accidents” – the main one of course being slipping on a wet floor! But this type of accident can caused injuries that can be very painful and debilitating, not to mention to extremely embarrassing and panic worthy.

These claims are mainly associated with poorly maintained floors, such as staff mopping the floor with excess amounts of water, or failing to put down wet floor signs, or just plain old spillages. The most common places for accidents like this to occur are usually supermarkets, the workplace, or any public building. There is a legal obligation to have warnings of when such hazards are present, such as wet floor signs that should be shown to make people walking near the hazard aware of any danger.

A lot of people wonder if you can really claim for slipping on a wet floor, as it’s mainly associated with tongue in cheek humor – but YOU CAN! The majority of cases such as those in supermarkets and other public building can be claimed under Occupiers Liability Act. This law is supposed to ensure that the owner or proprietor ensures to keep their property a safe environment for the public.
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Any bodily injury can be a pain to live with. Certain injuries will always be more of an inconvenience to people than others – for example, as is the topic of this article, foot injuries.

If you injure your foot, you are likely to end up with considerable issues walking around. Your mobility is restricted, meaning your independence is compromised and your quality of life can be seriously reduced. Just imagine trying to get upstairs to use the bathroom or go to bed when you can’t actually walk right – Sounds painful; all of them stairs. Imagine trying to prepare a meal whilst hopping around the kitchen, complete with steak knife in one hand and your sirloin sizzling in the oil on the gas hob – sounds rather dangerous, doesn’t it?

Normally people who end up with a foot injury that causes any difficulty walking will require some form of care and assistance from a householder, friend or relative. So there is that to take in to account, on top of the fact that commuting to work may be made somewhat difficult if you can’t drive with the injury to the foot.
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Roundabouts: I personally hate them and they can often terrify me. You never know who has thinks they have right of way, when a vehicle is actually going to go, how fast is the vehicle coming around the roundabout, or will I even make it across the roundabout? I am sure I am not alone when I say this.

Roundabouts are notorious for road traffic accidents; it’s not really a surprise. Even though the majority of accidents on roundabouts are not fatal and involve low speed collisions, people can still get injured and whiplash is one of the most common injuries.

A driver at fault usually fails to keep a proper lookout and often drives too fast resulting in accidents, or fails to give the correct right of way. Accidents commonly happen on roundabouts because drivers fail to wait for traffic to pass before entering the roundabout, fail to keep or move to the correct lane at the correct time, which causes last minute lane changes and sudden braking.
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Compensation Claims Lawyer Advice

For us, it’s not just about getting you the maximum amount of compensation in the quickest time possible; it’s also about helping you get back on the road to recovery as fast as we possibly can.

Rehabilitation for many injuries is the key to a successful recovery in as quicker time as possible. However, whilst the NHS does a fantastic job, we know that the process for getting help with the NHS can often be slow. For a claim for compensation with The Injury Lawyers, you don’t need to worry about waiting around for medical help at all!
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