Thursday, December 27, 2012

Injury at work case settles for over 3.5 times original compensation offer

In this case, our client was was injured at work, sustaining a crush injury to his right thumb ,with scarring and loss of sensation, when a spreader beam toppled over. We advised the client that his employers were in breach of Regulations 6 & 8 of the Lifting Operations & Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER 1998) together with Regulation 10 of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 (WAH 2005). 

Following this advice, the defenders conceded they were liable for the injury, allowing us to prepare a valuation of this case.

Pre-litigation, the defenders offered a total of £2,270, with £1,400 of this attributable to the pursuer's injuries. We thought this wholly undervalued the claim and raised a court action. The case then settled for £8,000, over 3.5 times the pre litigation offer of compensation made by the insurers.

£9k settlement after injury caused by lack of Personal Protective Equipment

Our client cut his hand in an industrial accident while working on an electrical fusebox. His employer's denied liability for the accident.

Digby Brown argued that our client’s employers had breeched regulations 4,8, & 9 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER), together with Regulations 4 & 6 of the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Regulations 1992 (PPE Regulations).

We carried out research into electrical standards, the types of toolkits an electrician ought to have had,  referred to industry standards and used this body of evidence to show that the pursurer's work practices were standard practice and the fault for the accident lay with his employers for failing to provide him with suitable PPE.  Witnesses to the incident confirmed this.

The result was a tender of £8,000 being recieved and the case eventually settling for £9,000.

Fife client recieves six-figure sum after shoulder injury

Our client in this case, a female in the Fife area, approached us in May 2011.  She had tripped on a temporary manhole cover being used by Fife Council, breaking her shoulder.

The client had initially pursued a claim for compensation herself.  Solicitors for Fife Council made her an offer to settle the case for £5,000.  At this point, she approached Digby Brown to seek a second opinion on whether this was a fair offer.

Having investigated the case fully, we concluded It was not. When we informed the defending insurers that we had taken on the case, we immediately received an increased offer of £10,000.

The client’s medical problems worsened, she developed an infection in her shoulder which meant it could not be replaced, leaving her with greatly reduced mobility and totally reliant on her husband for assistance in cooking, cutting up food, dressing and other daily tasks. Unfortunately, during the case, he died.

To make sure our client recieved what she needed, we commissioned a ‘future needs assessment’ to evaluate the level of support and compensationshe would require as a result of her injury and change in circumstances. The case settled at a pre trial meeting for a six figure sum, many times the orginal offer that had been made before the client came to Digby Brown.

Following the result, our client described themselves as ‘over the moon’ with the outcome and described the day she had walked into our Fife office as on the best decisions she had ever made.