Work Accident Solicitors

Making A Claim For An Accident At Work (The Initial Steps)

If you have been involved in an accident, what are the steps you must take immediately after the accident to ensure that you have the best prospects of making a successful claim (even if you decide later not to do so).

This guide is to be used as soon as you have been involved in an accident at work to give you the best chances of investigating a claim for compensation.

1. Evidence At The Scene Of The Accident

Once you have suffered the injury, it is vital that you obtain and preserve any evidence from the accident scene. For example, if you have tripped over some left over packaging, or slipped on some water in your work premises, you should try to obtain a photograph of that evidence. This could be crucial in proving that your employer was responsible for your accident.

If the injury that you have sustained is too severe to allow you to obtain that evidence, you should ask a colleague or friend to take photographs. Ideally these should be on a digital camera, although with increasingly complex mobile phones, this may well be sufficient for your accident claim.

You should put an object in the picture to scale the defect or packaging or water that is on the floor, such as a match box, and ideally be able to date the picture by inserting a newspaper.

You should ask any of your colleagues who witnessed the accident to immediately write down what they saw. The reason this is important is because the sooner they can write down what happened the less chance there is they will forget or become confused later on. Supportive witness evidence may be vital in proving your claim for compensation.

2. Accident Book

You must enter details of the works accident in your employer’s work accident book. Every employer must keep one and you need to ensure that the accident details are entered correctly. Once again, if your injuries are too severe, you can ask a colleague to make sure that this happens for you.

3. Treatment

If your injuries are severe enough to warrant a claim for compensation, it will be necessary for you to obtain treatment for it. Therefore, you should attend your General Practitioner or Accident & Emergency Department as soon as possible after the accident. Not only will this be necessary from an evidence point of view to pursue your work accident claim, but of course, more importantly, it will allow you to obtain treatment for your injury. You have a duty to keep your injuries to a minimum and obtaining treatment fulfills this role. You also will want to know that the injury is not more severe than you initially thought and once again, being properly assessed will ensure that that is not the case.

Finding A Specialist Work Accident
Claim Solicitor

Once you have undergone treatment the next stage will be to locate and discuss your potential claim with a specialist work accident claim solicitor. There are many ways of doing this, from contacting local solicitors to an Internet search. Usually, a High Street solicitor will not have specialist departments so often a search on the Internet for a work accident claim solicitor will reveal a solicitor that does specialise in this area of law.

Obviously, you want to ensure that you have the best prospects of success, and using a specialist will give you the best chance.

When looking for a solicitor, you should look for one that has a good website, seems to have experience with your type of claim and of course, one that ensures that you will keep 100% of your compensation and that it will not cost you anything to pursue a claim. If you find a solicitor who fulfils all of these requirements, you should be safe to ask them to help you.

To see what happens with your claim for an accident at work after this stage, please the next article in the series here: Workplace Accident Claim.

Free Accident At Work Guide For You

We have created a guide to help you. This has been formed by answering the most commonly asked questions about workplace accidents. The guide explains all that you need to know about Work Accident Claims including answers to the following questions:

• Can you really make a claim and keep all of your compensation or is that just too good to be true?
• Will you lose your job if you make a claim?
• Does it cost you anything to make an enquiry if you decide not to pursue a claim?
• What does "No Win No Fee " really mean?
• What if you need treatment; will you have to wait for months?
• Should you choose a Claims Company or go straight to a Work Accident Claim Solicitor?

Request the guide now and you will receive it instantly and have the answer to all of these questions at your fingertips.

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Need Help With A Work Accident?

If you ask Work Accident Solicitors to help you with a claim, you will benefit from our No Costs Offer.

• You will not pay a penny if you win your Work Accident Claim.
• You will not pay a penny if you lose your Work Accident Claim.
• You will receive 100% of your compensation if your claim is successful.

Choosing The Work Accident Solicitors to handle your work accident claim will ensure that you will be looked after by expert Work Accident solicitors who have extensive knowledge of the Work Accident claims process.

Call us free on 0808 178 6922 for a no cost, no obligation opinion or complete our free online enquiry form.