Construction Accident Case Study: £750,000 Compensation Payout

This guide will provide a construction accident case study to help you understand the steps involved in seeking personal injury compensation. Additionally, it will look at the eligibility criteria that need to be met, the time limit for starting legal proceedings, and how compensation for successful claims is calculated.

There are different parties who owe a duty of care on a construction site. Firstly, your employer owes a duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 to take reasonable and practicable steps to prevent you from becoming injured in the workplace.

Secondly, there may be other parties that owe a duty of care to you while working on a construction site, such as the contractor, if they are not your employer, or other companies working alongside you. They need to take steps to ensure the reasonable safety of others. If they were to breach this duty of care they owe to you, and you suffer an injury as a result you could be eligible to pursue a personal injury claim against them.

As such, it may be possible to make a claim against an employer, or another party who was negligent. However, for the purpose of this guide, we will be focusing on accident at work claims against a negligent employer.

Continue reading to learn more about seek workplace injury compensation. Alternatively, get in touch with an advisor to have any questions answered. They can also assess your case for free, and if you have valid grounds to proceed, could connect you with a No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel to assist you with your claim.

You can reach an advisor via the following contact details below:

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Construction Accident Case Study: £750,000 Compensation Payout

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Construction Accident Case Study: £750,000 Compensation Payout

We’ve provided this figurative construction accident case study to show the steps you could take to seek compensation.

Mr Brown was working on a construction site. His employer instructed him to use a forklift truck without providing any training. As a result, he crashed the work vehicle and sustained several injuries, including a serious back injury, broken leg, and moderate head injury.

The injuries meant Mr Brown required time off work to recover causing him to lose income. He also experienced a substantial amount of pain and suffering due to his injuries.

After seeking legal advice, Mr Brown decided to claim against his employer and instructed a solicitor with experience handling workplace accident claims to assist him. His solicitor helped him gather evidence to strengthen his case, including pictures of the injuries, documents highlighting that no training had been given, and documents showing the financial losses he incurred.

Additionally, his solicitor arranged for him to attend an independent medical assessment as part of the personal injury claims process. The report that followed gave a more in-depth insight into the injuries Mr Brown had suffered which helped when valuing his claim.

Mr Brown’s claim succeeded and he was awarded a payout of £750,000 comprising compensation for his pain and suffering and financial losses caused by the injuries.

Call our advisory team on the number above to discuss your case. Alternatively, read on to find out when you could be eligible to make a construction accident claim against your employer.

When Are You Eligible To Claim For An Accident In A Construction Site?

As mentioned, your employer owes a duty of care to protect your health, safety, and well being by carrying out steps considered both reasonable and practicable. If they failed to do so, and you experienced an injury as a result, you might wish to seek compensation.

To be entitled to make a personal injury claim following a workplace accident in construction, you will need to demonstrate that:

  1. Your employer owed you a duty of care.
  2. Your employer breached this duty of care.
  3. As a result of the breach, you suffered a physical and/or mental injury.

The points above set the definition of negligence in tort law. If you can prove with evidence that employer negligence occurred, you could be eligible to pursue a personal injury claim against your employer.

Examples Of Construction Accidents At Work

There are several types of accidents that could occur on a construction site. Additionally, there are a number of injuries that could be sustained as a result. For example:

  • Your employer may have failed to provide you with any training before instructing you to carry out manual handling tasks, such as lifting heavy boxes. As a result, you use the wrong lifting techniques and sustain a manual handling injury such as a slipped disc in your back.
  • There may have been a failure by your employer to conduct a risk assessment before instructing you to work from a height. As a result, no safety measures, such as the installation of guards, are taken when you carry out the work at a height. This leads to you falling and sustaining a severe head injury.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with an advisor to discuss the construction accident case study we have provided or your specific case. By doing so, you can find out whether you’re eligible to make a construction accident claim against your employer.

How Much Compensation Could You Receive From A Construction Accident?

Two heads of loss can make up the settlement you’re awarded in successful construction injury claims. General damages is the first and it compensates for any physical or psychological pain and suffering caused by your injuries. You can claim for a physical injury by itself or alongside a psychological injury and vice versa.

If you attend an independent medical assessment, the report can be used to help value general damages. Additionally, the guideline compensation brackets from the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) may also be used. The figures in this document correspond to a selection of different injuries, all at varying levels of severity.

Compensation Table

The figures in the table have been taken from the JCG. However, you should use them as a guide only because settlements can vary depending on the specific circumstances of each case.

Type of InjurySeverityInformationCompensation Brackets (Guidelines)
Brain DamageVery SevereLittle to no evidence of the person showing a response to their environment that is meaningful. They require full-time nursing care.£282,010 to £403,990
Moderately SevereA very serious disability requiring constant professional care.£219,070 to £282,010
Arm AmputationLoss of both arms The person is reduced to a state of considerable helplessness. They will have full awareness of their injuries.£240,790 to £300,000
Loss of one arm (ii)Arm amputated above the elbow.£109,650 to £130,930
NeckSevere (ii)These type of neck injuries usually involve damage or serious fractures to discs in the cervical spine and result in disabilities which are considerably severe.£65,740 to £130,930
Severe (iii)Chronic conditions as a result of severe soft tissue damage, fractures or ruptured tendons.£45,470 to £55,990
BackSevere (ii)Back injuries with special features, such as damage to the nerve roots with assosciated sensation loss and impaired mobility.£74,160 to £88,430
Moderate (i)This bracket covers injuries such as where a crush fracture leads to constant pain and discomfort with an associated risk of osteoarthritis.£27,760 to £38,780
LegSevere (iv)Covers complicated, multiple or severe crushing injuries to a single leg.£27,760 to £39,200

Special Damages For Construction Accident Claims

As mentioned in the construction accident case study, payouts awarded following a successful claim can also include compensation for financial losses caused by the injuries. This is awarded under special damages, the second head of loss.

Some of the costs you could claim back include:

  • Loss of earnings.
  • Medical costs.
  • Travel costs.
  • The cost of support or care at home.
  • Home or vehicle adaptation costs.

Evidence will be needed to prove any financial losses when claiming compensation to reimburse them. This could include receipts, payslips and bank statements.

For more information on personal injury settlements, please contact our helpful advisory team on the number above.

Is There A Time Limit When Making Construction Industry Accident Claims?

All personal injury claims have a 3-year time limit according to the Limitation Act 1980. This means you typically have three years from the accident date to start legal proceedings. However, there are some exceptions. For example:

  • If those under the age of 18 are injured, the limitation period has a pause placed on it until they turn 18. They will then have three years from their 18th birthday to take legal action provided no claim has already been made for them.
  • If the injured party has a reduced mental capacity, the time limit is paused indefinitely. A claim can be made within three years from the recovery date if they recover their mental capacity provided no claim has already been started for them.

In both of these cases, a suitable adult could apply to act as a litigation friend to start the claim on behalf of someone else while the time limit is paused.

For more information on the time limits in construction accident claims, please contact an advisor on the number above.

Make A No Win No Fee Construction Accident Claim

As mentioned in our construction accident case study, if you instruct an experienced solicitor to represent you, they can help you gather evidence to strengthen your case. The solicitors from our panel have experience handling construction accident claims and could offer their helpful services under a No Win No Fee contract called a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA).

You can typically expect the following terms when working with a solicitor in this way:

  • Upfront payments for your solicitor’s services are not required.
  • You won’t need to pay your solicitor for their work as the claim progresses or if it fails.
  • A percentage of your compensation will be taken by your solicitor as their success fee if your claim is won. However, you can be sure that you’ll still receive the bulk of any compensation as the success fee percentage is capped by law.

To see if a construction accident solicitor from our panel could take on your claim, please get in touch with an advisor using the following contact details:

More Resources About Construction Injury Claims

Here are a few more of our guides that may be helpful:

Also, you might find these external links useful:

Thanks for reading our construction accident case study guide. If you’d like further guidance about claiming, please speak to one of our advisors using the number provided above.