After being injured at work on a construction site, you may be wondering ‘When can you claim for a trip and fall in a construction accident?’. If so, this guide could help. Throughout our guide, we explore the duty of care owed to you on construction sites and the eligibility criteria that need to be met in order to have a valid personal injury claim.
There are many parties working on a construction site that may owe you a duty of care. If they breached their duty of care and caused you to suffer a trip and fall injury because of poor health and safety on the construction site, they could be held liable for the accident in which you sustained an injury. We provide examples of how a construction accident involving slips trips and falls could occur later in our guide.
Additionally, we look at the evidence you can use to support your construction accident claim for compensation. We then look at the compensation that can be awarded to address the different impacts of your injuries, such as the physical, mental and financial effects.
Our final section explains how a solicitor from our panel could represent you and help you claim compensation under a type of No Win No Fee contract. Not all personal injury specialists offer this option, but if eligible, you could be connected with a solicitor from our panel who can start working on your claim without the need for upfront costs.
For further guidance on construction site accident claims, please get in touch and enquire about making a claim online.
Jump To A Section
- When Can You Claim For A Trip And Fall In A Construction Accident?
- When Could Negligence Cause Trip And Fall Injury Claims?
- Evidence That Could Help When Making A Trip And Fall Claim
- Potential Compensation When Making A Claim For A Trip And Fall In A Construction Accident
- Why Claim Trip And Fall Compensation Using A No Win No Fee Solicitor?
- Learn More About When You Can Claim For A Trip And Fall In A Construction Accident
When Can You Claim For A Trip And Fall In A Construction Accident?
Employers owe their employees a duty of care under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HASAWA). It places an obligation on employers to ensure that reasonable and practicable steps are taken to reduce or remove the risk of harm to employees as they work. This involves taking steps such as providing adequate training, carrying out regular site inspections for safety, ensuring the provision of necessary personal protective equipment (PPE), and carrying out maintenance on equipment.
In addition to this, other health and safety laws, such as the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 were enacted to help those responsible for construction sites improve health and safety in the construction industry.
There are many different companies working on construction sites, such as electric companies and scaffolding companies, as well as a construction site manager and main contractor, if different to your employer. Each of these may owe a duty of care. As such, construction accident claims may not be directed against an employer. If another party was liable, the claim will be made against them instead. This means liability will determine who your claim is made against.
To be eligible to make a personal injury claim, you need to prove the following:
- You were owed a duty of care.
- This duty was breached.
- You suffered an injury as a result.
To discuss your specific case and find out whether you can claim for a trip and fall in a construction accident, get in touch on the number above.
When Could Employer Negligence Cause Trip And Fall Injury Claims?
There are many types of injuries that can occur on construction sites given the level of activity taking place. Below, we look at some examples of injuries you could suffer and how they could be caused:
- Poor housekeeping meant an employee tripped and fell over trailing leads and equipment that hadn’t been tidied away. As a result, the employee suffered a serious spinal injury.
- A spillage isn’t cleaned up or signposted despite it being reported. As a result, an employee sustains a serious head injury after slipping and falling on the wet surface.
- No risk assessments were carried out to address any hazards posing a risk of injury by manual handling tasks. As a result, an employee slips and falls in a manual handling accident due to moving heavy objects through narrow and cluttered walkways. This causes them to sustain a severe neck injury in a fall accident.
Not all construction accidents and injuries will form the basis of a valid personal injury claim. You need to prove a breach of duty led to you suffering harm when claiming compensation.
Read on to learn what evidence you could gather to prove your construction site accident claim. Alternatively, call our team to find out if your accident can form the basis of a compensation claim.
Evidence That Could Help When Making A Trip And Fall Claim
Evidence can help support your trip and fall claim. To assist you with this, we’ve listed some examples of proof that you might be able to obtain:
- Any onsite CCTV footage that shows how your accident happened.
- The contact information of eyewitnesses who can provide supporting witness statements at a later date.
- Copies of medical evidence relating to your injuries. You can request GP notes, A&E admission notes, copies of X-rays, other scans and any specialist reports.
- A copy from the on-site workplace accident book when you report the accident.
- A personal record of key medical treatment and your physical and/or psychological symptoms.
- Photographs of your injuries and the hazard that caused the slip or trip accident.
The evidence to prove your personal injury claim needs to point to a breach of duty causing an injury. You may benefit from instructing an expert personal injury solicitor from our panel to assist you. They have experience handling construction injury claims and can guide you through the different stages of the claims process.
To find out whether you could benefit from their services, call our team on the number above. You can also get further guidance on construction site accident claims.
Potential Compensation When Making A Claim For A Trip And Fall In A Construction Accident
If your claim is a success, you may be entitled to a compensation payout comprising up to two heads of loss. The first is general damages which compensate claimants for physical pain and psychological suffering prompted by the injury.
Those tasked with the calculation process can use medical evidence as a guide. If you need a full independent medical assessment, one of the personal injury solicitors from our panel can help arrange this for you, if you instruct legal representation. The medical report produced from this can help those responsible for valuing general damages.
In addition to medical reports, a publication called the Judicial College Guidelines can be consulted. This lists guideline award bracket amounts for a variety of injuries.
Compensation Award Brackets
The following table contains figures from the JCG, except for the first entry. The top entry does not come from the JCG.
| Type of Injury | Severity Level | Notes | Award Guidelines |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple Very Severe Injuries with Financial Losses | Very Severe | An award reflecting the pain and suffering of multiple very severe injuries as well as the monetary damage caused, such as loss of earnings, medical bills, and care costs. | Up to £1 million plus |
| Head | (a) Very Severe | Instances where an ability to follow basic instructions may remain but little evidence is offered of meaningful responses to external environment. Full time professional nursing care is required. | £282,010 to £403,990 |
| (b) Moderately Severe | A very serious cognitive or physical disability with large dependence on others and the need for constant professional care. | £219,070 to £282,010 | |
| Back | (a) Severe (i) | Spinal cord and nerve root damage with severe pain and disability. | £91,090 to £160,980 |
| (b) Moderate (i) | Compression/crush fractures of the lumbar vertebrae leaving a substantial risk of osteoarthritis and constant pain. | £27,760 to £38,780 | |
| Leg | Very Serious (ii) | Injuries that lead to mobility problems of a permanent nature and may require the permanent need for crutches or mobility aids. | £54,830 to £87,890 |
| Foot | (e) Serious | This bracket includes injuries of a lesser severity but still create continuing pain from traumatic arthritis or the risk of such in the future. Prolonged care needed and increased risk of surgery. | £24,990 to £39,200 |
| Ankle | (c) Moderate | Fractures and ligament tears that create issues on uneven ground, standing, walking long distances or other less serious disabilities. Possible future risk of osteoarthritis. | £13,740 to £26,590 |
| Knee | (b) Moderate (i) | Injuries such as dislocations, torn cartilage, or meniscus resulting in minor instability, wasting, weakness or another mild future disability. | £14,840 to £26,190 |
Financial Losses That Could Be Claimed For After A Trip And Fall
A second head of loss can form part of the compensation payout, called special damages. This compensates the claimant for associated financial harm caused by the injury. It is essential that you can present documented proof of this financial damage, such as payslips, receipts, and invoices. Some examples of the costs you could be reimbursed for in a successful fall compensation claim include:
- Past or future loss of earnings.
- Medical expenses.
- Domestic care costs.
- Transport costs.
Speak to our team for further guidance on how much compensation you could be owed if your claim for a trip and fall in a construction accident is successful.
Why Claim Trip And Fall Compensation Using A No Win No Fee Solicitor?
If you get in touch with our team, they can assess your case and answer the question ‘When can you claim for a trip and fall in a construction accident?’. If you’re eligible to proceed with your case, they could connect you with one of the expert construction site accident solicitors from our panel to represent you. They can offer their services through a type of No Win No Fee arrangement called a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) which can offer several benefits.
Under a CFA, you don’t have to pay upfront fees for your solicitor’s services or any fees as the claim moves forward. You also don’t need to pay for their work if the claim fails.
Successful claim outcomes mean that the solicitor deducts a small percentage from the compensation, commonly referred to as a success fee. This percentage is subject to a legal cap which means you can receive the majority of your compensation.
Why not discover if you could be eligible to access legal representation this way? Simply call the team, run through a brief assessment and take it from there. You can contact us online about making a claim and finding out more about personal injury claims.
Learn More About When You Can Claim For A Trip And Fall In A Construction Accident
If you’d like to read more on this topic, please follow these links:
- This guide looks at factory accident claims in more detail.
- Here you can find further reading about building site accident compensation claims.
- Additional general reading on claims for slips, trips and falls is in this guide.
Additionally, these external links offer more information:
- If you need to claim Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) this guidance is from Gov.UK
- Read about working at heights in this article from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
- Information on falls from the NHS is available here.
Thank you for taking the time to read our guide. We hope it has answered the question ‘When can you claim for a trip and fall in a construction accident?’. For further help, just use the contact options above.