Every employer owes a duty of care to their employees in the workplace. A breach of their duty may result in a spinal injury at work. This guide will look at the criteria required to make a claim and what kinds of accidents could cause your injury.
Spinal injury at work claims guide
We will also discuss how the value of your potential settlement could be arrived at. Additionally, we will look at the type of evidence you may provide to prove your case.
Finally, this guide will outline the benefits of instructing a solicitor on a No Win No Fee basis to work on your claim. If you want to work with a legal professional, you can contact our team of advisors, who may pass you on to a solicitor on our panel if you’re eligible to claim. To get in touch:
- Call us on 0113 460 1216
- Fill in our make a claim form; or
- Speak to one of our advisors using the live chat function on our website
Browse Our Guide
- When Can You Claim For A Spinal Injury At Work?
- How Could A Spinal Injury At Work Be Caused By Employer Negligence?
- How Much Compensation Could You Receive When Making A Spinal Injury Claim?
- Evidence That Could Help You Claim For A Back Injury
- Claim For A Spinal Injury At Work Using Our Panel Of No Win No Fee Solicitors
- Learn More About Claiming Spine Injury Compensation
When Can You Claim For A Spinal Injury At Work?
You may be able to claim for a spinal injury at work if you prove that employer negligence caused your injuries. Employer negligence, in tort law, is a breach of duty of care that has resulted in harm. To prove this, you must be able to show:
- That your employer owed a duty of care to you. Employers must ensure that they take all reasonable steps to keep you free from harm.
- That your employer breached their duty of care through their action or failure to act.
- That you suffered an injury as a result of this. This could be physical or psychological injuries.
Providing that you can satisfy the elements of employer negligence, you may be able to proceed with a work injury claim. To find out if you have a valid claim, contact our advisors today for a free case assessment.
How Could A Spinal Injury At Work Be Caused By Employer Negligence?
There are many ways in which you may suffer a spinal injury at work due to employer negligence. However, you can only claim if it was caused by a breach of the duty of care you are owed.
- You could slip, trip and fall in your office, causing you to suffer a back injury. This happens because the floor is wet, but no warning signs have been displayed, despite there having been a reasonable amount of time to put one up.
- Your employer may have disregarded the manual handling guidelines from the Health and Safety Executive. As a result, they ask you to undertake a manual handling task that is above your capabilities. This results in a spinal injury.
- Some workers must work at a height as part of their job role. If you worked at a height and your employer knowingly gave you a faulty ladder, which broke as you were climbing it and caused you to fall from a height, this could cause you to fracture a vertebra in your back.
Contact us if you have suffered a spinal injury at work due to employer negligence. Our advisors could get you in touch with our panel of solicitors if your case is valid.
How Much Compensation Could You Receive When Making A Spinal Injury Claim?
If you have suffered a spinal injury at work and successfully claim, you could be awarded up to two heads of claim. General damages are a head of claim that is awarded in all successful personal injury cases.
They compensate you for the pain and suffering caused by the injuries you have obtained. The amount you could be awarded would depend on factors like:
- The severity of your injuries and how they have impacted your life
- Any loss of enjoyment you have suffered from missing events due to your injuries
- The treatments you have required and the length of the recovery period
To help solicitors assign values to your injuries, they may use the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). The JCG display compensation brackets, depending on the injury’s type and severity. Additionally, solicitors may use your medical reports to compare with the JCG when working out how much you could receive.
Below is a table of JCG valuations for different injury types and severities. Please only use these as guidelines, as they don’t represent guarantees.
Compensation Table
| Injury | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Tetraplegia (Quadriplegia) | £324,600 to £403,990 | Paralysis to the lower part of the body. Award will factor considerations like the level of pain, life expectancy and awareness of condition. |
| Paraplegia | £219,070 to £284,260 | Here the level awarded will depend on whether you are in pain, your degree of independence, age and life expectancy and how the injury has affected your sexual function. |
| Back - Severe (i) | £91,090 to £160,980 | Damage to spinal cord and nerves, leaving severe pain, disability and incomplete paralysis. |
| Back - Severe (ii) | £74,160 to £88,430 | Nerve root damage, with loss of sensation and mobility difficulties. |
| Back - Severe (iii) | £38,780 to £69,730 | Fractures or lesions to discs or vertebral bodies, or injuries to soft tissue, where disabilities like ongoing pain persist despite treatment. |
| Back - Moderate (i) | £27,760 to £38,780 | Compression and crush fractures in the lumbar spine, where spine fusion may be required. Risk of persistent pain is high. |
| Back - Moderate (ii) | £65,740 to £130,930 | Serious fractures or damage to cervical spine. Permanent damage with loss of movement or function in one or more limbs. |
| Back - Minor (i) | £7,890 to £12,510 | Injuries that recovery without surgery in two to five years. |
| Back - Minor (ii) | £4,350 to £7,890 | Injuries that recovery without surgery in one to two years. |
| Back - Minor (iii) | £2,450 to £4,350 | Injuries that recovery without surgery in three months to a year. |
Claiming Special Damages In Accident At Work Claims
The second form of compensation you could be awarded is called special damages. This type of compensation addresses any reasonable previous and future financial losses that you incur due to your injuries. Such losses can include:
- Loss of earnings
- Medical expenses like prescriptions or physiotherapy; and
- Travel costs like bus fare
Furthermore, where general damages would compensate you for the loss of enjoyment from missing a concert due to injury, special damages would compensate for the cost of the ticket that you were unable to utilise.
To ensure that you are compensated fully for all the financial losses you have incurred, you should keep evidence of them. You may consider gathering evidence like:
- Previous payslips that show the earnings you are losing due to your injury
- Receipts and invoices of prescriptions or physiotherapy sessions received on your route to recovery
- Bus tickets that show the travel cost you incurred due to being unable to drive because of your injuries
Our advisors could pass you over to an accident at work solicitor on our panel, who could help you assemble such evidence, provided your claim is valid. Contact us today to see if you are eligible for our help.
Evidence That Could Help You Claim For A Back Injury
You should seek medical attention whenever you are injured, which could generate medical records for evidence. Furthermore, as part of your claim, you must prove that your spinal injury at work was due to employer negligence. Evidence you should consider collecting includes:
- CCTV footage that you can request of yourself
- Photographs of your injuries and the accident site
- Contact details of witnesses, provided they are happy to provide a statement
If you need help building evidence, contact our advisors, who could pass you to our panel of solicitors if your case is valid.
Claim For A Spinal Injury At Work Using Our Panel Of No Win No Fee Solicitors
You may have suffered a spinal injury at work and want to instruct a legal professional. If so, you may consider working with one on a No Win No Fee basis. Our panel of solicitors offer a type called a Conditional Fee Agreement, which comes with the following benefits:
- You wouldn’t need to pay any upfront legal fees to instruct a solicitor, nor any ongoing ones
- There would be no solicitor fees if your claim was unsuccessful
- Your solicitor will only take a small, legally capped portion of your award if your case were successful
To see if one of the No Win No Fee solicitors from our panel can help you, contact our team of advisors today by:
- Calling us on 0113 460 1216
- Filling in our make a claim form; or
- Speaking to one of our advisors using the live chat function on our website
Learn More About Claiming Spine Injury Compensation
We hope this guide has answered your questions if you have suffered a spinal injury at work. If you would like to read more of our guides, you can find some below:
- Personal injury claim time limits – A guide on the limitation requirements to begin a claim
- Personal injury claims – Outlining what they are
- Personal injury FAQs – Answering common questions about personal injury claims
For some external resources, look here:
- Back pain – A guide by the NHS
- Statutory sick pay – A guide from Gov UK
- Back pain – Information from the HSE
Writer Will Grey
Publisher Fern Stringer