29th November 2007

Compensation For MOD Worker Injured At Work Because Of Poor Maintenance

When our client injured his knee trying to close a heavy metal door, he asked our personal injury lawyers, who specialise in injuries at work, to represent him in his claim for accident at work compensation.

The door was solid steel and 3.5 inches thick, and had been causing difficulties for some time to our client and his colleagues. Despite several previous requests to maintenance in the past to repair the door, it was still causing difficulties in closing. On the day the injury at work took place, our client tried to kick the door shut and when this failed, tried to barge it with his shoulder, resulting in the injury to his knee.

The defendant, the Defence School of Transport, although admitting that the door was difficult to shut, argued that our client was responsible for his own injury in that he should not have used force to close the door.

The Judge found for our client in that Regulation 5 of PUWER 1998 meant that the door was work equipment, and our client and his colleagues could expect that it be correctly maintained. The Judge found that it was reasonable and foreseeable that someone would attempt to kick the door shut and that it was not efficient in terms of health and safety.

Although the defendant argued that our client had injured his knee in kicking the door rather than when he barged it with his shoulder, the Judge found that even if the injury had been sustained as a result of kicking the door, the defendant was still liable. However, he did feel that there was contributory negligence on the part of our client, which was reflected in the damages successfully won by our specialist accident at work lawyers.

Compensation Claim

Should you decide to instruct us to represent you in your claim, Clear Answers’ lawyers have teams of specialists waiting to help you. We have extensive experience in all types of accident at work claims, whether it was the result of negligence on the part of your employer, or some other cause.

The person responsible for your accident will pay our legal fees, and our service will be cost-free for you. You will receive 100% of your compensation if you select Clear Answers to represent you in this matter.

Our lawyers will be happy to provide you with expert legal advice, talk you through the claims process in plain English and answer any questions you may have regarding your claim. If you or a family member has been injured in these circumstances, please ring us on 0800 783 9019 and speak to one of our advisers. Alternatively, you may prefer to complete one of our online compensation claim forms and one of our representatives will contact you as quickly as possible.

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