Let’s suppose that you work in a place where the management or owning interests should be supplying you with ear defenders. And let’s also suppose that they are – but that the ear defenders you are being supplied with are old, leaking air and generally in need of replacement. A slip and fall accident waiting to happen. How? Because the gradual hearing loss you are suffering is leading to your not being able to tell when a forklift truck is moving behind you. You feel rather than hear the presence of the vehicle, you turn to avoid it and you fall. That’s how accidents at work happen – one thing leads to another and suddenly someone has been hurt for no good reason.
For no good reason – but it is still possible to make redress for some of the pain and suffering that the slip and fall accident has caused. Here, there is a definite person or entity at fault. The management of your company is responsible for ensuring that the personal protective equipment issued to its staff is up to the job at hand. Old ear defenders that cause accidents at work by making workers deaf, literally, to the presence of threats around them, are to blame in our example – and the management, which should have had them replaced, is responsible for their condition.
This slip and fall accident would result in a successful personal injury claim being taken through the courts – or more likely settled without the need ever to enter a courtroom. You shouldn’t worry, by the way, if you are in a position like this and are thinking that you are going directly “up against” your bosses. You’re not. Accidents at work are covered by company insurance, which is in place precisely to deal with paying out when an incident of this kind occurs.
No one wants to cause a slip and fall accident, by hearing loss or any other way. There’s no malice involved – just simple negligence. Company insurance exists to take care of situations where negligence happens. Maybe someone was too rushed at the end of a long day to put in an order for new ear defenders. Maybe they just forgot. So you are not attacking them, or anyone – you’re simply using the established structure to get some compensation for accidents at work.
If you have had a slip and fall accident, you should contact a no win no fee personal injury lawyer immediately. Their agents will ask you to describe the circumstances of your fall. At this point if they think you have a case you will be referred to a lawyer with a special expertise in slip and fall accidents at work. Your lawyer will instruct you on everything you need to do (it’s not much, usually just visiting a doctor) – and then he or she will make the claim on your behalf.
