Faulty Equipment

An employer’s duty is to protect their workforce. If they fail to do this, you’re entitled to claim compensation.

It is an employer’s legal responsibility to make sure that your workplace and any equipment are safe. This is part of an employer’s duty of care, but the health and safety guidelines also cover providing proper training and regular testing of equipment.

Your employer must:

• Inspect the equipment regularly if it may deteriorate
• Train staff in safety procedures, risks and precautions
• Ensure that safety equipment is in place where needed
• Specify possible dangers
• Provide personal protective equipment
• Remove dangerous or defective equipment from service until it is made safe again.

As you can see, most of these are common sense procedures that will keep employees safer in the workplace, yet there are still many injuries at work daily. While some employers will go above to protect their workforce, others will take shortcuts, resulting in severe injuries.

Examples of Faulty Equipment Injury

Some types of injury from faulty equipment include:

• Falling from a ladder with a broken or loose rung
• Things getting into a person’s eyes from an unguarded power tool
• Cuts, amputations and crushing injuries from industrial machines
• Damage to hearing from equipment that is not adequately maintained or from broken noise reduction headphones
• Falls from height when the harness or safety equipment was faulty
• Various injuries caused by safety equipment that was not maintained
• Electrical shock or injury from poorly maintained or badly installed equipment
• Injury to new members of staff who were not trained or shown proper procedures

Remember that it is the employer’s responsibility to ensure that your work environment is safe and that you have all the equipment needed to operate safely; the employee does not need to provide their own safety equipment.

Also, if you bring a hazard or danger to your employer’s attention, it is their legal responsibility to take action.

Making a Personal Injury Claim

If you have been injured at work because of faulty equipment, you can claim personal injury compensation.

Although it may feel awkward to make an accident claim against your employer, you must remember that their legal and moral responsibility is to keep you safe. It may feel like a huge step to consider claiming, but your recovery is of the highest importance.

One fear that many employees have is that their future employment will be damaged due to claiming, but this is unfounded. The money from your claim is rightfully yours, or you would not have won the claim. Please claim if you have been injured by faulty equipment at work.

You should immediately contact an injury lawyer for advice about your situation to claim. The impartial advice of a third party is invaluable. The personal injury solicitor will probably operate with a no-win-no-fee service so that you will not be out of pocket on expenses.

Contacting a personal injury lawyer as quickly as possible after the accident will ensure that the outcome is as favourable as possible. The chances of a successful claim are much higher if the solicitor can discover the full facts about the situation very soon after the accident happened, while details are still fresh in witnesses’ minds.

Your claim and compensation can make a massive difference in how you then continue your life. It can help cover medical expenses and also rehabilitation into your old job or a new career.

After an injury from faulty equipment at work, the compensation from your claim can get you back on track again and secure your future.

Am I Eligible to Make a Compensation Claim?

Before you begin a claim, you’ll need to consider whether you’re eligible for compensation. In most cases, if there’s an injury at work and it’s due to faulty equipment, you should be able to make a claim, but there are a couple of things that will clear up any uncertainty.

Were you working with defective equipment?

It doesn’t matter what equipment you use at work, because if it’s faulty, you have a right to claim. Defective work equipment can be anything from a faulty electrical outlet to loose scaffolding or machinery that fails to function.

Here are some common issues we see regularly:

• Machinery that lacks guards to protect the hands and fingers of employees
• Poorly made lifting equipment
• Faulty wiring
• Equipment that has been inadequately repaired
• Faulty ladders and scaffolding

Any workplace injury that occurs due to faulty equipment is eligible for compensation.

Did your employer provide personal protective equipment?

Most jobs require some form of personal protective equipment, including manufacturers, builders and other manual roles. However, people can forget about occupations that can also be dangerous.

For example, health and social care workers should have gloves and other protective items to protect them from bodily fluids, while lab workers need goggles and a safe environment.

If your employer fails to provide you with the correct PPE, they’re in breach of the work equipment regulations.

The Claims Process

If you think you might be eligible to make a claim, you should immediately contact us because we can put you in touch with one of the leading accident at work solicitors. The sooner you start the claim, the more likely you are to be successful.

Consult With a Legal Advisor

Once you initiate contact with us, we’ll be able to discuss the incident in more detail. We’ll need to know about your work, the equipment you were using and what happened. When we have this information, we’ll assess the validity of your claim and signpost you to a legal specialist.

Filing The Claim

Once your no win no fee solicitor begins the claim, they’ll handle all communication with your employer and look at numerous factors to decide the amount you should be entitled to. This includes the mental or physical injury you sustained, recovery time, and expenses incurred from treatment.

Negotiations

The next stage depends entirely on your employer and their legal team. In many cases, compensation claims go relatively smoothly – especially when the employer is willing to admit that they were at fault.

Your lawyer will negotiate what they believe is a fair amount of compensation depending on the workplace injuries you received, and in some cases, the claim might go to court.

Get Access to The Best Personal Injury Solicitors Today

If defective equipment results in you being injured at work, please feel free to get in touch with a personal injury expert by calling 0800 234 6438. We have a partnership with leading injury and discrimination specialists, so contacting us can give you an idea of your eligibility for compensation.

Safety laws keep everyone safe, and if your employer breaches these restrictions, you have the right to make sure it never happens to anyone again. Please don’t hesitate to call and start your faulty equipment injury claim.