Hello again all,

We often deal with accident compensation claims arising from falls at work (or falls in various other places) and so I thought I must have blogged about this subject before, but quite remarkably it seems I haven’t.

I have been contacted by a number of new clients about a rash of these types of accidents recently and most of them were entirely preventable had suitable training and equipment been made available to the injured person. This raft of new accident claims has prompted me to write this blog entry because it seems that falls like these are always going to happen.

Falls sound so innocuous, mundane and simple, but they can be deadly. HSE statistics show that falls from height account for nearly a quarter of all fatal injuries in the workplace (2011/12 figures). As you might expect, most of those fatal falls (over 60%) occurred in the construction industry. Falls can also include being struck by falling objects, again something common in the construction industry, but possible almost anywhere – I’ve had claims for injured people struck by falling files at work and by badly stacked goods in supermarkets, for example.

Whilst, thankfully, most falls are not fatal, they are rarely trivial. If you feel unsafe at work in this sort of scenario or doing these sort of duties then I’d urge you to tell your employer. They have many duties to train you and provide safety equipment.

In the workplace the legislation and regulations recognise the potentially grave consequences of someone falling from any height at all and so this area is one of the most regulated of all. Because we have seen many of these accidents we have a devoted page on this website under “Cause of Injury” and “Workplace accidents” that helps to explain more about such accidents and the factors that affect claims. There is also an interesting case study for one claim that I conducted a while ago under our “Case studies” tab – look for the case described as “Mr C – fall from height (£305,000.00)”. You can tell from the size of that compensation payout that the injury was a very nasty one and the claim was quite complex.

If you’ve had any kind of falling accident, whether at work or otherwise, I’d urge you to call or make contact with me or Lorraine (there’s a link below). It’s very likely we can help and we can talk you through the issues for free and without any obligation at all.

That’s all for now,

John