Accident At Work Claim In Scotland Guide

By Joanne Jeffries. Last Updated 24th November 2022. Welcome to our guide on accident at work compensation in Scotland. In it, we explain when personal injury claims in Scotland could be appropriate to make.

We also explain how to evidence an injury claim in Scotland. If you’re in Scotland, and an accident caused by someone’s negligence injured you, this accident at work in Scotland guide could help.

We explain how accident claims in Scotland work and how a Personal injury lawyer covering Scotland claims could assist you in getting the compensation you deserve.

If you’ve been injured in an accident at work in Scotland and you believe it was caused by something your employer could’ve prevented, whether it was a road traffic accident or a slip trip or fall, you may be able to seek compensation for any injuries sustained.

In this guide we’ll provide information on what type of work accident could lead to a claim, what you should do if you’re injured at work, and we’ll provide some accident at work compensation examples.

Here at Accident Claims UK, we could help you begin a claim for compensation for an accident at work using a No Win No Fee solicitor. If you’d like to speak to us right away, call 0800 073 8801. Our advisers are experts in handling accident at work claims and will advise you on your options which is a service offered free of charge.

To find out more about how accident at work solicitors can help you make a claim before calling us, please carry on reading.

Select A Section

1. What Are Accidents In The Workplace In Scotland?
2. Employee Workplace Safety Rights
3. Personal Injury Claims In Scotland – What Evidence Do I Need?
4. Accident At Work In Scotland Compensation Calculator
5. Other Types Of Compensation Your Claim Could Include
6. Time Limits For Accident Claims In Scotland
7. No Win No Fee Claims For Accidents At Work In Scotland

What Are Accidents In The Workplace In Scotland?

To be able to seek a compensation claim, an accident at work in Scotland needs to have left you ill or injured, and needs to have been caused by some form of negligence on the part of a third party.  We’ll provide more information and examples on this later in the guide but one reason an employer could be deemed negligent is because they let you continue using equipment with a known fault which resulted in you being injured.

If you’re unsure if your employer was negligent, call our team of advisers to discuss your claim. Our experts have the knowledge and experience to help you decide whether you have a valid claim or not.

Employee Workplace Safety Rights

As an employee, you should expect your safety to be protected at work. However, no workplace is completely risk-free, but employers have a duty to reduce the risks as much as reasonably possible which is a legal obligation.

You should expect:

• That your employer undertakes risk assessments of processes in the workplace
• Your employer should create a health and safety policy that everybody understands
• To be fully trained in your work roles and to work alongside colleagues who are also adequately trained to carry out jobs safely
• For all equipment and machinery to be well maintained. Also, any faults that are highlighted should be repaired promptly or replaced
• That you’ll be provided with safety equipment where required
• That a first aid kit is available at all times
• To be consulted on any concerns you have about your safety

If an accident happens because one or more of the above hasn’t happened, you could have the right make a compensation claim which could be done with the support of a personal injury lawyer.

Other rights

Further rights and obligations you can expect if you’re injured in an accident at work include:

• Sick Pay: Some employers have their own sick pay policy
• Accident Reporting: This includes recording the accident in an accident book. It could also involve your employer informing the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) under RIDDOR regulations

We will provide more information about these workers rights in the coming sections.

Personal Injury Claims In Scotland – What Evidence Do I Need?

If you’re looking to make an injury claim in Scotland, you might want to know what evidence you’d need to claim for a Scotland accident. The evidence you would need would include:

Evidence of the accident itself

In most cases, you’d need to have evidence the accident happened. Useful evidence to support this could include witness statements, CCTV footage, photos of the scene of the accident, and accident reports, if applicable. 

Proof that someone breached a duty of care towards you

You’d need to show that someone had a duty of care towards you. This could be an employer, or the owner or occupier of a building, for example. It could also be another road user if your injury claim in Scotland relates to a road accident.

Evidence of your injuries

To prove personal injury claims in Scotland, you’d need to show what injuries you sustained. Medical evidence could be vital in such cases. Your own medical notes could be useful. So too could a report from an independent medical expert.

Proof of financial expense/loss

If you have lost income, or incurred medical or care costs, for example, you’d need to prove these. There are plenty of documents that could help with this. They could include payslips, bank statements and bills, for example. 

If you’re considering making personal injury claims in Scotland and would like to know more about evidence, please call us. We would be happy to talk to you about the evidence that could help your claim.

Accident At Work In Scotland Compensation Calculator

To help you work out the amount of compensation for an accident at work that you might receive, we’ve included the workplace injury compensation table below. The figures come from the Judicial College Guidelines, which only cover claims in England and Wales. However, they could give a very rough indication of how much comparable injuries in England and Wales could be worth.

Edit

Injury Type / Body Part	Severity	Max Payment	Comments
Neck injury	Severe (a)(i)	Up to £148,330	Ijuries which result in permenant pain movement loss.
Leg injury	Amputation	£97,980 to £132,990	Below knee amputation affecting one leg.
Back injury	Severe (a)(i)	£91,090 £160,980	Involving nerve root and spinal cord damage.
Foot injury	Very severe (c)	£83,960 to £109,650	In this range, injuries Injuries causing permanent and severe pain, and serious permanent disability.
Hand injury	Serious (b)	£55,820 to £84,570	Serious damage to both of your hands.
Ankle injury	Very severe (a)	£50,060 to £69,700	Injuries causing complete permenant loss of function and that may lead to amputation or arthrodesis.
Finger injury	Fractures (f)	Up to £36,740	Severe fractures to fingers that may result in amputation or deformity.
Wrist injury	Less severe (c)	£12,590 to £24,500	Some permanent disability such as stiffness or persisting pain.
Thumb injury	Serious (f)	£12,590 to £16,760	Involving examples such as partial tip amputation, fracture or nerve damages requiring wires to be inserted.

As you can see, each injury has a severity associated with it. The severity will determine how much compensation you’ll receive.  Therefore, your personal injury solicitor would need to show how severe your injuries were to ensure you receive the correct level of compensation.

What Other Types Of Compensation Could a Claim Include?

When your solicitor begins a claim for an accident at work in Scotland, they use a number of different elements which are known as heads of loss. Depending on your injuries and how they’ve affected you, different heads of loss can be used, including:

• General damages. These are usually claimed for in all cases. It’s the compensation shown in the previous section’s table. They cover the pain and suffering caused by your injuries
• Travel expenses. If you have to change your travel arrangements because of your injuries, which leaves you out of pocket, you could include the expense in your claim
• Medical costs. While you’ll usually receive free NHS treatment for your injuries, you might have to pay for medicines either on prescription or over the counter. You could claim these costs back
• Care costs. Some injuries mean that the claimant needs professional care to assist them while they’re recovering. If that happens, the cost could be something a solicitor would look to claim back
• Lost income. If you have to take sick pay while you recover from your injuries, which is less than you’d normally earn, you could claim the difference back. If you need time off in the future, you could claim for future loss of earnings too
• Personal property damage. If any item of your own property is damaged during your accident at work, you might be able to include the cost of replacing the item in your claim

Special Damages

The financial parts of the claim listed above are known as special damages. The idea of special damages is to ensure that an accident doesn’t leave you worse off, financially, than you were before it happened.

You’ll need to be able to demonstrate how they were linked to your injuries. To prove these expenses, try to keep hold of receipts or bank statements. If you’re unsure about any spending, check with your solicitor first. It’s better to be certain you’ll be able to include a cost within your claim than to find out later that you’re out of pocket.

Time Limits For Accident Claims In Scotland

If you’re wondering how long you could have to start a claim for an accident at work in Scotland or another type of injury claim in Scotland, we could help assess this for you.

In general, the time limit for personal injury claims in Scotland is three years from:

1. The date the accident occurred
2. The date that you became aware of negligence.

There are some exceptions to the time limits for accident claims in Scotland. For example, if the person injured is a child or if the person lacks the mental capacity to claim.

Should you wish to get advice on how long you’d have to claim from a personal injury lawyer for Scotland claims, we would be happy to help you.

No Win No Fee Claims For Accidents At Work In Scotland

When making a claim for an accident at work in Scotland, many people worry about the costs involved. That’s why our accident claims solicitors offer a No Win No Fee claims service when they take a claim on.

The agreement is actually known as a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). It states that you won’t need to pay the solicitor any fees up front or if they fail to win compensation for you.

If they are successful, and you receive compensation, you’ll pay them a success fee. This is explained in the CFA, so you know what you’ll pay right from the start. Should your case not be successful, there would be no success fee to pay for the services a personal injury solicitor provided.

Because you don’t need to make any payments to your solicitor, we believe that No Win No Fee terms offer the easiest way to make a claim. It removes the financial risk involved and means the whole process is a lot less stressful.

To get in touch with us today, you can:

• Call our accident helpline on 0800 073 8804. It’s free to call and advisors are ready to discuss your claim right away.
• Use our live chat feature. You can chat online with an advisor, 7 days a week.
• Send a message via email to office@accidentclaims.co.uk.
• Or, to have us call you back at a suitable time, you can use our online claims form.

Further Scottish Work Accident Information Relating To Accident At Work Compensation In Scotland

Finally, to help you further, we’ve provided some more information. Below, you will find guides, links and other resources which could help you further.

Health and Safety Scotland – Guidance from the HSE about health and safety issues in Scotland.

Workplace Health and Safety – A guide from the Scottish government about safety in the workplace.

NHS Scotland – Information from the Scottish NHS. You’ll find all sorts of useful information including what to do following certain injuries.

Accident at Work Claims – Another, more generic, guide explaining what to do in the event of an accident at work.

Slips, Trips and Falls – A detailed guide about slips, trips and falls. Includes a personal injury claims calculator which explains what amount of compensation you could receive.

Concussion Injury Claims – Explains the amount of compensation you might receive for different accidents which result in concussion from an accident at work in Scotland

How To Make An Accident At Work Claim – a complete guide on claiming compensation