£125,000.00 compensation for a broken arm

Accident at work involving scaffolding

Our client, who was a Russian speaking Latvian national, was working for the Defendant who are scaffolding specialists. In the course of his employment, he was dismantling the roof of a stage at a musical festival which had finished. The roof was lowered onto the stage platform. Someone had removed a screw from a beam but did not disconnect the beam from the body of the scaffold. When he stood on the beam, it immediately got disconnected and he fell from about 2 metres height onto the ground.

Providing top quality legal services for serious injury compensation claims for more than 30 years

He sustained an open radius fracture and ulnar damage to left arm, which required 3 operations including ulnar open rotation internal fixation, carpal tunnel decompression, repair ulnar nerve, tendon repair and skin graft.

We arranged for the Claimant to be examined by a medico-legal expert who prepared a helpful report on the injuries and losses.

The employer must pay compensation to the employee as a result of an accident at work, even if it is partly caused by their fault

The Defendant’s solicitors alleged that the Claimant was 50% contributorily negligent for the accident. The reason why they alleged he was negligent was his failure to wear a harness when working at height and use a scissor lift platform.

The Claimant confirmed that both were available at the site, but he chose not to use them as the particular task that he was engaged in did not, in his experienced opinion, require their use. In other words, it was much quicker to do the task without the use of either. Therefore, the Claimant accepted that he was partly to blame for his accident but 50% was too harsh.

The Defendant’s solicitors threatened to make an application to the court for permission to resile from their admission of liability.

We took the view that this was not a case in which new evidence come to light in a way which would make it unjust to hold the Defendant to their admission of liability. The theoretical availability of an argument based on contributory negligence must have been as obvious at the time when the admission was made as it is at a later stage. 

Furthermore, the rules concerning the withdrawal of admissions are predicated upon the proposition that Claimants should be encouraged not to expend time and costs in investigating the circumstances of an accident when there is no longer any issue as to liability. 

If the admission had not been made then the Claimant’s solicitors would have looked into the question of contributory negligence, would have discovered from the Claimant what the Defendant’s working practices were at the time and would have looked for – and probably found – evidence to support the Claimant’s assertion that although safety harnesses were provided to the workforce no-one was actually required to wear them, or did in fact wear them, when working at heights as low as the 2 metres with which the present case is concerned. 

In reality, the threat of arguing contributory negligence is something which the Defendant’s lawyers came up with at the late stage in order to increase pressure on our client to accept settlement of his claim. This is why it is crucial that you have a strong team of lawyers fighting your corner and who have vast litigation experience and will be able to spot and deal with these types of nuances accordingly.

We have been litigating personal injury cases for over 30 years so we cannot be intimidated by any threats the defendants will throw. Of course, we did not budge, not even an inch.

We rebutted every allegation the Defendant tried. The Defendant had settled the claim for £125,000 in order to avoid the impact of our mighty power at court

If you have been seriously injured in an accident of any kind and you are thinking of making a claim, it is important that you do your research before instructing a firm of solicitors. Firstly, you must check that your lawyers are qualified solicitors and hold a valid SRA number (Solicitors Regulation Authority). Secondly, check their expertise – some solicitors firms take on any cases that come their way, but you want to instruct a personal injury specialist firm with many years of experience. Thirdly, and this is very important, speak to your potential solicitor on the telephone before you instruct them so you can find out the process and ask any questions. Many cases take over a year and longer. If you are not able to get hold of your potential solicitor easily on the phone before you instruct them, then imagine how frustrating it will be not being able to speak to them to discuss an important aspect of your case for the next year or two.

Not every accident entitles you to receive 100% compensation claimed, however, Levenes will always fight to claim the highest compensation possible

To obtain compensation for any accident to which you, as a victim, contributed in certain way, the level of compensation can be reduced accordingly. That will depend on the extent to which your conduct has contributed to the damage.

If you are injured at work, even if you think the accident may be your fault, it is worth asking us to consider your claim.

Get in touch today and find out within 1 hour if you have a claim. Call us on 0800 048 2355 or request a call back now.