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Faulty Machinery At Work Injury – Am I Eligible To Claim Compensation?
Faulty Machinery At Work Injury Compensation Claims Experts
By Danielle Jordan. Last Updated March 2024. This guide will explain how to claim compensation for a faulty machinery at work injury. Workers in all fields may use machinery to carry out tasks. If employers do not check machinery regularly or keep it properly maintained, it can become faulty. Faulty workplace machinery is a hazard that can cause accidents, putting workers at risk of a faulty machinery injury.
If a worker is injured by faulty equipment or machinery because their employer acted negligently, they could claim compensation for their injuries. Please get in touch with Legal Expert today to enquire about making an industrial injury claim. If you meet the right criteria for compensation, Legal Expert can provide a skilled lawyer to handle your claim.
Please get in touch with our team to see if you can start your claim:
- Call our helpline on 0800 073 8804
- Enquire about making a workplace accident claim online
- Or use our Live Support widget to chat with an advisor online
Select A Section
- What Is A Faulty Machinery At Work Injury?
- What Is Machine Safety In The Workplace
- Common Injuries From Faulty Machinery
- How To Claim For A Faulty Machinery At Work Injury
- Settlements For A Faulty Machinery At Work Injury
- Can I Make A No Win No Fee Claim Against My Employer?
What Is A Faulty Machinery At Work Injury?
Many workers use machinery to complete tasks in the workplace, under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, employers have a duty of care towards their workers, which means employers must take reasonably practicable steps to ensure the health and safety of their staff.
Employers must routinely maintain and service machinery to ensure it is in good working order. Moreover, employers must regularly inspect machinery to ensure it is safe. And employers must provide workers with the correct personal protective equipment to use the machinery safely.
If an employer fails to do the above, this could breach their duty of care. If your employer acted negligently and, consequently, faulty work equipment or machinery injured you, you could claim compensation for your injuries. Please get in touch with Legal Expert today to see if you can make a defective machinery injury claim.
What Is Machinery And Work Equipment?
Work equipment is any machinery, appliance, apparatus, tool or installation for use at work (whether exclusively or not). Including equipment that employees provide for themselves.
What Is Machine Safety In The Workplace?
The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 provide businesses and organisations with the regulations that must be followed to safely use machinery at work.
PUWER requires machinery and equipment to be:
- Safe for use and maintained in safe conditions
- Suitable for intended use
- Only trained persons can use the machinery or equipment
- To meet relevant safety requirements, for example, having a safety guard
Therefore employers must carry out regular safety checks on equipment for faults. And employers should carry out necessary maintenance work as needed.
Moreover, employers must carry out regular risk assessments to identify possible hazards the equipment could cause. And employers should apply control measures to mitigate these risks, such as providing employees with the correct personal protective equipment (PPE). Failure to carry out these tasks could be considered a breach of their duty of care.
Common Injuries From Faulty Machinery
Workers may suffer faulty machinery at work injuries if their employer neglects health and safety standards. The injuries can range from minor injuries to medical emergencies where a worker may suffer from life-changing injuries. Below are some examples of how you could be injured by machinery:
- Crush injuries can happen if a digit or limb is pulled into a mechanism
- If a piece of machinery comes loose, it can hit a worker, causing eye injuries
- A faulty press can cause broken or fractured bone injuries
- Head injuries caused by a blunt force trauma
- A faulty mechanism can pull a joint out of its socket, causing a dislocated shoulder
- Or a worker may experience deep cuts or lacerations, which can cause permanent tissue damage
How To Claim For A Faulty Machinery At Work Injury
If you wish to make a dangerous machinery claim, you must be within the personal injury claims time limit. Under the Limitation Act 1980, the limitation period begins on the accident or the date of knowledge. The time limit is normally three years.
To claim for a workplace injury, you will need to prove that the following took place:
- Your employer owed you a duty of care.
- Your employer acted negligently. For example, an organisation failed to repair a faulty machine.
- Subsequently, the negligence caused an accident at work. And the accident injured you.
Evidence that can prove your injuries includes an entry into your employer’s accident book, your medical records and CCTV footage of the accident. People who saw the accident could make a statement to support you. Please call Legal Expert to speak to a claims advisor to see if you can claim defective equipment injury compensation.
Settlements For A Faulty Machinery At Work Injury
If your workplace injury claim is successful, you could receive up to two heads of claim:
- You can receive general damage compensation for the mental and physical hurt your injuries caused.
- You can receive special damage compensation to reimburse you for any unavoidable expenses your injuries caused. Such as travel expenses to cover the cost of hospital parking.
You might wonder how much compensation you can claim for an injury at work. How much compensation you can receive depends on the severity of your injuries. Please look up your injuries in our compensation table to estimate how much you could claim. We used 16th-edition guidelines from the Judicial College (2022) for the compensation brackets in the table.
| Injury Type | Notes | Guidelines |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate Brain Or Head Injury – (C) (i) | The person suffers from moderate to severe degrees of intellectual deficit. They may also find their personality has changed and their sight or speech is impacted. | £150,110 to £219,070 |
| Moderate Brain Or Head Injury – (C) (iii) | The injury has impacted this person’s memory as well as their ability to concentrate. | £43,060 to £90,720 |
| Eye Injuries – (C) (i) – Sight Loss In One Eye Reduced Vision In The Other Eye | There is the risk of the remaining eye further deteriorating. This could go beyond the risk of sympathetic ophthalmia. | £95,990 to £179,770 |
| Eye Injuries – (C) (ii) – Sight Loss In One Eye Reduced Vision In The Other Eye | The remaining eye has reduced vision and/or double vision. | £63,950 to £105,990 |
| Hand Injury – Total Or Effective Loss Of A Hand (C) | The bracket includes hand injuries such as those where the hand is crushed and then has to be amputated. | £96,160 to £109,650 |
| Hand Injury – Less Serious Hand Injury (G) | Severe crush injuries which significantly impair how well the hand functions without having surgery or in cases where surgery has happened. | £14,450 to £29,000 |
| Back Injury – Moderate (B) (i) | This bracket may include crush fractures of lumbar vertebrae. | £27,760 to £38,780 |
| Foot Injury – Moderate (F) | Displaced metatarsal fractures leading to deformity in the foot. | £13,740 to £24,990 |
| Foot Injury – Modest (G) | Simple metatarsal fractures. May also include lacerations or puncture wounds. | Up to £13,740 |
| Shoulder Injury – Moderate – (C) | A frozen shoulder limiting the shoulder joints movement. Systems persist for around two years. | £7,890 to £12,770 |
Please note that the table only has guideline figures for general damages but not special damages. The compensation you receive may vary from what is included in the table. So, please call our helpline, and the team can value your claim.
Can I Make A No Win No Fee Claim Against My Employer?
If you are eligible to make a claim for accident at work compensation, you may wish to hire a solicitor to help you with your case. One of our workplace accident solicitors could support your claim. They typically offer their services under a type of No Win No Fee arrangement called a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA).
When your solicitor works with you under this type of agreement, they don’t charge for their services upfront. You also won’t be asked to pay any ongoing service fees. If you aren’t awarded compensation following an unsuccessful claim, you won’t be expected to pay for your solicitor’s services either.
However, your solicitor will deduct a success fee out of your compensation if your claim outcome is positive. The amount that can be taken as this fee is a legally capped percentage.
If you were injured due to faulty machinery, get in touch with our advisors. They can assess whether your claim has potential, and if it does, you could be passed on to one of our accident at work solicitors.
To speak to an advisor about how defective machinery caused your injuries:
- Fill in our ‘claim online’ form for a call back.
- Call 0800 073 8804
- Use our live chat feature.
Further Help And Advice With Faulty Machine Injury Claims
£13,500 Compensation For A Crushed / Smashed Finger Injury
Factory Accident Claims – The Essential Guide
The symptoms of broken bones – an NHS guide
Why is machinery safety important? – a Health and Safety Executive Guide
Plant and equipment maintenance – an HSE safety guide
Please contact Legal Expert today if you have any more questions about making a faulty machinery at work injury claim.
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