One of the commonest reasons for serious injury on a building site is a scaffolding accident. Workers falling from scaffolding, and items dropped from scaffolding which hit people on the ground, cause back and spinal damage, broken limbs and head injuries and, in most cases, are completely preventable. Rules included in the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Work at Height) Regulations 2006 state that “An employer shall ensure that work at height is properly planned, appropriately supervised and carried out in a manner that is, so far as is reasonably practicable, safe and without risk to health”. Where he fails to fulfill his obligations under this Act, leading to you suffer an injury from his lack of care, you are entitled to make a claim for scaffolding accident compensation.
Your first consideration when you have been involved in a scaffolding accident should be your health. Usually a fall from scaffolding is considered sufficiently serious for an ambulance to be called, but a trip on uneven scaffolding or a bang on the head from a piece of debris dropped from a height may cause less serious injury and you may not feel that urgent medical attention is necessary. However, strains and knocks of any nature have the potential to develop into more serious health issues, and no matter how minor you believe your scaffolding accident to be, you should always have a precautionary examination at a hospital or your doctor´s surgery.
Where an employer has been negligent, and you intend to make a claim for scaffolding accident compensation, your medical records and corresponding entry in your employer´s “Accident Report Book” will be used to support your application for scaffolding accident compensation.
Making a Claim for Scaffolding Accident Compensation
Making a claim for scaffolding injury compensation is not always straightforward. Inasmuch as the process of submitting an application form to the Injuries Board Ireland is the same as for any personal injury* claim, there are a number of factors that may influence whether the Injuries Board Ireland will be able to process your application.
Your employment status is one of the major issues. Many people working on construction sites believe that they are employed, but many who suffer scaffolding accidents may find that they are contracted, self-employed or working on short term agency contracts. This does not necessarily disqualify you from making a claim for scaffolding accident compensation, but the process and the liable person may well be different.
Another factor that may influence the success of your claim for scaffolding accident compensation is your employer´s willingness to accept liability for your injuries. He may have felt that he had done everything necessary to ensure that the working environment was “safe and without risk to health”. But even if he was partly responsible for your injuries, you are still entitled to claim compensation for your scaffolding accident.
To help with this issue, and others, following a scaffolding accident, we have established a free advice telephone service which you are invited to call, and discuss your claim for scaffolding accident compensation with a specialist personal injury* claims solicitor. You will be able to check your status and entitlement to claim, ask questions about the appropriate actions you can take and receive some helpful and impartial advice on your options. All calls to our free advice service are completely confidential, and there is no obligation on you to proceed with a claim once you have spoken with us.
Call us now or if you cannot speak now please fill in the form on the left and we will call you back.
What You Can Expect When You Call
We understand that when you have suffered a scaffolding accident, you are most likely to be in pain, in shock and angry about how your accident could have been allowed to happen. You will find us respectful of your injuries and considerate of any psychological trauma you are experiencing when you call.
We will ask you to tell us how your scaffolding accident happened, what injuries you sustained and how they were treated. If you are still undergoing treatment, this is obviously going to affect your quality of life, and we would also like to know how it is affecting your relationship with other family members.
Your injuries may also affect your future earning potential and you may have questions about this as well. There are ways of integrating “out-of-pocket” expenses into a claim for scaffolding accident compensation and getting awards of “special damages” on top of the amount you would expect to receive for the physical and emotion trauma you have suffered.
In the event that you have been approached by an insurance company representing your employer, with an offer of early settlement, you can use this service to check whether the amount “on the table” is fair and adequate. Insurance companies tend to put their profits before the financial welfare of victims of scaffolding accidents, so we have no objection to you calling us if your claim has reached this stage.
By the end of the conversation, we hope to have established that you have a claim for scaffolding accident compensation that is worth your while to pursue, determined an approximate value of the claim and given you a significant amount of advice that will enable you to make a decision about whether or not you wish to proceed.
If you want to take a few days to make your decision, that is perfectly acceptable. You are under no obligation to proceed with a claim, but we would advise you not to leave it too long to make your mind up as the Statute of Limitations in Ireland only allows two years from the date of your scaffolding accident for you to make a claim for compensation.
Although this may seem like plenty of time, a case has to be compiled and it is best done when the memories of witnesses are still fresh. Therefore, please call our free advice service at the earliest possible opportunity. Our lines are open seven days a week between 8.00am and 10.00pm, and if it is inconvenient for you to call us right now, please leave your contact details in our call-back box below and one of our helpful team will get back in touch.