An article published on Friday in the New Scotsman caught my eye online over the weekend with its headline “Council tripped up by £40k bill for school’s staff injury claims.” The piece mentioned that tens of thousands of pounds had been paid out in compensation to teachers and school staff in the Midlothian area of Scotland. However the descriptions given in this first paragraph of some of the accidents, including falling over a bin and tripping on bouncy castle ropes are only a small selection of the types of accidents teachers can suffer whilst at work and they are clearly used with intention of making accident compensation claims appear frivolous.
If we look at the actual details of some of the claims mentioned in the article, we can see that many of the teaching and support staff have indeed suffered genuine injuries that will have had a great impact on their daily lives. The highest claim in the Midlothian area was reported as being a £17,000 payout for industrial deafness compensation. A condition like industrial deafness can be caused by noise levels within a working environment being too high. In the case of a school, the noise may come from the pupils themselves, or machinery, such as in a Design Technology classroom. Wherever this noise comes from, industrial deafness is a serious condition that can dramatically reduce a person’s hearing, typically leaving them needing hearing aids.
Other accidents mentioned in the article include a youth worker who received £11,800 after breaking both arms tripping over ropes securing a bouncy castle and a school janitor who received a payout for £4500 after injuring a toe when he was building a stage in a school hall. Whilst it is true that in some circumstances people may attempt to pursue compensation claims for trivial accidents, I don’t think anyone would argue that breaking both of your arms is a trivial accident. Focussing on only a few headline grabbing compensation payouts creates a false impression of a so-called “compensation culture”, in which everyone who suffers even a minor injury receives several thousand pounds in accident claims compensation.
The truth of the matter is that courts in the UK operate under strict guidelines governing the size of compensation payouts. These guidelines are there to ensure that genuinely injured people receive a level of compensation that accurately reflects the impact their injuries have had on their life, including any changes they have had to make to their daily routine, which in the case of severe injuries may include changing jobs, adapting their homes or even paying for round-the-clock specialist nursing care.
If you are a teacher or you work in a school and you have been injured in an accident that was not your fault whilst at work, it may be the case that someone else was to blame. Camps Solicitors deal with thousands of personal injury claims each year, and we look at each case on an individual basis. If we take your claim on, our workplace accident solicitors will look carefully at all the circumstances of the accident, including any equipment that may have been defective, any training that may have been sub-standard or any health and safety procedures that might not have been followed. Once we have found clear evidence that your accident was preventable and that you were not to blame we will fight hard for you to receive the maximum possible compensation for your particular injuries.
Call 0800 092 8586
Speak to one of our claims advisors about your claim.
