Personal Injury Workplace Accidents

Construction accidents are relatively common and if your employer has failed to take appropriate measures to protect you, you will often be entitled to make an accident construction claim. Such claims will often arise due to:

Falls from roofs or ladders
Crane accidents
Scaffolding accidents
Vehicle & machinery accidents
Lifting accidents

Construction accidents such as these can result in very serious injuries, often hindering your ability to work. This can lead to devastating financial implications, particularly if your injuries are expected to last in the long-term.

That is why you must waste no time in speaking to a solicitor about pursuing an accident construction claim, as you need and deserve to be compensated for your losses.

Industrial diseases, or long-term health conditions and sicknesses are occupational hazards that result either from long-term exposure to a certain chemical or material, or from the repetition of a certain task.

Either way, employers have a duty of care towards their staff, meaning they are obliged to create a safe working environment for you and your colleagues. This must include putting in place measures that will help prevent employees suffering an industrial disease. The exact nature of these measures will depend upon the working environment, but may involve providing protective breathing masks, protective eye wear and ear protectors.

If your employer fails to ensure your health and safety and you do develop an industrial disease, you may have grounds for a compensation claim. This can affect employees in any line of work, but will especially frequently concern people in the ship-building, construction and agricultural industries.

Some of the more common industrial diseases include:

Occupational asthma
Mesothelioma
Asbestosis
Pleural plaques
Pleural thickening

Research continues to be carried out by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to establish a greater understanding of the causes of industrial lung disease. But what is known is that a range of current and former industrial workers are at risk of industrial lung disease.

Amongst other, these include:

Mining workers

Construction workers

Trades workers

Engineer workers

People within the aforementioned professions are at an increased risk because they are often exposed to hazardous chemicals or particles for a long period of time. This can damage the lungs, resulting in a variety of industrial lung diseases.

One of the most common types of industrial lung disease is pneumoconiosis, caused by the inhalation and retention of dust in the lungs. Other forms of industrial lung disease include asbestosis, pleural plaques and occupational asthma.

When an industrial worker is medically diagnosed with pneumoconiosis or another industrial disease, the doctor will, with the patient’s consent, notify their employer of the patient’s illness. The employer is then duty bound to report their employee’s case to their local Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

If this has happened to you, you should also contact Gibson & Associates Solicitors today. This is because employers are supposed to protect their staff from harm. Therefore if industrial lung disease is a hazard of your job, your employer should provide you with protective equipment and put other precautionary measures in place.

If there is a failure to do so and you go on to suffer bad health, your employer will be to blame. You will consequently be entitled to compensation for the damage this has caused you.

Fishing and farming remain among the most dangerous occupations in Ireland.

Unfortunately, some farmers who employ staff do not make an effort to create a safe working environment. In the eyes of the law, this will be considered negligent. If a farm worker consequently sustains an injury, he or she needs to talk to a solicitor about pursuing a claim for injuries.

Common causes of farm claims include:

Injuries caused by machinery such as tractors, combine harvesters, fork lift trucks, diggers and 4×4 vehicles

Injuries caused by animals

Injuries caused by slips, trips and falls

Injuries caused by falling, flying and moving objects

Even if you tripped over a bale of hay, you may be eligible to claim financial redress for the injuries you sustained.

A solicitor who deals with farm accidents and farm claims will be able to suggest whether or not you are entitled to compensation.

Generally if you suffer an accident due to someone else’s fault you could have a personal injury claim. Or, if you can answer yes to either of the below questions, would give a good indication of you have injury claim eligibility:

Did the accident or incident cause me a visible injury, or pain (some injuries are not visible for example whiplash after a car accident), and not just damage to my property?

Do you suffer from psychological trauma as a result of the incident, for example depression or anxiety?

A personal injury claim enables you to recover compensation; for damages done to you physically, financially and/or psychologically.

There are many causes of personal injury from traffic accidents, trips and falls in public places, work accidents, medical mistakes etc., but, the accident generally should be the fault of another person(s) negligence.

No two personal injury claims are the same, many factors have to be taken into consideration. Even such factors as age and gender can impact on claims.

We specialise in the following areas:

Road Traffic Accident Claims*

To qualify for a road traffic accident compensation claim, you must have been hurt within the last three years. The accident must also have been all or partly someone’s else’s fault. If you were 18 or over when the traffic accident happened, you’ve got three years to make a personal injury claim from the accident date.

Serious Injury Claims*

Serious injury claims, also known as catastrophic injury or large loss claims, include life changing injuries such as spinal injury, severe head/brain injury, amputation, traumatic injuries and fatal accidents.

These complex claims often take a long time to resolve and require specialist Solicitors with expert legal knowledge and experience. Serious injury claims often involve significant sums of money which need to compensate the individual for the losses incurred.

Accidents at Work Claims*

If your employer failed to meet their responsibilities and negligence has led to you being injured in an accident at work, you can claim compensation by filing a work accident claim. If your claim for a workplace injury is successful the compensation would be paid from the employers liability insurance.

How much compensation you might be able to claim for a work accident varies due to various different factors. These will include how severe your accident at work is, do you need to take time off from work to recover and if you do for how long, who else may be affected by your work injury such as family members and so forth.

Slip, trip and falls accidents Claims*

Slips, trips and falls generally happen because businesses, building landlords or local councils didn’t take the correct maintenance, repair and safety measures to keep you and other members of the public safe. Most slips and trips when people are out and about are caused by:

Wet floors plus wet or icy pavements
Uneven flooring or steps
Cracked or uneven pavements and kerbs
Unexpected obstacles
Poor lighting

The damages in slip, trip or fall compensation are made up of two types, called general and special damages. Your solicitor will calculate both and add them together when they value your claim and begin negotiating with the other side.

General damages are awarded for what’s called pain, suffering and loss of amenity. This covers the injury itself and the impact it has had on your ability to do things in your daily life.

Special damages are the financial losses you may also have suffered like loss of earnings, the cost of medical treatments you’ve needed and even necessary modifications you had done to your home or car.

The guidelines for general damages are set by The Judicial College, which is part of the Ministry of Justice.

Medical Negligence/Clinical Negligence*

The term medical negligence (also known as clinical negligence) is usually defined as a breach of a duty of care from a health professional that has resulted in harm and loss.

For there to be a valid medical negligence case the breach of care must have caused harm or damage to the patient. Medical negligence can take a number of forms such as:

Misdiagnosis
Incorrect treatment
Surgical mistakes
Prescribing inappropriate medication
Damage to child before, during or after birth
Not giving a person the treatment they need
Not being told about the risks of a proposed treatment
Delay in the provision of appropriate treatment

There are strict time limits placed upon clinical negligence claims but these may vary depending on the age of the patient. Patients are usually required to start a compensation claim within 3 years of their injury, or within 3 years of when they discover their injury was the result of clinical negligence.

In cases where a child under 18 has suffered clinical injury, the time limit starts from the date of their 18th birthday.

Fatal Accidents Claims*

A Fatal Accident compensation claim arises when someone dies as a result of the negligence of another personor an organisation following an unexpected or unforeseen event.

A ‘no win no claim’ agreement, also known as a conditional fee agreement, is an arrangement between you and your personal injury solicitor.

It means that if your compensation claim is unsuccessful, you will not have to pay a contingency fee for your lawyer’s services.

Most personal injury claims in Ireland will fall under a No Win No Fee arrangement.

However, all claims are assessed case by case, please contact a member of our client care team who will help you with your enquiry.

Under the Civil Liabilities and Courts Act 2004 the time limit for claims for compensation is 2 years from the date of the accident.

However, it is very important that you notify the person you hold responsible for your injury within 1 month of the accident. You should notify them in writing (by registered post) detailing what they have done. This gives the person, company or organisation a chance to investigate your claim.

If you do not inform the other person within the specified timeframe, it may not affect your application to PIAB. But it may affect your case later if you have to go to court, and you may not be able to recover your costs.

So, you’ve been in an accident some time ago…maybe it’s too late to claim? Generally, in Ireland, you must start a personal injury claim within two years of the accident occurring. This is known as the statute of limitations, after the two years is up the case is barred. But, there can be some exceptions to the rule, for example, maybe the injured party was under 18 years old at the time of the accident.

The length of time it takes to process an injury claim can vary, but the Personal Injuries Assessment Board state that the average time frame is seven months. And we usually find it takes somewhere between six and nine months, then the payout of compensation normally happens within a month of finalisation from the Personal Injuries Board. But, if the claim ends up in the courts (litigation) the claim assessment could take up to three years.