Compensation Awarded for Manual Handling Injury

3rd August 2007

After injuring his shoulder in an accident at work, a man recovered compensation with help from our specialist personal injury solicitors.

Manual Handling Injury

At the time of his accident, the claimant was at the university where he worked and had to move a 22kg picture. In order to accomplish this task a 34kg portrait also had to be moved out of the way.

An experienced joiner, the claimant enlisted the help of a colleague and stood at the foot of a ladder to secure it, whilst his colleague went up. As the claimant took the weight, he injured one of his shoulders.

Employer Liability

The claimant felt that his employer was responsible for the injury, as they failed to implement sufficient manual handling procedures.

The defendant’s own witness gave evidence that the safest way to move such portraits was to have 3-4 employees carry out the job using scaffolding. Therefore they had no choice but to accept that they had not reduced the risk of personal injury as far as reasonably practicable.

Although the client had received training, the Judge found that the training was inadequate and his employer had not taken all reasonable steps to adequately train him. Judgement was therefore made in favour of the claimant and he was awarded damages.

Workplace Injury Claims

If you or a member of your family has suffered an injury at work, whether through poor manual handling procedures or something else, you may be entitled to make a claim for compensation.

Contact The Legal Line for cost free advice and assistance from our expert personal injury lawyers on 0800 0328511, or by completing an online claim enquiry form.

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