Perseverance pays, or should I say, takes off
Article written by Mark Hambling – Solicitor, Director and Senior Litigator, Accredited with the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers.
As we are in the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers Injury awareness week, I am reflecting on interesting cases and successful outcomes.
Personal Injury claims and the amounts recovered are often very private matters, and whilst a client will want to often be proud to say they have achieved justice, their identities and amounts recovered are often very private.
In a recent case I represented a temporary worker who in his first week of working as an aircraft cleaner sustained very significant hand injuries. The injuries were caused by the operators of the aircraft maintenance company operating hydraulics on the aircraft whilst the aircraft internal mechanisms, many of which are operated by hydraulics, were being cleaned. As a consequence, whilst my client was cleaning the various hydraulically operated rods which operate the aircraft’s steering equipment, the hydraulics were tested and caused my clients hand to be pulled in to and around the tube connecting to the steering flaps. My client sustained a significant hand injury as his hand was pulled into the mechanism, and a substantial loss of income.
For some time, the aircraft cleaners, we will call them the employers for this article, denied liability suggesting my client should not have been there and that he should have heard the hydraulic operation warning, in effect this was an accident. However, as is so often the case in a personal injury claim, there were a sequence of errors, of which anyone could have avoided injury and saved my clients pain suffering and financial loss. As such I was alleging the injuries were caused by the employer’s negligence.
The employers argued my client should not have been on site at the time of testing yet could not explain why a manager had been recorded as assigning the job to my client shortly before the accident.
The employers could not explain why they did not check the job allocation records which would have shown aircraft cleaners timed as being at work around the hydraulics at the time of operating hydraulics.
At one point it was argued that the employers were unaware of my client’s presence on the aircraft, yet they could not explain why my clients job required him to walk past the alleged look-out positions on two occasions shortly before his accident. In effect, if someone was looking, he would have been seen.
It was also suggested that my client should have heard an oral warning, in a noisy workplace and one where the look-outs all had radios for communication!
Winning a personal injury case is often about analysing the risks, looking at the risk assessments and then building the evidence to prove that the risks could have been avoided, often by taking simply common-sense steps, helping to build the claim in negligence.
I am pleased to say that with perseverance and by the gathering of strong evidence to prove my client’s case and rebutting any suggestions put forward by the employer, we could prove this was not an accident, but an injury caused by the negligence of the employer. Indeed, one which was easily avoidable by simple steps being taken by the employer. As a consequence of my advice and investigation, my client’s life is back on track, his surgery on his hand was funded privately and his loss of income reimbursed.
Rogers & Norton’s talented and knowledgeable Personal Injury team have many years’ experience handling Personal Injury cases, ranging from minor one off incidents to cases of the upmost severity that have had a life changing impact on the claimant. For more information, visit our Personal Injury service pages or to arrange an appointment please contact us by calling 01603 666001 or emailing enquiries@rogers-norton.co.uk