I n d u s t r y

The rise of personal injury claims against companies from accidents at work has risen astronomically, usually a claim ends up rearing its head several months after the initial accident. So where does that leave you 'the company' and your 'insurers' and your insurance premiums. What if your particular industry has a high turnover of staff the accident was recorded at the time, but now the witnesses have moved on?

Industry inherently has a problem with accident investigation, namely that Health & Safety depts could be investigating their own risk assessments, which could lead to a 'papering over the cracks' outcome. If a company director is hauled before a court for corporate manslaughter they could face a prison sentence. The director would have no defence that he did not know that his Health & Safety dept were up to scratch.

Even in the event of a minor accident it would be prudent to be armed with a report from an independent accident investigator outlining liability in a detailed document using all of the immediate evidence.

Firstly you can address any problems in your Health & Safety Dept.

Secondly, the evidence is gathered immediately and whilst all of the witnesses are available, you can fight your corner if you were not too blame, or if you are liable you can settle with the claimant quickly and without having to include costly legal expenses.

You may have the attitude that 'what do we pay our premiums for', and it's true your insurance company may pay up, but if you are found guilty of negligence in Health & Safety, they could take you to court independently to retrieve their money, because by law you must have Health & Safety policies and procedures in place and working correctly.

Is it not better to be safe than sorry? A small engineering company based in the Midlands paid £3,500 p.a for their insurance, had been trading for 25 years, and had a few minor accidents on their site, which were not claimed off their insurance.
They believed that their Health & safety procedures were in place and working correctly, until they had a major accident. Up until then they had settled out of court through arbitration means.

They were found guilty of negligence and their premiums the following year went up to £35,000 p.a. Because they were operating on such small margins it meant that they had to fold the company after 25 years of trading.

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