The title of this blog is a phrase loathed by claimant personal injury lawyers. Trotted out randomly by defendants, usually claims handlers in insurance companies – but defendant solicitors are not immune from citing it too. It’s meant to suggest that the injured party chose to find themselves in this position.

We all do silly things and suffer lapses of attention. Most of the time we get away with it but occasionally things can go wrong, sometimes catastrophically. But is it our fault entirely? Not always, and particularly not when the incident occurs at work.

 Let me ask you a question – Have you ever got up in the morning and thought to yourself, today is a day I am going to injure myself, deliberately? Of course not, and I would suggest that it is only the suicidal that do so. Even extreme thrill seekers don’t start out thinking their bungee jump/sky dive/base jump (insert your own extreme sport here) is going to end in disaster.

But this is what insurance companies would have you believe. The run down victim threw herself deliberately in front of the defendants car. The dog walker combed the streets looking for a defect in the pavement just so he could trip over in it. The wood worker deliberately inserted his hands into the unguarded saw intending to lose his fingers in the process. The shopper bought her new air fryer fully expecting it to blow up in her face. I ask you!

Other examples include bus passengers sitting on the back seat without another seat in front of them as they should have known the bus driver was going to slam his brakes on suddenly.

Or the pedestrian who was struck on her head by falling guttering, who was blamed by the local authority owner of the building for not looking up as she walked down the street. I was very tempted to respond to that one by pointing out that she was too busy looking down to check the pavements for hazards to be looking up at the same time!

As I’ve already said, sometimes we do silly things, we lose focus for a moment, or our attention is distracted. Sometimes its because we’re just trying to do the best job we can for our employer.

In employment claims there is a recognition of this, that employers need to be aware of and take steps to guard against. It is why risk assessments are so important. By way of example, an employer will not escape responsibility by simply providing hearing protection for those working in noisy environments, the employer needs to take steps to ensure that the hearing protection is actually worn. Similarly, an employer has to accept, if equipment breaks, some employees will patch it up and carry on, even if that equipment is now dangerous to use. In neither of these examples, whatever the defendant may say, is the injured employee “the author of his own misfortune”.

To summarise, if you’ve had an accident at work, even if your employer has told you its your own fault, please contact us for some free, no obligation advice. We may be able to help! Call us on 0800 1380 458 or email help@switalskis.com