We all have a right to be safe at work and the law is designed to ensure we receive this protection. As such, if you sustain injury in an accident at work or develop an illness as a result of occupational factors, you may be entitled to compensation for your pain, suffering, expenses and losses.
As a general rule, workplace injury claims must begin within three years of the date of the accident or exposure that caused your injury or illness.
Claims outside the three-year time limit
Your claim is unlikely to succeed if you miss this deadline. However, there is some scope for the making of claims outside the usual three-year time limit if you can show that you fall into one of these exceptional circumstances:
- You did not realise that you had actually been injured at the time. This often applies in industrial disease cases, such as claims for asbestosis, where the symptoms do not appear until many years after the original exposure. The time limit in these cases will start running from the date at which you became aware of a link between the illness or injury you are suffering and an incident or pattern of workplace exposure.
- You were a child at the time of the accident. As children are not entitled to make claims on their own behalf until they are 16, the three-year time limit does not start running for children who have suffered a personal injury until they reach this age - although a parent or guardian can make an earlier claim on their behalf.
- You were mentally incapable at the time of the accident. The law also protects people with mental incapacity and so the three year compensation time limit does not start running for these people until they have recovered mental capacity. Again, an appointed person would be able to make an earlier claim on their behalf.
- You are the Executor on the estate of someone who died in the middle of making a personal injury claim. In this case the clock begins again, with the three-year period running from the date of death.
If you would like more information on your right to be safe at work click here.
Advice from Scotland's largest personal injury firm.
If you are looking for advice, it always helps to speak to someone who has full and specialist understanding of all the issues and implications involved. Thompsons Solicitors is the largest personal injury firm in the country and has also long been recognised as one of the very best. We are experts in dealing with workplace compensation claims and can help you recover the full compensation to which you are entitled – all within the appropriate time limit.
If you or a loved one has been injured in a workplace accident and you would like to find out more about what is involved in making a compensation claim, give us a call on 0800 0891 331. One of our specialist injury lawyers will be happy to talk things through, free of charge and with no obligation.
We offer a range of funding options to help you proceed with your claim, including No Win, No Fee, so that you can rest assured that you will only have something to pay in the event you win your case (we win more than 90% of the cases we take on).
