An office injury claim in Ireland seeks compensation for the personal injury you suffer while at work. Your employer owes you a duty of care, and if they breach that duty of care, causing you an injury, you may have an office injury claim. 

The office is somewhere where you should feel safe and secure, but there are workplace hazards in an office, and you could suffer a workplace injury. A workplace injury could happen at your office desk, in the company storeroom, or even on the stairs to the office.  

If you suffer a personal injury in the office, you may have an office accident compensation claim. You can claim for the effects of the workplace injury today and in the future. 

At Hughes & Associates Personal Injury Solicitors, we have the experience in making a workplace accident claim. We can help when you experience an injury in the office that was not wholly your fault. 

Hughes & Associates Personal Injury Solicitors in Dublin can make your office injury compensation claim if you are injured in the workplace.

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What is an office accident claim?

An office accident claim is a compensation claim for the injury you suffered in the workplace that your employer’s negligence may have caused.  

Office accident claims can be for the Repetitive Strain Injury, RSI, you get from working with a faulty chair, the shoulder injury you suffer in a manual handling accident or the crushed finger you have when a desk collapses on your hand. 

The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act outlines an Irish employer’s responsibilities to employees. According to the Health and Safety Authority, there were over 370 accidents and injuries per 100,000 employees in the Irish workplace in 2023. 

You may have an office injury claim if your employer does not follow the health and safety legislation. 

A personal injury solicitor can help when you may have an office injury compensation claim. They will know how to handle a claim and advise you on what to do when you have a workplace injury. 

Hughes & Associates Personal Injury Solicitors have a team of experienced professionals who can help with your office accident injury claim. 

Contact Hughes & Associates for help with your Office Injury Claim

Common office accident injury claims

Common office accident injury claims range from the RSI from working without a break to the broken leg after a fall on faulty stairs to the cuts and bruises in the slip on a wet canteen floor.  

Office accident injuries can vary in impact and severity, but any injury could impact your life today and in the future. 

Some common claims for office accident injury are: 

  • Manual handling office injury claims
  • Slip, trip and fall office injury claims
  • RSI office injury claims
  • Bullying in the workplace office injury claims
  • Assault in the workplace office injury claims

Manual handling office injury claims

Manual handling office injury claims are for the injury you suffer when moving, shifting, or lifting an object in the workplace. 

A manual handling injury in the office may be:

  • Torn shoulder ligaments when moving boxes in the storeroom
  • Back injury when lifting a desk in the office
  • Bursitis in the knee from moving office furniture

Your employer has a duty of care to ensure that you are adequately trained and you have the correct equipment for any manual lifting tasks in the office. 

A breach of their duty of care could cause an accident, and you may suffer an office injury.

Slip, trip, and fall office injury claims

A slip, trip and fall office injury claim is when you are in an accident due to a poorly maintained workplace. 

Common slip, trip, and fall injuries in the office may be:

  • A broken wrist in a slip on the wet office canteen floor
  • A snapped tendon in a trip on exposed wires in the office
  • A head injury from a fall down the faulty office stairs

The employer is responsible for providing a safe working environment for their employees. 

A slip, trip or fall can result from an employer’s lack of duty of care, and you may have an office accident injury claim.

RSI office injury claims

RSI office injury claims are for the repetitive strain injury you may have from doing the same work without a break or from working at a desk unsuitable for your task. 

An RSI in the office may be:

  • Carpal Tunnel Syndrome from working at a desk for too long
  • Tennis Elbow from working at a desk too high for your chair
  • Neck and shoulder strain from sitting in a faulty office chair

If you have a repetitive strain injury from working at the office, you may have a workplace injury compensation claim.

Bullying in the workplace claims

Bullying in the workplace office injury claims are growing in Ireland and are a result of office workers becoming more aware of the effects of bullying. 

Types of bullying in the workplace:

  • Name-calling by other employees due to diversity issues
  • Verbal attacks by a manager or senior employees
  • Being consistently overlooked a promotion when you deserve it

You may suffer bullying in the workplace, but the effects of the injury may only be noticeable when at home or out socialising. 

Bullying at the office can have a crippling effect on your life, and you could have an office injury claim.

Assault in the workplace office injury claims

Assault in the workplace office injury claims in Ireland are for when you suffer from an attack by a colleague, an employer or even a member of the public visiting your office. 

Types of assault injury seen in the office:

  • Bruising from a physical assault when attacked by a colleague
  • PTSD from witnessing violence in the workplace
  • Sexual assault by a colleague in the workplace

Your employer has a duty of care to protect all employees in the workplace. If your employer breaches their duty of care and you are assaulted in the office, you may have a compensation claim. 

Hughes & Associates Personal Injury Solicitors can look at the details of your case and see if you have a valid office injury compensation claim.

Compensation for an office injury claim

Compensation for office injury may be for when you suffer an injury at work in the company headquarters office, the office at the school, or any office in Ireland where the workplace accident happens. 

The compensation is for the damages suffered today and in the future. You can make an office injury claim for the workplace accident and its effects on your life. 

There are two types of damages in an office injury claim in Ireland:

General damages in an office injury claim will see you compensated for the Loss of Amenity due to the accident while working at your desk, shifting office furniture or in a slip, trip and fall at the company gym. 

You may suffer a loss of amenity, such as difficulty walking, exercising or getting to work. 

You can also claim for the Pain and Suffering due to the injury you suffered in the office accident.

Special damages in an office injury claim are for the costs and expenses you will have due to the accident at your desk, the RSI from doing the same work in the office or the injury from a workplace assault. 

Special damages in an office accident injury could be:  

  •          Medical costs
  •          Loss of earnings
  •          Travel costs 
  •          Cost of care
  •          Cost of aids and equipment  

An office injury claim in Ireland seeks compensation by combining the two damages due to you when you suffer one of the many types of office accident injury.

A successful claim could see you receive compensation. The compensation you receive will be a combination of the two types of damages.  

Types of injuries that can occur in an office environment

Types of office accident injury in Ireland range from the crushed fingers when caught in machinery to a broken arm in a fall over rubbish not correctly stored at the office.

Under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, your employer owes you a duty of care. You could have an office injury claim if they breach that duty of care, causing you to suffer a workplace injury. 

Common types of office injury in Ireland:

  • Broken fingers
  • Broken hands
  • RSI in the hands, arms and shoulders
  • RSI in the knees and ankles
  • Torn shoulder ligaments
  • Snapped tendons in the ankle
  • Facial lacerations
  • Sprained wrist
  • Head, neck and shoulder injuries
  • Cracked skull
  • Spinal nerve damage
  • Broken hip
  • Broken arm
  • Crush finger injuries
  • Assault injury
  • Sexual assault injury

You could have a compensation claim if you suffer any office injury. 

Hughes & Associates Personal Injury Solicitors can examine your case and help you make an office injury claim.

How to make an office accident injury claim

At Hughes & Associates Personal Injury Solicitors, we want to make an office accident injury claim as easy as possible. 

You have gone through enough stress while dealing with your workplace accident, and we can help you take steps to make a successful compensation claim. 

The steps are designed to provide an efficient and effective way to make a claim for an office injury compensation claim.

The first step to make a claim is to contact a personal injury solicitor. You can contact Hughes & Associates Personal Injury Solicitors today and outline the issues you have experienced.  

It may be difficult for you to take an office injury compensation case against an employer or someone you have worked for over many years. 

We will take the time to understand your situation and build a professional relationship with you.  

You and your solicitor work together to create your compensation case.  

One of the main aspects of this step is to gather evidence. We will want to look at your medical records, security footage of the workplace accident, and any eyewitness accounts related to your case.  

If you have reported the accident to the Gardai, we can look at the Garda report as part of creating your office injury case. 

The solicitor helping you with the case will know what areas of evidence to cover and what will help your case.  

When the claim is complete, we can make your office injury claim by sending a letter of claim to the Personal Injury Assessment Board, PIAB. 

The PIAB will assess your case and recommend a compensation payment, or they may reject your case. 

The solicitor or insurance company for the guilty party has several weeks to reply to the PIAB compensation claim recommendation. 

When a PIAB is accepted at this stage, the process of providing your compensation will begin.  

When an office injury claim is rejected, or if you are not happy with the amount of compensation offered, we can begin court proceedings on your behalf.

Court proceedings can be the next step if the defendant rejects the claim or you feel you should receive more in compensation. 

Court proceedings are rare, although your Hughes & Associates solicitor will be prepared. We may look to gather further evidence to support your claim when it comes to a court hearing. 

Often, an office injury claim is settled on the morning of the court case when the guilty party realises you are not backing down and they look at your evidence. 

When the court case is successful, the process of paying compensation for an office injury claim will follow. 

How to prove an office injury claim

To prove an office injury claim you gather as much evidence as possible. In any personal injury compensation claim, the more evidence you have, the harder it will be for the defendant to reject your claim.  

You can gather evidence such as:

  • Medical records
  • Take photos with your phone of the accident scene
  • Gather CCTV footage where possible
  • Get eyewitness accounts
  • Get details of eyewitnesses
  • Get the names and phone numbers of anyone involved
  • Write down any information you may think is important
  • Call an ambulance if you have a severe injury
  • Request health and safety reports from the employer
  • Request details on health and safety training in the office
  • Call the gardai if necessary
  • Get the incident report from the employer
  • Take photos of your injuries

Your phone can be a great way to gather evidence to prove the office injury in a workplace accident claim. 

If you are unsure how to gather or obtain this evidence, your Hughes & Associates Personal Injury solicitor will be able to help. 

How long do you have to make a claim for personal injury in Ireland?

You have two years to make any claim for personal injury in Ireland—the two years to make a claim begin from the date of the office injury. 

You could also have a case of ‘date of knowledge’, which is the date you became aware of the injuries you experienced in the office. In such cases, it could be more than two years later that a doctor traces the pain you are suffering back to the injury you sustained in the storeroom or the office canteen. 

In all cases of personal injury, it is recommended that you begin your claim process as soon as possible after an accident. Making a claim as soon as possible makes it easier to obtain evidence while your memory is fresh and the injury is more obvious. 

Hughes & Associates Personal Injury Solicitors can help with all aspects of your office injury claim.

Workplace injury claims

Workplace injury claims are when you seek compensation for an injury or accident you have experienced in your place of work.  

You can make a workplace injury claim if you have been injured in an office, construction site, or any other place of work. If you are an employee injured while at work, you could have a workplace injury claim. 

A workplace injury claim can be for the RSI while sitting at your desk, a fall from a height in the warehouse or the burns you suffer when handling dangerous substances. 

Workplace injury could vary in regard to severity and individual circumstances. 

If you have any questions about your workplace injury claim, you can ask Hughes & Associates Personal Injury Solicitors. 

Can you lose your job by making a workplace injury claim?

No, you cannot lose your job by making a workplace injury claim against your employer in Ireland. 

The workplace security legislation in Ireland protects employees from unfair dismissal, and you cannot be sacked for making a personal injury claim. 

Your employer is also not permitted to treat you any less favourably or provide a bad working atmosphere for you. They cannot overlook you for promotion or give you a job below your level of experience and training just because you made an office injury claim. 

Hughes & Associates Personal Injury Solicitors can help make your workplace injury claim and can advise you on all aspects of employee protection legislation in Ireland.

Make an office injury claim today

Make an office injury claim today by contacting Hughes & Associates Personal Injury Solicitors in Dublin. 

You could have a compensation claim if you were injured in a workplace accident due to a breach of duty of care by an employer.  

The RSI in the arm, the spinal nerve damage, the medical bills, and the loss of income could be a direct result of the office accident injury.

Contact Hughes & Associates Personal Injury Solicitors today for a confidential and professional service with your office injury claim.

Contact the Hughes & Associates Team

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