More Accident Prone, or More Compensation-Minded?
>> Feb 12, 2013
There has certainly been an increase in
compensation claims involving accidents at work over recent years, but is this
due to an increase in accident numbers, or is there just more awareness of
legal rights?
Once, there was little or no information given about what your rights were if you sustained an injury at work. Serious injuries were generally compensated, but other injuries that may have been considered minor or just unfortunate were left uncompensated. There was very much an attitude of 'accepting your fate' or just getting on with things without complaint. This attitude is often referred to as being part of a 'golden age', where risk was just accepted as part of every day life.
Health and Safety.
However, time moved on and the work place
was targeted in order to make it a safer environment for workers. This was
deemed to be a good thing, but with increased worker right also came increased
employer obligations. There were more procedures required of them and failure
to adhere to health and safety rules and regulations gave injured workers a
reason to seek accident at work compensation. This led to more claims coming
before the court.
No win no fee.
Another development in compensation
rights came with the introduction of no win no fee claims. This opened up the
area of personal injury law to everyone, not just those who either had their
claims funded for them (often through a workers' Union scheme) or could afford
to fund their claim themselves. The prior system left whole swathes of people
without recourse when they were injured due to the careless or negligent
behaviour of another. But no win no fee meant that everyone who had suffered an
accident at work
could claim, no matter what their financial means.
The last factor that seemed to give the claims industry a boost was the increase in advertising from solicitors and claims companies dealing with no win no fee claims. The advertising led to an increased awareness amongst workers about what they were entitled to and gave them information on how to start a claim. Claiming was not now seen as a long and difficult process that would involve a lot of unnecessary stress, but as an easily accessible means of securing justice for a wrong. Many cases are just simple matters of procedure, with claims being settled outside of court in a matter of weeks, although there are still those long and hard-fought battles that involve huge amounts of money.
No matter what the reason, there has
definitely been an increase in the number of compensation claims, but it
doesn't seem likely that this can be attributed to a single cause. It is far
more likely that the combination of increased worker rights, more information
about claiming and easier access to justice have all had an effect not the
number of claims brought before the court. Courts don't tend to look favourably
on frivolous claims, so we haven't yet reached the record high litigation rate
seen in the United States, but some still urge that it's a slippery slope there
we're on and we need to put a rein on our tendency to sue.
AUTHOR BIO