Campaigning To Identify The True Costs Of Personal Injury Incidents

Added: (Tue Aug 24 2010)

Pressbox (Press Release) - Personal injury claims are often portrayed in the media as being spurious, but the reality is that people who have suffered a personal injury, whether at work, in a road traffic accident, or in any case of negligence often suffer a great deal of stress, anguish and even financial distress. That is why the legal firm, 100%Compensation are campaigning to identify the hidden costs of personal injury claims and to raise awareness of the hidden costs of personal injury accidents.

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People who have suffered personal injury need to be viewed on an individual basis. Each case affects a victim in different ways. However, there are some common threads that often apply to these victims.

Many people who experience personal injury at work are skilled and have a wealth of experience. However, after they have had a personal injury they are often unable to work, for several months in some instances, or they may never be able to return to work.

This incurs a cost to the employer. They have to provide staff to cover for the member of staff who is injured. The new members of staff have to be trained and have to be supervised closely, at least initially, which also has a cost to the employer.

But it is the hidden cost to the person who is injured that is also important. Although workers who are injured have ‘rights’ in terms of being able to take sick leave and if they are injured, then they will have rights in terms of the Disability Discrimination Act, where the employer simply cannot fire them because they become disabled. The employer has to make reasonable adjustments to the person’s working environment and their duties to ensure that the employee can return back to work.

In practice, this can often be hard to achieve. If the employee has been employed in a manual role, but can no longer undertake manual duties, then they may not have the skills to undertake an administrative or clerical role. So they will effectively be rendered unemployed.

All this seems unfortunate but straightforward. However, the person who has suffered a personal injury will then find that realistically they are at a disadvantage when it comes to finding a new job. Although rights are offered in terms of the Disability Discrimination Act, it may well be that the employee will not be able to secure a comparable position to the job that they used to do, simply because they are unable to carry out such a role. They are also not equipped with the skills and training to carry out other roles, so they are effectively unemployable.

Moreover, sometimes a relatively slight injury that occurs when someone is 20, can reappear as a serious health condition when that person is 40 or even older. So what may not be viewed as serious today, could well be serious in the future, affecting ability to work and carry out day to day life.

These are actually the true costs of personal injury and it is important that people are aware of the potential implications of what may be even a slight injury and why 100%Compensation are campaigning to have more awareness of the hidden costs of personal injury.

For further details of the true costs of personal injury accidents and for more information please contact the experts, 100%Compensation for free on: 0800 197 85 67.