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If you have been injured in an accident at work that was the fault of another employee, then it will usually be possible for you to sue your employer for compensation under a special rule that enables blame for your accident to be lawfully shifted from your colleague to your boss.

It may also be possible for your employer to be held to account where you have been injured as a result of an accident caused by a consultant or sub-contractor, and even for you to sue the employer of someone else where you have been injured by one of their employees.

Anna Rushton, one of our most experienced accident at work solicitors, explains more:

“There are many circumstances in which an employer can be held responsible for injuries caused by employees and by others who work for the employer in a similar capacity. Responsibility arises under the law of vicarious liability, which operates to force employers to accept the blame for injuries inflicted by an employee or quasi-employee at a time when they are carrying out their job or otherwise acting on the employer’s behalf.”

“The advantage of being able to sue an employer is that, unlike employees, they will usually have insurance in place to cover the cost of meeting any claim that you make and which means that you are likely to find it far easier to recover the compensation that you deserve.”

“Vicarious liability has been found to arise in a broad range of situations, including in some cases where injuries have been inflicted outside of work, for example at an office party or a team building event, and even where they have occurred in direct violation of company policy or an employee’s service contract.”

How We Can Help

The lawyers in our accidents at work team regularly deal with vicarious liability claims and have a proven track record in winning significant payouts.

Our recent successes include:

  • Recovering £500,000 for an employee whose colleague ran over his foot with a fork lift truck;
  • Recovering £125,000 plus ongoing treatment costs for an employee who was left with a moderate brain injury after being thrown from a moving trailer by a colleague’s careless driving;
  • Recovering £35,000 for a fork lift truck driver who suffered a permanent lower back injury after being involved in three separate accidents caused by the careless driving of other fork lift truck drivers who worked alongside him at a local warehouse; and
  • Recovering £8,156 for an employee who suffered facial and dental injuries in a construction site accident caused when a sub-contractor failed to cover a protruding and unmarked metal bar with a mushroom safety cap.

You can read about the accident involving the warehouse fork lift truck driver be clicking here: insert link to July’s success story, titled ‘£35,000 recovered for a fork lift truck driver who was injured in three separate collisions with colleagues while working at a local warehouse.’

What you need to prove to bring a vicarious liability claim

To sue an employer on the grounds of vicarious liability, you need to be able to show that at the time your injuries were sustained:

  • There was an employment-type relationship between the person who hurt you and the employer you are trying to pursue i.e. because the person in question was an employee or someone who worked for the employer in a similar capacity; and
  • There is a sufficiently close connection between what the person did wrong and what they were authorized by the employer to do, and which means that their wrongful behavior can fairly and properly be regarded as having occurred in the ordinary course of their employment.

We offer a FREE consultation to enable you to find out whether a claim may be possible.  All you need to do is call us on 0800 1956412 to book an appointment.

We can usually help in any case where an injury has been sustained in the last three years, or within three years of your turning 18 where you have been injured while undertaking a post-school apprenticeship or traineeship program.

Examples of where vicarious liability has been imposed

Previous instances where the courts have found vicarious liability to exist, include where:

  • A supervisor in a prison kitchen was injured by a prisoner who had been given clearance to work in the kitchen, and who the court viewed as being akin to a prison service employee;
  • A customer of a petrol station who was assaulted by a customer services assistant, following an incident inside the forecourt shop, and who the court viewed as having been acting in his capacity as a customer services attendant at the time the assault happened;
  • An employee who was assaulted by the managing director of the company that they worked for, following an office party, on the basis that the court concluded that in the run up to the assault the MD had been trying to assert his authority over the employee; and
  • A soldier who had been encouraged to jump off a bridge by an army officer while they were both off site and off duty, on the basis of the degree of control and authority the court concluded that the officer had and also given his responsibility for the soldier’s welfare.

This is in contrast to the following cases, where the courts have found vicarious liability not to exist:

  • Staff at a supermarket whose personal information had been posted to a file sharing website by an aggrieved internal auditor, on the basis that the court concluded that the posting of the information (in breach of data protection laws) was in no way connected to the auditor’s role and was done at home, outside of work in a deliberate attempt to harm the supermarket rather than to further its business; and
  • Staff at a bank who had been sexually assaulted by a freelance doctor who had been retained to carry out staff health checks, on the basis that the court viewed the doctor as having been working on a self-employed basis and who was in a clear client-customer (as opposed to employment-type) relationship with the bank.

Need more information?

To find out more about bringing a vicarious liability, claim, whether against your own employer or the employer of someone else, please contact Anna Rushton, Abid Hussain or Dominic Jones on 0800 1956412 to request a free, no obligation consultation.

If you are Polish and need a translator to access our service, please contact Agnieszka Kulas on 01270 254064 and she will arrange a free consultation on your behalf, at which she will act as your interpreter.