By Stephen Hudson. Last Updated 4th December 2025. Suffering a workplace injury can create both immediate and long-term effects such as physical injuries, mental health issues and financial burdens. If you were injured due to unsafe work practices, this can add a layer of frustration to an already upsetting experience. Whether your injury was caused due to a lack of training, inadequate protective equipment or defective machinery, you may wish to hold your employer to account. If you’ve suffered a similar experience, you may be giving some thought to starting an unsafe practices at work injury claim. Thankfully, our team is here to guide you through this process.
Our friendly group of advisors work around the clock to provide a fully personalised experience to people just like you. Through their services, you could enjoy a free eligibility assessment, assistance with queries and helpful advice. Following this, you could be connected with one of our specialist No Win No Fee solicitors. With decades of combined experience in accident at work claims, our solicitors are ready to help pursue the compensation you deserve.
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Your Need To Know Questions Answered
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- What is an example of an unsafe work practice? An unsafe work practice may be an employer failing to provide staff with personal protective equipment (PPE) that would ensure their safety.
- What should you do if you’re injured at work? Depending on the severity, you may need to seek immediate medical attention after sustaining an injury at work. Further steps could include filling in the accident report form and obtaining CCTV footage as evidence.
- Can I lose my job for making a claim? No, your employer cannot fire you for exercising your employment rights.
- Will I receive sick pay if I’ve been injured in an accident at work? Your entitlement to sick pay entirely depends on whether your employer has written this into your contract. You could however apply for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) to receive for up to 28 weeks.
- Am I eligible to claim? Yes, you could be eligible to claim if you can demonstrate that your employer acted negligently, directly resulting in your injuries.
Can I Claim If I Was Injured Due To Unsafe Work Practices?
If you sustain injuries in the workplace due to unsafe work practices, you may be wondering if you can make a personal injury claim against your employer. To do this, you must prove that employer negligence occurred. This means that you must first show that your employer owed you a duty of care at the time and place your accident occurred. Then, they breached this duty of care, and as a result of this, you sustained physical injuries, psychological harm, or both.
Your employer’s duty of care is outlined in the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HASAWA). The law requires reasonable steps to be taken to ensure the safety of their employees.
If an employer fails to carry out these reasonably practicable steps, they could breach their duty of care. In addition to your claim meeting the eligibility requirements laid out above, it must also be within the correct time frame. We will discuss this in the following section.
How Long Do I Have To Claim For Injuries Caused By Unsafe Work Practices?
Generally, you will have three years to begin legal proceedings from the date of your accident at work. However, there are some exceptions to this limitation period, outlined in the Limitation Act 1980. For example:
- If the person is a minor, the time limit is paused. Instead, they would have three years from their 18th birthday to start legal proceedings, provided no claim has been started for them already.
- If the person has a reduced mental capacity to claim, the time limit has a pause placed on it for an indefinite amount of time. If they recover their capacity, they will have three years to start claiming compensation from the recovery date.
In order to begin any claim much sooner, a suitable adult can be appointed as the injured person’s litigation friend. This means the appointed person has the power to make decisions for the injured person and deal with their solicitor.
If you would like to make an enquiry regarding these exceptions in connection to your case, please contact our team at Legal Expert. Also, you can ask our advisors about your eligibility to make a claim for injuries caused by unsafe work practices.
What Are Unsafe Work Practices?
Various causes could result in unsafe work practices. For example, employees working in a warehouse are not given proper training to operate a forklift truck. However, their employer tells them to operate the vehicles regardless of their lack of training. This leads to an employee losing control, crashing the forklift and sustaining a head injury.
Further examples include the following:
- Employers not supplying employees with personal protective equipment (PPE) that is necessary to protect them against a hazard that they are exposed to while at work.
- The failure to carry out any risk assessments in the workplace.
- An employer failing to carry out any maintenance or repairs could lead to defective work equipment, which could cause injuries.
If you would like to discuss your potential claim after unsafe work practices caused you to sustain injuries, please speak to a member of our team. They are available at any time to provide you with advice.
How Can My Employer Prevent Unsafe Work Practices?
Your employer can prevent unsafe work practices by taking a number of steps, and then ensuring those steps are followed with regular inspections and refresher sessions. Above, we looked at how failures to uphold the duty of care can result in injuries. Below, we have used some of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) guidance on how to prevent unsafe practices in the workplace.
The HSE is Britain’s national regulator for health and safety in the workplace. They publish guidance on a number of different topics so employers know how to meet their legal obligations.
Examples include:
- Completing detailed risk assessments to identify all potential hazards within the workplace.
- Giving employees the necessary training to complete their work duties safely.
- Upholding machinery safety through inspections and repairs where needed.
- Avoiding hazardous manual handling wherever possible and ensuring any manual handling that cannot be avoided is as low risk as possible.
- Provide any necessary personal protective equipment (PPE) for free, maintaining and replacing articles where needed.
There are many ways an employer can keep their staff safe, depending on the work being carried out and what’s required for one workplace will not be necessary somewhere else.
So, if you have been injured due to unsafe work practices and would like to find out if you can make a claim, get in touch with our advisory team today. Our advisors are available 24/7 via the contact information given below.
What Evidence Could Help Me Prove My Claim?
To claim compensation for being injured due to unsafe work practices, you’ll need to obtain evidence. Your evidence will need to show that your employer breached the duty of care they owed you and you were injured because of this breach. Potential evidence could include:
- CCTV footage of the work accident.
- The contact details of any witnesses who can provide a statement about your accident.
- Photographs of the scene of the accident scene and any visible injuries.
- Copies of your medical records that confirm your injuries and how they were treated.
- A copy of the report made in the work accident book regarding the incident.
Contact our advisors for free today to learn more about how you could prove unsafe work practices caused the injuries you’re claiming for and how one of our solicitors could help you.
How Much Could I Claim If Injured Due To Unsafe Work Practices?
When claiming personal injury compensation after an accident caused by unsafe work practices, there are up to two heads of claim you could be eligible to receive. These are called general damages and special damages.
General damages compensates you for any mental or physical pain and suffering caused by your injuries. Below we have provided a table of guideline compensation brackets drawn from the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG), a document solicitors can use to help them value the general damages head of a claim. These brackets are not guaranteed, they are a guide. Also note that the first entry is not taken from the JCG.
| Injury | Severity | Guideline Compensation Brackets |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple Severe Injuries with Financial Losses | Severe | Up to £1,000,000+ |
| Brain Damage | Very Severe (a) | £344,150 to £493,000 |
| Brain Damage | Moderate (c) (ii) | £110,720 to £183,190 |
| Arm Amputation | Loss of Both Arms (a) | £293,850 to £366,100 |
| Arm Amputation | Loss of One Arm (b) (ii) | £133,810 to £159,770 |
| Back Injury | Severe (a) (i) | £111,150 to £196,450 |
| Neck Injury | Severe (a) (i) | In the region of £181,020 |
| Neck Injury | Moderate (b) (ii) | £16,770 to £30,500 |
| Wrist Injury | Loss of Function (a) | £58,110 to £73,050 |
| Hand Injury | Less Serious (g) | £17,640 to £35,390 |
Special Damages
Special damages can compensate you for the monetary losses which have resulted from your injuries. These may be past or future expenses.
Therefore, you could receive special damages for the following:
- The cost of care
- Travel expenses
- Loss of earnings
- Housing adaptations
It is important to keep evidence of these losses to claim special damages. For example, you could retain travel tickets, invoices and payslips.
If you have any questions about the personal injury compensation you could be eligible to receive, please contact one of our advisors.
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Start A Claim With A No Win No Fee Accident At Work Solicitor
When making a personal injury claim for a workplace injury caused by unsafe work practices, you may want to seek the services of a solicitor. They could offer you the option of entering into a type of No Win No Fee agreement known as a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA).
Typically, under this agreement, you:
- Do not pay your solicitor any upfront fees for their services
- Will not pay costs for your solicitor’s services while your claim is ongoing
- Will not make payments for your solicitor’s services should your case fail
However, should your accident at work claim succeed, your solicitor can take a small percentage of the compensation as a success fee. This fee is capped under the relevant legislation, so you cannot be overcharged.
Contact one of our advisors to learn whether you may have an eligible claim. If they find this to be the case, they could put you in contact with one of our No Win No Fee solicitors.
You can contact them by:
- Calling 0800 073 8804
- Using the live chat feature
- Filling out our ‘claim online’ form
Learn More About Workplace Injury Claims
More of our useful workplace injury claims guides:
- A useful guide about making a claim for a scaffolding accident
- A useful guide to sick pay after an accident at work
Useful external resources:
- Reportable incidents – The Health and Safety Executive HSE
- Statutory Sick Pay (SSP): Eligibility – GOV.UK
- First aid – NHS
If you have any further questions about your eligibility to claim compensation for a workplace injury caused by unsafe work practices, please contact our advisors using the details provided above.