Major accident at work, settle or sue? Opinions/advice pls

[rambo19]

elanfan said:

rambo19 said:

I am someone who is in the process of taking action against a previous employer for an injury received at work.

It's been going on for 3 yrs so far and the company have tried everything to screw me over.

TELL YOUR FRIEND TO DO EVERYTHING THROUGH A SOLICITOR.

If it is over 3 years and you still haven't issued proceedings or already had liability accepted I suspect you are at major risk of getting nothing.

Proceedings have been issued.

[TheAngryDog]

I am actually shocked that;

1) people are naive enough to think a company will act in anyone's best interest's but their own.
2) this was actually asked in the first place.

[johnfm]

Soov535 said:

SunnyD said:

Thanks for all the advice and opinions folks. Apparently it wouldn't be going through insurers because the company self-insure. They have their own claim department that are the ones handling the situation with him.

Sy- The thing that fell on him was glass. It was part of the office so no personal blame.

They do WHAT?

"Self insure" = "DON'T HAVE ANY INSURANCE"

I suggest you email breadvan72. Now.

You are dealing with cowboys.

"Self insure" - what a load of baloney.

Soov

You realise that many large company self -insure certain risks Often a better use of cash than paying large premiums - depending on the insured risks.

[Vaud]

johnfm said:

Soov

You realise that many large company self -insure certain risks Often a better use of cash than paying large premiums - depending on the insured risks.

Even if they do, them rocking up with their own legal advisor is not, by definition, in the interests of the injured party?

[Soov535]

johnfm said:

Soov535 said:

SunnyD said:

Thanks for all the advice and opinions folks. Apparently it wouldn't be going through insurers because the company self-insure. They have their own claim department that are the ones handling the situation with him.

Sy- The thing that fell on him was glass. It was part of the office so no personal blame.

They do WHAT?

"Self insure" = "DON'T HAVE ANY INSURANCE"

I suggest you email breadvan72. Now.

You are dealing with cowboys.

"Self insure" - what a load of baloney.

Soov

You realise that many large company self -insure certain risks Often a better use of cash than paying large premiums - depending on the insured risks.

Of course I do chum.

But the fact that they are looking at footing the bill means they will use every method to bullyram him.

[HenryJM]

Hmmm. I would say that I am someone who believes in looking after our hundred or so employees, when some misfortune occurs to one an instinct of mine and my contemporaries is to try and help them, particularly when they have been a good employee or, I guess, if we had been in fault in some way. (Without sounding smug I'm not big on examples of that, they work in an office in front of a computer, it's not complex from an accident prevention perspective).

But we've had all sorts of things happen to them personally and each time we try to help them. Why wouldn't you? If something did happen to one that was our fault in some way we'd do everything we could to help and I don't see why many others wouldn't be the same.

Of course in a large company it may be different, less of a relationship, power in the hands of other employes and not the owner(s), less of a feeling that there is a loyalty between employer and employee so maybe in that world it is very different.

[mph1977]

I see no reason why an organisation would want to force a court case rather than let an individual seek their own legal and IFA/ actuarial advice on a settlement negotiated out of court - after all how many defendents in civil actions fold at the last minute any way ...

[Nezquick]

I wonder if there's a update on this.

My thought is that the company will simply wany to send out the injured party's manager and possibly Occ Health to see how the person is getting on - this isn't sinister in any way and is perfectly reasonable and rather a pleasant thing for them to do.

I doubt very much that the employer will want to discuss anything but the injured persons current symptoms and to see if they can help in any way. They won't want to discuss "settlement" or try to strong-arm him into signing anything, but he needs to be cautious in case they do try anything like that.

My (and others) initial advice still stands though - legal representation is the ONLY way to get a decent settlement for any PI claim which may be made in this case.

[johnfm]

Soov535 said:

johnfm said:

Soov535 said:

SunnyD said:

Thanks for all the advice and opinions folks. Apparently it wouldn't be going through insurers because the company self-insure. They have their own claim department that are the ones handling the situation with him.

Sy- The thing that fell on him was glass. It was part of the office so no personal blame.

They do WHAT?

"Self insure" = "DON'T HAVE ANY INSURANCE"

I suggest you email breadvan72. Now.

You are dealing with cowboys.

"Self insure" - what a load of baloney.

Soov

You realise that many large company self -insure certain risks Often a better use of cash than paying large premiums - depending on the insured risks.

Of course I do chum.

But the fact that they are looking at footing the bill means they will use every method to bullyram him.

That wasn't the impression I got for your post where you'd wrote "they do WHAT" and called them cowboys. BP, Shell et al aren't cowboys.

Agree though that the accident victim needs a lawyer to negotiate a settlement on his behalf.

[SunnyD]

Nezquick said:

I wonder if there's a update on this.

Yep, he's told his solicitor to stand down and is dealing with the claims manager at his company directly.
I agree with everyone's comments on here, and am very disappointed that he didn't see it the same way, but it's not me in the situation so it's not my decision to make. I sent him a link to this thread so he knows what the public consensus is. You can take a horse a water...

He's got a cast on for another month so won't know how he's doing physically for a while yet.