Electric Shock Injury Claims

If you would like legal advice on your potential personal injury claim, please:

Case study: Electric Shock Injury Claim

I previously acted for a client living near Barnsley, who suffered serious electrical burns in an accident at work.

The accident happened at a newly constructed nursing home in Ripley, Nottinghamshire.

Although the project was virtually complete, a number of snagging jobs had arisen.

One of the jobs involved locating an underground duct containing a BT telephone cable.

My client had received no training in the safe excavation of underground services. The normal procedure is to obtain a site plan, showing exactly where the various pipes and cable are buried. However, this was not provided.

Furthermore nobody had switched off the electricity.

Using a shovel and an electric breaker, my client dug a hole. While doing so, the electric breaker hit a live electric cable, and there was an explosion.

As a result my client suffered burns to his hands, and also a psychological injury.

He required cognitive behavioural therapy but was unable to return to working with electrical equipment.

The defendants denied liability, so we issued proceedings.

Shortly before trial the defendants conceded primary liability, subject to a small deduction for contributory negligence.

The Law and Electric Shock Injury Claims

Generally speaking, electrical shock injuries at work arise from the following:

• Excavations at hazardous sites (as in the above case study), or
• Defective work equipment

Usually I advance such claims using the following legislation:

• Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992
• Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998
• Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007
• Occupiers Liability Act 1957

The Final Word

As a solicitor, I find that the following factors tend to arise in electrical shock injury claims:

• Very often psychological injuries are involved
• This normally means a very anxious client
• The anxiety can be compounded by the stress of litigation
• Such clients often need a lot of moral support during the claim

By all means contact me if you would like to discuss making a personal injury claim, following an electric shock sustained at work. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you for visiting.

handling personal injury claims as a result of electic shock injury and accidents at work generally