Vicarious liability and work accident compensation

At the heart of any work accident compensation claim is the issue of liability. In some accident at work compensation cases this will be clear. If an employer has directly asked an employee to do something that has a foreseeable risk of ending in a work accident and a work injury has occurred in the performance of the task, then there can be little dispute that the employer is liable to pay the resultant work accident compensation.

Work accident compensation claims where this is not so clear usually involve issues of vicarious liability. Vicarious liability personal injury claims can pose potentially tricky legal problems to judges and no win, no fee solicitors.

Here we will examine some of the complex issues behind vicarious liability work accident compensation claims.

What is vicarious liability?
Vicarious liability is a legal principle stating that an employer can be deemed liable for the actions of another. The employer may not be at fault for the work accident, but may in some way have allowed the actions of the person who has caused the work accident.

In short, it is the fact of employment rather than the actions of the employer that establishes vicarious liability. In effect, this makes the employer liable for any future work accident compensation claim.

The three most common situations where an employer might be held liable for the actions of an employee, or third party, and any subsequent accident at work compensation claim are:

Where there is a master-servant relationship an employer (the master) is considered liable for the actions of an employee (the servant) when the employee has behaved negligently or damagingly while performing tasks on the employer's behalf.

The employer and the negligent party are business partners and, in most instances, business partners are considered liable for the actions of the other in work accident compensation claims.

Where the negligent person is an agent of the employer, the employer will generally be held liable of any work injury compensation claim.

Difficulties in establishing when a person is a servant
Where the negligent party is an employee in a simple employer-employee relationship there should be no difficulty in establishing that they were a servant at the time of the work accident.

Difficulties arise in determining liability for work accident compensation in situations where the negligent party is a self-employed person who is contracted by the employer to carry out a job. In such situations the boundaries of the master-servant relationship are blurred. In these instances there are tests to determine the existence of a master-servant relationship:

• The 'control test' - in cases where an employer decides how the work should be carried out rather than just what is to be done, a master-servant relationship has been established, making the employer liable for any work accident compensation claim.
• The 'integral to business' test - if the employee's or contractor's work is integral to the business rather than extraneous, the employer is considered liable for any accident at work personal injury compensation claim.
• The 'economic reality' test - if the employee or contractor does not assume any economic incentive or economic risk in performance of the action then the employer would normally be considered liable for any work accident compensation claim.

Carrying out an employer's business'
In order for an employer to be considered vicariously liable for a work accident compensation claim, the negligent employee must been have carrying out employer's business at the time the work injury was sustained.

Taking precedents set in vicarious liability work accident compensation cases that have gone to the UK's higher courts, it would seem that vicarious liability is established in cases where a negligent employee is at work'. This rule generally applies to all work accident compensation claims, even if the negligent employee is carrying out work in a manner which has been expressly forbidden by the employer.

Advantage of a vicarious liability work accident compensation claim
Making a work accident compensation claim for personal injury against an employer as opposed to a negligent colleague has obvious advantages to the claimant.
The major advantage is that it is compulsory for all employers to be insured for work accident compensation claims. This means that any injury compensation claim against an employer is likely to be of greater benefit to a claimant than a work accident claim made against a colleague.

Making a no win, no fee claim for work accident compensation
If you've been injured in an accident at work your employer may be liable to pay you work accident compensation. It is your right and this is why employer's pay insurance.

At YouClaim, we are specialists in dealing with this kind of claim. This is reflected in the fact that our panel of personal injury solicitors have an excellent success rate in dealing with work accident claims.

Making a no win, no fee claim with us may represent your best chance of justice. There is absolutely no risk in making a claim with us and you will not incur any fees at any stage of the process.

We will not take a penny of your compensation award and even if you lose you will not have to pay any legal fees as we understand that if you've suffered personal injury in a work accident, the last things you need are hefty and pesky legal bills.

We are available to discuss your claim 24 hours a day. You can fill out an online claim form, request a call back at a time convenient to you or call us now on 0800 10 757 95.

All good personal injury solicitors agree that the sooner a work accident compensation claim is made, the better its chance of success, so why not give us a call today and set yourself on the road to justice.