As soon as you have provided the full details of your workplace accident, your solicitor will be able to indicate very quickly whether your workplace accident claim has reasonable prospects of succeeding and as soon as this important part of the process has been established your solicitor will be ready to take your claim on and start working on your behalf.

One of the first steps will be to send a detailed Letter of Claim to the Defendant. This letter will set out the circumstances of the accident, state why the Defendant is at fault and describe the injuries and losses you have incurred as a result of the accident at work.

Prior to the letter of claim being sent to the Defendant the facts set out in the letter of claim are checked with you to ensure their factual accuracy.

Once the letter of claim has been sent to the Defendant, the Defendant has three months in which to investigate the claim and to either admit liability or deny liability for the workplace accident. However, the Defendant is expected to acknowledge receipt of the letter within 21 days.

The Defendant may not always wait for the end of the three month period to admit or deny liability and a response can be received from the Defendant at any time within that three month period.

However, at the end of the period a decision on liability should have been made by the Defendant and relayed to your solicitor who in turn, will advise you of the Defendant’s liability position. In the event that liability is admitted then your solicitor will commence the process of attempting to negotiate a settlement of your claim.

However, if the Defendant denies liability then it may be necessary to issue Court proceedings against the Defendant and your solicitor will explain in detail this process and the reason for it. Furthermore, if the Defendant, having admitted liability, does not make a reasonable offer to settle the claim, the issue of Court proceedings against the Defendant may also be necessary and one again your solicitor will explain the reasons why and make sure you a fully aware of the position.

The success of your claim requires your full cooperation at all times. It is therefore very important that you respond promptly to any requests for additional detail in relation to the circumstances of your workplace accident or any other information your solicitor may need to progress matters on your behalf. Failure to cooperate or not respond promptly to requests from your solicitor can prejudice your claim.

In the event that Court proceedings are issued by your solicitor on your behalf against the Defendant the case will follow a very strict Court timetable which aims to arrange for the claim to be dealt with at Trial within approximately 26 weeks from the date that the Court proceedings were issued.

This may sound like a significant period of time however, there is a substantial amount of work which your solicitor will need to do during this period to prepare for the Trial date. The court timetable sets out certain steps which need to be taken during that period and if the court timetable is not complied then you may be penalised or your claim may be struck out.
Court rules also expect you to implement a reasonable approach to your case. Once again the Court has the power to penalised any person who fails to act reasonably and fairly.

It is therefore absolutely vital that you provide your solicitor with a truthful and accurate account of the circumstances and your recollection of your workplace accident right from the very start of the claim and you must always check any statements you are asked to sign very carefully.