What does a work accident solicitor do?

Investigating what happened

The first job of a work accident solicitor is to establish, on the evidence, exactly how you were injured. Insurers routinely dispute the mechanism of an accident, so the value of a well-run investigation is that it locks the facts down early while memories, records and physical evidence are still fresh.

That normally involves obtaining a copy of the entry in the workplace accident book, tracing and taking statements from witnesses, requesting any CCTV before it is overwritten, checking whether the accident was reportable to the Health and Safety Executive under RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013), and getting hold of photographs of the scene, the equipment involved and any defective or missing safety measures. Where relevant, risk assessments, training records, maintenance logs and PPE issue records are also requested from the employer.

Proving your employer was at fault

A civil compensation claim only succeeds where employer fault is established. Your solicitor's job is to translate what happened into the legal test: that the employer owed you a duty of care, that they breached that duty (usually by falling short of a health-and-safety regulation such as the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992, PUWER 1998, the Work at Height Regulations 2005, or the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992), and that the breach caused your injury.

Working out which regulations apply, and what a reasonable employer should have done in your situation, is not always obvious from the outside. This is where genuine workplace injury experience — as opposed to general personal injury work — pays off. See the guide on how a claim works for the broader legal framework.

Arranging your medical evidence

Medical evidence is central to almost every personal injury claim. A specialist consultant — orthopaedic, neurological, psychiatric or otherwise, depending on the injury — examines you and writes an independent report under Part 35 of the Civil Procedure Rules. Their duty is to the court, not to either side, and their opinion on diagnosis, treatment and prognosis largely drives what the claim is worth.

Your solicitor selects an appropriate expert, funds the report through the case (rather than charging you up front on a CFA), sends the necessary records, and reviews the draft with you for factual accuracy before it is served on the insurer.

Valuing your claim

A claim's value has two parts. General damages compensate you for pain, suffering and loss of amenity, and are assessed by reference to the Judicial College Guidelines and reported cases for injuries of similar type and severity. Special damages cover your financial losses: past and future lost earnings, treatment costs, care and assistance provided by family or paid carers, travel to appointments, equipment, adaptations and any other quantifiable loss the accident has caused.

Your solicitor puts these figures together in a formal Schedule of Loss, supported by payslips, receipts, care diaries and expert reports. For a general sense of the ranges involved, see compensation amounts.

Dealing with the insurer for you

You do not deal with the employer's insurer directly. Your solicitor handles it — the Pre-Action Protocol for Personal Injury Claims, the formal letter of claim, the response from the insurer, the exchange of medical and financial evidence, and the negotiation of a settlement figure. That removes the pressure of dealing with adjusters and defence solicitors while you are trying to recover.

If you would rather understand the trade-offs of handling this yourself, the guide on representing yourself in a work accident claim sets out the risks in more detail.

Going to court if necessary

Most workplace injury claims settle without a trial. A minority — usually those where liability is genuinely disputed or where the insurer refuses to make a reasonable offer — end up in court. If that is necessary, your solicitor issues proceedings, complies with case management directions, exchanges witness statements and, if it goes that far, instructs a barrister and represents you at the hearing.

Even where proceedings are issued, most cases settle before the trial date once the evidence is complete and the pressure of a court timetable focuses the insurer.

Handling the funding

The overwhelming majority of workplace injury claims in the UK are funded on a no win no fee basis — a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). You pay nothing up front and nothing if the claim fails. If you win, a success fee is deducted from part of your damages, capped by law at 25% of general damages and past losses combined. Future losses are protected.

Qualified One-Way Costs Shifting (QOCS) generally protects a losing claimant from paying the defendant's costs, and After-the-Event (ATE) insurance covers disbursements if the claim fails. Together these make represented claims low-risk for the injured person. Read the detailed breakdown on the no win no fee page.

Do you actually need one?

Legally, no. You can bring a claim without a solicitor. The realistic answer, though, is that the employer's insurer will always be represented by experienced lawyers whose job is to reduce or defeat claims, and workplace injury cases turn on evidence, valuation and procedure that non-lawyers rarely handle at the same level. Because the funding model recovers most of the solicitor's costs from the losing insurer rather than from you, representation is normally low-risk and net-beneficial for the injured worker.

The next practical steps are usually to think about how to choose a work accident solicitor and to understand what a work accident solicitor charges.

Frequently asked questions

See also: claim types · how a claim works · compensation amounts.