Usual time limit
3 years
from injury or diagnosis
Who pays
Insurer
employers' liability policy
Upfront legal cost
£0
No Win No Fee
Success fee cap
25%
never on future losses
Written by
Rizwan Shabir
Personal Injury Solicitor at Claim Time Solicitors, Birmingham. Handling personal injury and child injury claims across England and Wales on a No Win No Fee basis.
This guide is reviewed against the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/1471), current HSE guidance, and SRA standards. It is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice.
In many cases, yes. If you were hurt because your employer did not take reasonable care to keep you safe, you may be entitled to compensation. The claim is paid by your employer’s liability insurance rather than by your manager, and the usual deadline is three years from the date of the accident.
A workplace accident can turn an ordinary shift into something you are still dealing with months later. Once the shock wears off, two questions tend to surface: can I claim for an accident at work, and can I sue my employer without damaging the job I still have to go back to?
Plenty of people are asking it. The Health and Safety Executive estimates that 680,000 workers in Great Britain sustained a non-fatal injury at work in 2024/25. In the same period 46,791 employers’ liability claims were registered with the Compensation Recovery Unit. Far more people are injured at work each year than ever bring a claim.
Can I claim for an accident at work if my employer was at fault?
Your employer owes you a duty to take reasonable care for your safety. That duty comes from the common law and from your contract of employment, and it covers competent colleagues, safe equipment, a safe place of work and a safe system of work. It applies whether you work in a warehouse, a care home, a kitchen or an office.
Health and safety law sits alongside that duty and does a different job. Regulations such as the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 and the Work at Height Regulations 2005 are enforced by the HSE, and since October 2013 a breach on its own no longer gives you a compensation claim.What they do is set the standard a reasonable employer is measured against, which is how we use them to show your employer fell short.
Most people asking the question are really asking something narrower: whether they can claim without damaging their job. Most employers must hold employers’ liability insurance by law, so a claim is dealt with by an insurer rather than paid out of the business bank account. In practice you are claiming against a policy that exists for this exact situation.
Definition
Employers’ liability insurance
Cover that most employers in Great Britain must hold by law, of at least £5 million, to pay compensation to employees injured or made ill by their work. A few public bodies, such as NHS trusts and councils, meet claims themselves instead.
Can I sue my employer, or is a claim something different?
A personal injury claim is about harm to your health. An employment tribunal claim is about your rights as an employee, and the deadline is much shorter.
A personal injury claim deals with harm to your health: a broken wrist after a fall from a ladder, a back injury from repeated lifting, a lung condition from years of dust exposure. It is a civil claim and it is handled through the employer’s insurer.
An employment tribunal claim deals with your rights as a worker: unfair dismissal, discrimination, unpaid wages, a failure to make reasonable adjustments. The deadline is changing. Where the dismissal or the act you are complaining about happened before 1 October 2026, the limit is three months less one day. Where it happened on or after that date, the Employment Rights Act 2025 extends it to six months less one day. The date that counts is the date of the act, not the date you make the claim.
You also have to notify Acas before you can lodge most tribunal claims. Contacting Acas pauses your deadline, it does not give you a fresh one, so it is worth doing early rather than on the last day.
| Your situation | Likely route | Usual deadline | Who to speak to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Injured by unsafe equipment or no training | Injury claim | 3 years | A personal injury solicitor |
| Made ill by exposure at work | Injury claim | 3 years from diagnosis | A personal injury solicitor |
| Dismissed after reporting an accident | Tribunal | 3 months less 1 day, or 6 months from 1 Oct 2026 | Notify Acas first |
| Injured, then dismissed because of it | Possibly both | Two separate clocks | Take advice on both quickly |
Claim Time Solicitors handles personal injury claims, not employment tribunal cases. If your situation is really about dismissal, pay or discrimination, we will say so and point you to Acas or Citizens Advice. The tribunal clock is short, so it is worth getting that right early.
How long you have to claim
Three years from the date of the accident, or from the date you knew your illness was work related. Different rules apply to under 18s and to people who lack mental capacity.
The Limitation Act 1980 gives you three years, running from the date of the accident or from the later date on which you first knew your injury was significant and linked to something your employer did or failed to do.
- The date of knowledge matters most in illness cases, where symptoms appear years later. You need to have known the facts, not to have known you had a legal claim, and you can be treated as knowing something you would have found out had you reasonably sought medical advice.
- Under 18s have until their 21st birthday, and a parent can bring the claim earlier as a litigation friend. Where someone lacked mental capacity when the claim arose, time may not run at all.
- The court has a discretion to allow a late claim where it is fair to both sides. It is granted sparingly and is never safe to rely on.
Two clocks, drawn to scale
Employment tribunal claim
3 months less 1 day, or 6 months from 1 Oct 2026
Personal injury claim
3 years from the accident or your date of knowledge
When you may have grounds to claim
A claim usually succeeds where the injury was foreseeable and preventable, and the employer did not take a reasonable step that would have prevented it.
Fault is the pivot. The question is whether a reasonable employer, looking at the same risk, should have done something differently. These are the patterns we see most often.
Unsafe premises
Spillages left unmarked, poor lighting on a stairwell, blocked walkways, damaged flooring. If a hazard was there long enough to be noticed and dealt with, and it was not, that points towards a breach of duty.
No training or supervision
Employers have to give adequate instruction, particularly for higher risk tasks. Claims often follow where someone was asked to operate equipment they had never been shown, or a new starter was left alone on a job that needed two people.
Manual handling injuries
Back, shoulder and neck injuries from lifting and carrying are among the most common workplace injuries. Relevant questions include whether manual handling training was given, whether lifting aids were provided, and whether the workload was realistic for one person.
Machinery and equipment
Machinery must be safe to use and properly maintained. Missing guards, faulty tools, overdue servicing and untrained operators are all recognised routes to a claim.
Falls from height
Falls from ladders, scaffolding and platforms cause some of the worst injuries we see. Where guardrails, harnesses or a proper risk assessment were missing, liability is often clear.
Hazardous substances
Dust, fumes, chemicals and asbestos can cause illness that appears years after the exposure. If risks were not assessed or controlled, you may still be able to claim, and the clock generally starts later than the exposure itself.
Psychological injury
Not every workplace injury is physical. Claims involving psychological harm are more complex and usually need a diagnosis and supporting medical evidence, but they are not out of reach.
What your employer must do by law
In practice, an employer should:
- carry out and act on risk assessments
- provide training and supervision suited to the task
- supply and maintain suitable personal protective equipment
- keep equipment, vehicles and premises in safe working order
- maintain safe systems of work and enforce them
- record accidents and report qualifying incidents under RIDDOR
When a claim is unlikely to succeed
Not every accident leads to compensation. A claim is unlikely to get far where:
- the accident could not reasonably have been foreseen or prevented
- the employer had proper systems, training and equipment in place and they were followed
- the injury was caused entirely by your own deliberate or reckless act
- the limitation period has passed and no exception applies
Sometimes the answer to can I sue my employer is no, and hearing that early saves months spent on a claim that was never going to succeed.
If the accident was partly your fault
Shared blame reduces compensation rather than removing the right to claim. This is called contributory negligence.
Many people rule themselves out because they think being partly responsible ends the matter. Under the Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act 1945 the court reduces your compensation by the share of responsibility that falls on you. If you are found 25 per cent responsible, your damages are cut by 25 per cent and you receive 75 per cent of the assessed value. The reduction applies to the whole award, including lost earnings and care costs.
What compensation can cover
Definition
General damages and special damages
General damages compensate for the injury itself: pain, suffering and the things you can no longer do. Special damages cover financial losses you can evidence, such as lost wages, prescription and treatment costs, travel to appointments and care provided by family.
General damages are assessed using the Judicial College Guidelines, currently in their 18th edition. These set out brackets for different injury types, used as guidance alongside awards in comparable reported cases. A medical expert examines you and gives a prognosis, and your injury is matched to the relevant bracket. Because the bracket is a starting point rather than a fixed figure, and because your financial losses are counted separately, any figure quoted online is a guide rather than a forecast for your claim.
Can you be sacked for making a claim?
There is no single law that stops an employer dismissing someone for making an injury claim. Depending on the circumstances, other protections may apply, including automatic unfair dismissal on health and safety grounds.
A personal injury claim is a court claim, and it is not one of the statutory rights protected by section 104 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. So there is no rule saying that making a claim keeps your job safe.
That does not leave you unprotected. Section 100 of the same Act makes a dismissal automatically unfair where it is connected to health and safety, for example where you raised genuine concerns about dangerous conditions, or refused to return to a workplace you reasonably believed was seriously and imminently dangerous. There is no minimum length of service for that type of claim. If your injury meets the legal definition of a disability, the Equality Act 2010 may also apply.
If the atmosphere changes after your accident, keep a written record: emails, messages, rota changes, anything that shows a pattern. Dismissal is an employment matter rather than part of your injury claim, and our guide on being fired after an injury at work covers it in more detail.
What the process usually looks like
First conversation
FreeWe listen to what happened, explain whether it looks like an injury claim or an employment matter, and tell you if we think it is not worth pursuing.
Agreement and evidence
Weeks 1 to 4You sign a No Win No Fee agreement. We gather the accident book entry, risk assessments, training records, witness details and your medical notes.
Notifying the insurer
Month 1 to 2Most work accident claims worth up to £25,000 start electronically through the Claims Portal, and your employer's insurer then has 30 days to say whether it accepts responsibility. Larger claims and illness claims follow a letter of claim instead, and run to longer timetables.
Medical evidence
Month 3 onwardsAn independent medical expert examines you and reports on your injury, treatment needs and likely recovery. This is what the valuation rests on.
Negotiation or court
VariesMost claims settle by negotiation. Court proceedings are issued where liability is disputed or the offers on the table do not reflect the evidence.
Straightforward claims can resolve inside a year. A long recovery or a contested liability position takes longer, because settling before the medical picture is clear rarely serves the claimant.
Summary
Most people arrive at this question after an accident that already felt avoidable. That instinct is usually a reasonable starting point, because it is close to the test a court applies: would a sensible employer, looking at the same risk, have done something differently?
If the answer is yes and you are still inside the time limit, you have the makings of a claim. Nearly everything after that is process. The letters, the insurer, the medical report and the negotiation are a solicitor’s job, not yours. What cannot be fixed later is a deadline that has passed or evidence nobody thought to keep, which is why the first few weeks carry more weight than anything that happens in the months after them.
The honest position is that some claims do not succeed, and a good solicitor will tell you that at the start rather than after a year of correspondence. Finding out where you stand costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Key takeaways
- Claims are paid by the employer’s liability insurer, not by your manager
- Injury claims and employment tribunal claims are separate, with very different deadlines
- Being partly at fault reduces compensation rather than ending the claim
- The usual limitation period is three years, or three years from your date of knowledge
- No law protects your job simply because you claimed, but section 100 and the Equality Act may apply
Frequently Asked Questions
What if my employer says the accident was my fault?
Can I claim for an accident at work I did not report at the time?
Do I need to prove my employer was at fault?
How much does it cost to find out where I stand?
An initial conversation is free and carries no obligation. Most workplace injury claims run on a No Win No Fee agreement, so there are no upfront legal fees. If the claim succeeds, a success fee capped by law at 25 per cent is deducted from part of your compensation, and it is never charged on damages for future losses. We confirm the exact percentage in writing before you sign anything, and our No Win No Fee page sets out how it works in full.
Can I claim if I am agency staff, self-employed or on a zero hours contract?
Usually, yes. The duty of care follows the working relationship rather than the job title, so agency workers, subcontractors and zero hours staff may still be covered by the hirer’s or site occupier’s insurance. Who is responsible depends on who controlled and directed the work on the day.
Sources & References
- Health and Safety Executive, Key figures for Great Britain 2024 to 2025 , published 20 November 2025. Great Britain only. The injury total is a Labour Force Survey estimate.
- Department for Work and Pensions, Compensation Recovery Unit performance data , last updated 15 May 2026. Applies to England, Scotland and Wales.
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 , together with the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 and the Work at Height Regulations 2005 .
- Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013, section 69 , which removed civil liability for breach of most health and safety regulations where the breach occurred on or after 1 October 2013.
- Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 , and HSE guidance HSE40, Employers' liability compulsory insurance .
- Employment Rights Act 2025 , section 152 and Schedule 12, extending employment tribunal time limits with effect from 1 October 2026.
- Acas, early conciliation . Notifying Acas is a precondition to lodging most tribunal claims and pauses the time limit.
- Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act 1945, section 1 .
- Judicial College, Guidelines for the Assessment of General Damages in Personal Injury Cases, 18th edition, published April 2026 by Oxford University Press. A print and subscription publication, used in England and Wales.
- Employment Rights Act 1996 , section 100 (health and safety dismissals) and section 104 (assertion of a statutory right).
- Limitation Act 1980 , section 11 (three year period), section 14 (date of knowledge), section 28 (minors and mental capacity) and section 33 (court's discretion).
- Ministry of Justice, Pre-Action Protocol for Low Value Personal Injury (Employers' Liability and Public Liability) Claims , and the Pre-Action Protocol for Personal Injury Claims .
Disclaimer: General information on the law in England and Wales, not legal advice for your situation. Claim Time Solicitors is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA No. 444171). No Win No Fee means a conditional fee agreement: if you win, a success fee is deducted from your damages, capped by law at 25 per cent of your pain and suffering award and past financial losses, and never charged on future losses. Mesothelioma claims follow different rules. All deductions are confirmed in writing before you sign.
