Working at height can be dangerous, as our client in this week’s case knows only too well.

Our client worked at a children’s centre and was pruning tree branches in the garden when his ladder slipped. He fell, and his arm was impaled on a metal railing, severing a tendon.

Inadequate equipment

The task was one our client had done for the best part of a decade, but the equipment he was using was not up to the task. His employer, for example, did not provide telescopic loppers, which would have made the job far safer and easier.

Our client’s employer sought in a whole host of ways to pin the blame on our client and we had to respond and counter each one in the strongest possible terms. The Judge agreed with us and our client and awarded him compensation.

Comment

Commenting on the case, Sheila Russell from Thompsons Solicitors’ Newcastle Office, said: “Our client was getting on with the job he was required to do as best as he could with the tools he had been provided with. It was for his employer to ensure the task was safe and that our client had the tools necessary for the job. Instead of holding their hands up and accepting their responsibility, they delayed fought everything and took the case all the way to trial - only for a Judge to tell them what we had been telling them repeatedly for months.”