Use of Sledgehammer Leads to Large Damages Payout

Sledgehammer

Our client was a rigger who had spent his adult working life doing heavy physical work. As one would expect working in this industry, he suffered the occasional injury. Fortunately after having a short period off work following one injury, he managed to return to his full time rigging work.

Unfortunately, tragedy struck for our client when he was required to use a 10kg sledgehammer above his head to drive large bolts into steel columns.

Complaints had been made to the bosses that the job was unsafe and needed to be performed in a different way. Unfortunately for our client, no changes were made to the way the job was performed.

On this particular day, our client had to stretch up and lean back whilst swinging the sledgehammer above his head. The scaffolding upon which he worked had to be altered so he could gain access and he had to lean out from the scaffold to make sure the bolts were correctly positioned. After several blows, our client suddenly experienced severe burning pain in his neck and shoulder which caused him to drop the sledgehammer which fell to the level below. Fortunately no-one was working immediately below him at the time.

The pain was relentless and he couldn’t continue working. He reported the accident and immediately went to seek medical assistance.

There followed several years of medical treatment. He had numerous CT and MRI scans, visits to orthopaedic surgeons, cortisone injections, visits to neurosurgeons, physiotherapy, hydrotherapy and he even attended a pain clinic to try and help manage the severe pain that he was suffering. As you would expect, our client started to become depressed and needed assistance from a psychologist.

He continued to consult with various medical experts and also underwent nerve block injections.

This treatment continued over several years. Eventually the medical experts agreed that he needed surgery. What followed was surgery to his shoulder and a fusion to his neck. After several years of treatment, he has been left with pain in his neck, arm, shoulder and hand. He remains unfit for work as a rigger.

Taylor & Scott’s compensation experts had been assisting their client over the last eight years. Fortunately in 2016, after the medical profession advised that there was nothing further they could do for him, our team of negligence/compensation lawyers led by Simon Meigan, advised their client that he should now contemplate a work injury damages claim. Such a claim is in fact a negligence claim against his employer in which it was alleged that the unsafe system of work adopted by our client’s employer led directly to his injuries.

Recently, Simon Meigan and his team have negotiated a large payout to their client to compensate him for all of his financial losses up to his retirement. Fortunately, his financial situation is now secure relieving the worry and stress associated with being stuck on payments of workers compensation.

At Taylor & Scott Compensation Lawyers we are very careful to ensure that our clients’ best interests are the first priority of our lawyers. This may mean monitoring a client’s injuries for several years before finalising a claim.

If you have suffered an injury which may have happened several years ago and which continues to cause problems and prevents you from working, you are welcome to contact our expert team of lawyers and receive advice.

Contact us on 1800 600 664 or complete the contact form on this page. All personal injury claims here at Taylor & Scott are conducted by our litigation team on a no-win/no-pay basis meaning that if you don’t win your claim, Taylor & Scott do not receive any costs.

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