Our client was a young female stable hand working at a riding school. She loved horses. Her days were long and involved a lot of heavy work including the cleaning out of the stables, exercising and grooming the horses. One of her jobs was to move various horses from one paddock to the other. To do this, she was provided with a mechanical horse, namely a quad bike, owned by the riding school.
Unfortunately the quad bike was old and was not properly maintained and serviced. Complaints had been made about the state of the bike but these had fallen on deaf ears. Whilst mustering the horses and moving them from one paddock to the other, our client had to ride over rough terrain. Whilst doing this, her hand was jammed into the handlebar of the quad bike and she experienced immediate pain in her hand and forearm. Our client continued to put up with the pain and continued working. As the pain did not improve, our client consulted a doctor who recommended physiotherapy for her hand. X-rays were taken but these were interpreted as being clear with no break.
The pain got no better and eventually she ended up consulting an orthopaedic specialist. He ordered more scans and these scans revealed in fact a fracture of her arm. This diagnosis was unfortunately made several months after the accident.
Surgery was required and a period of intense rehabilitation followed. She has been left with ongoing pain and restriction of movement in her arm. Eventually the riding school went into liquidation and her protected employment ended.
Our client had great difficulty in securing alternative employment with the restrictions placed on her because of her injured arm. Eventually she turned to the litigation team at Taylor & Scott for help.
Simon Meigan, Partner and Accredited Specialist in Personal Injury, assisted his client. Eventually he was able to commence a negligence claim against the riding school for their failure to properly maintain and service the quad bike. Proceedings were lodged in the District Court of NSW. The matter came to a settlement conference and Simon successfully settled the claim with a substantial payout to his client.
If you or someone you know is injured at work in unusual circumstances, it is important to seek expert advice from a competent lawyer to determine if a negligence claim can be maintained. All negligence claims are handled by our team on a no-win/no-pay basis meaning that if you don’t win, Taylor & Scott does not get paid.
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