We recently acted for a lady who was assaulted at work by a service user during the course of her employment at a children’s home. Our client’s job role involved providing assistance to children with complex learning requirements and behavioural difficulties.
Our client’s claim was funded under a No Win, No Fee Agreement. Our client was represented by Georgina Parkin and Andrew Gray.
The Assault Circumstances
In October 2012, Janet was assaulted at work by a service user, a 15-year-old girl. The service user suffered with severe behavioural difficulties and had attempted to assault Janet before. Janet’s hair was grabbed by the service user and she kept a hold on it for approximately 15 minutes. Three of Janet’s colleagues were present when the assault occurred. Janet’s colleagues had not been provided with appropriate control and restraint training by their employer and were therefore unable to break up the assault. A clump of Janet’s hair fell to the floor due to the strain which had been put on our client’s head.
As a result of the assault, Janet suffered injuries to her scalp, face and head. She has also suffered from psychological injuries.
A letter of claim was sent to Janet’s employer and was acknowledged by solicitors who maintained a denial of liability (blame) for the assault throughout the duration of Janet’s claim. We remained confident that Janet’s claim has reasonable prospects of success.
Compensation
Initially we had Janet medically examined by a Consultant in Accident and Emergency, close to her home, in order to obtain a prognosis for Janet’s injuries and to find out whether she required any further medical treatment.
The medical expert recommended that Janet be examined by a Consultant Psychologist in order to obtain an opinion in relation to her psychological injuries. We arranged a further medical examination for Janet with a Consultant Psychologist, who recommended that she attended some sessions of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (“CBT”) to assist with the recovery of her psychological injuries.
Full details of Janet’s injuries and financial losses were sent to her employer’s solicitors. Janet’s claim settled just before witness evidence was exchanged and a few months before trial. She was not required to attend Court to be compensated for her injuries.
Janet was awarded compensation of £12,900 for her injuries and financial losses and was delighted with this result.
About the successful case, Georgina Parkin said: “It was clear from an early stage in the case that the training provided to our client and her colleagues was not of a satisfactory level and that such training would have most likely prevented the assault and injury to our client. This was clearly a very distressing incident and I am immensely pleased that our client was awarded the compensation that she deserved.”
If you have been assaulted at work, please do not hesitate to contact us to speak to one of our specialist personal injury solicitors. We offer No Win, No Fee agreements to pursue personal injury claims.
Please note that names have been changed in this case description to preserve the anonymity of the parties involved. Any contact you have with us will be treated in the strictest confidence.
Further Reading
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