Compensation for Injuries Caused by Nails and Splinters on a Wooden Pallet

Is it possible to claim compensation for injuries caused by nails and splinters on a wooden pallet? Someone put a wooden pallet on the floor behind me and I fell over it. I got numerous splinters and suffered a cut on my leg from a nail in the pallet.

Eoin P. Campbell, LL.B., Solicitor

Editor in Chief

Eoin P. Campbell

It is possible to claim compensation for injuries caused by nails and splinters on a wooden pallet provided that the injuries you received were caused by the negligence of your employer or another employee. Your injuries must also have been severe enough for you to seek medical attention.

Your employer is legally bound to ensure that your place of work is safe, and risks to the health are kept to a bare minimum. Part of these responsibilities includes ensuring that staff are properly trained and behave in a responsible fashion. Putting a pallet down on the floor where it represented a trip hazard can be considered as negligence.

Your employer is responsible for the actions of his staff. If any member of the staff has acted in a negligent manner which resulted in an accident and an injury to another member of staff, it is your employer who is ultimately responsible. Provided that you can prove your employer or another member of staff has acted with negligence in the workplace, and this was the direct cause of your wooden pallet injuries, you will be eligible to make a claim for compensation for injuries caused by nails and splinters on wooden pallets.

It would be to your advantage to speak with a personal injury solicitor about making a claim for compensation for injuries caused by nails and splinters on a wooden pallet. While it would appear that you are eligible to claim compensation for wooden pallet injuries, it would be beneficial to find out about the level of compensation you would be entitled to receive. After assessing your claim for compensation for injuries caused by nails and splinters on a wooden pallet, a solicitor would advise you on the level of wooden pallet injury compensation you would be likely to be awarded. Once you know about how much compensation for injuries caused by nails and splinters on a wooden pallet you are likely to receive, you can then decide whether a wooden pallet injury claim is justifiable.

Although it is your employer’s insurance company that will cover any claim for compensation for injuries caused by nails and splinters on wooden pallets, insurance policies in Ireland usually carry a high excess. It is therefore likely that your employer will be required to pay most or all of your compensation personally if your injuries were not severe. If your employer does not believe that compensation for injuries caused by nails and splinters on wooden pallets is justifiable, he may reject your claim for wooden pallet injuries. This would make court action a possibility in order to recover compensation- something you may wish to consider prior to making a claim for compensation for injuries caused by nails and splinters on a wooden pallet.