If I am Injured in the Company's Car Park – Can I Make a Claim?

Paul Lane, a Royal Mail worker, was injured whilst leaving work on his moped. He suffered a severely dislocated shoulder and lost his job. He was awarded £70,000 in compensation.

Royal Mail Worker Ran Over at Work

Paul had finished his shift for the day and was about to go home. He had just mounted his moped and was about to leave the Royal Mail car park. As he was going past some parked cars, a car pulled out of a parking bay. On instinct, he slammed his brakes on and lost his balance. As Paul hit the ground, he landed heavily onto his left shoulder.

After hitting him, the driver went over a speed bump and checked their rear view mirror. The driver clearly saw him in the mirror and was aware that he was lying on the floor, despite this she drove off, leaving him injured. Fortunately, Paul recognised the driver and was able to identify her, which greatly helped his claim.

Paul tried to get up straight away but he could already feel the pain in his shoulder. Two of his colleagues helped him up – one was a first aider. They called a paramedic as they suspected it was a fractured shoulder, but there was a delay so they decided to drive him straight to A & E.

Suffered a Dislocated Shoulder

Upon x-ray, Paul was told he had a dislocated shoulder, it was bent forward over his chest in an unnatural and painful position. After putting his shoulder back into place he had to wear a sling for up to 12 weeks. He also had to take 6 months off work as he was unable to continue with his job at the time.

When he returned to work he was still in pain and suffered from a frozen shoulder – he had to have surgery to release the shoulder and further operations down the line due to the severity of the injury. All of this led to more time off work, physiotherapy and several outpatient appointments.

Medically Retired from Royal Mail

As a direct result of the accident, Royal Mail medically retired Mr Lane as a postal worker because of his lengthy periods of sickness absence – he did not want to give up his job, but knew he could not continue to take time off or risk dislocating his shoulder again. Not only had this accident lost Paul his job, but now he had also lost his pension and the chance to continue working for Royal Mail in the future – he would have been happy to return after a full recovery but he was not offered another position. Although Paul was unable to work for Royal Mail anymore, he did find a job as a part time cleaner.

Recognising the severity of his injuries and with the loss of his job, Paul contacted Simpson Millar LLP through his trade union, the Communication Workers Union (CWU).

Throughout the case, the car driver denied responsibility for Paul's injuries. However, despite this we were able to negotiate a settlement at a round table meeting with their insurers a few weeks before the case went to court.

We always ask those that use our services for feedback so that we can continually improve. When asked, Mr Lane said he "found the service outstanding" and "never felt alone throughout the whole experience." He was pleased with the £70,000 compensation he received and praised the judgement of his solicitor Emma Costin who worked on his behalf.