Cleaner Wins Back Injury Claim

Case by: LLB (Hons) & LPC Stacy Pimlott Updated: August 31, 2023

What Was the Case?

Before making her back injury claim, our client was employed as a cleaner from early 2016 until 2017 at a caravan site. Her job involved looking after 16 caravans. This involved maintaining, cleaning, and dressing the caravans. As part of her cleaning duties, she had to undertake a lot of heavy lifting. For example, our client could often be found carrying material in boxes from shelves in the storeroom to her car which she would drive to the caravan sites to unload. She would fill the boxes up with materials such as:

• Toasters
• Microwaves
• Kettles
• boxes of plates
• cutlery, pans
• decorations

These would be accompanied by whatever else was required for each caravan. The boxes could weigh anything from a couple of kilograms to around 20 kilograms. Our client would only just be able to get her arms around the boxes a lot of the time.

Bending and Lifting Resulting in Back Injury Claim

Some items would be on the floor and would be lifted into the box which would also be on the floor. As a result, the whole operation would require two bending actions. Some items would be on shelves above head height which would put a different strain on her back. The boxes when full would need carrying from the store to the car. This would be around 25 metres away and would involve additional bending and lifting as she put the boxes into the car. She would then drive to a caravan and unload the boxes into the caravans, requiring the same process as above but in reverse.

Long Waking with Heavy Boxes

Some caravans would be a few steps from the car, and some would be up to 100 metres away. She would walk through grass and mud at both ends of the process which would hamper her progress and make things more difficult. This process would be repeated until the caravans were completed to the required standard.

Some of the caravans would not have steps to step up with the boxes and our client would need to put the box on the floor, open the caravan door, lift the box from the floor and push it onto the floor of the caravan before going in. Once inside, she would lift the boxes up again to put somewhere handy for unloading. Our client would work on around 5 caravans per day.

Results of our Client’s Back Injury

The client has had problems with her back for a few years, putting her issues down to her work. She has been signed off work for around a year and needs help. As a result of her back injury, she needs help washing and dressing herself. Furthermore, the pain keeps her awake at night and she has problems walking. She has had her house modified to help her get up and down the stairs. The client has information regarding her losses which are on the paper file at the office. Her solicitors can therefore draft the schedule once these are obtained.

Unsuccessful Medical Treatment

Our client had an operation in August 2017 but this did not help her symptoms. Since then she has undergone acupuncture and injections but these too have been ineffective.

Successful Back Injury Claim

A medical report was obtained in this matter in evidence and support of her back condition from Mr Sherman.

With the expert help of our industrial disease solicitor Stacy Pimlott, our client was able to put forward a claim against their employer and won an award of 8,675.00.

Starting your Back Injury Claim

Our solicitors will help you get the compensation you deserve after suffering from a back injury at work.

We use our understanding of health and safety regulations to establish a strong case against your employer.

If court proceedings are required, you can rely on us to stand by you from start to finish.

However, we will always avoid court proceedings where possible as we aim to keep the back injury at work claims process simple and straightforward for all our clients.

We treat each client as an individual and ensure that every case is handled sensitive and honest manner, tailored to the client’s specific needs.

We are regulated by solicitors’ regulation authority

Find out if you are entitled to back injury compensation and start your back injury claim today.

Hear more about the member(s) of our team featured above:

• Stacy Pimlott Senior Associate Solicitor/Team Manager view profile