Try to do these things.

If you are badly injured or shocked, get a colleague or Union representative to help you.

• Make sure it goes into the accident book. Read the entry in the accident book very carefully before anyone else signs it, and do not sign it yourself unless it is completely accurate. Get a colleague to check what is written if possible, because you may be confused or in pain. The accident book entry may be misinterpreted later on. If its meaning is unclear or what is written is not true, you could lose your case.
• If there is no accident book or you cannot find it: write down what happened and when it happened or get a colleague to write it down, sign and date this, and give a copy to your employer. Keep a copy for yourself.
• You do not have to make any additional statement to your employers. Do not be pressured to do this.
• If anyone saw the accident, try to get his or her name right away. If they do not work with you, get their address and telephone number as well.
• Do not say anything accepting blame. People sometimes feel embarrassed or foolish after accidents, but this does not mean that the accident is your fault.
• If your accident was caused by faulty equipment or machinery, find out as soon as you are well enough whether it was taken out of use after the accident, and who examined or repaired the machinery or equipment immediately after your accident. Or get someone else to do this for you.
• If you slipped or tripped and were injured as a result, make sure you know exactly where this happened and what exactly caused you to slip or trip. Get a colleague to look at the scene of the accident before anything is moved, if possible. If, for example, you slipped on oil, note the size of the patch of oil, and note how it got to be on the floor. Take measurements if possible. Better still, take a photograph or get a colleague to take one. If you cannot do this, make a sketch and keep it.
• If your accident was caused by a temporary situation, such as oil on the floor, or an obstacle which you tripped over, which was cleaned up or moved right away, find out who cleaned it up or who moved the obstacle.
• If you were injured lifting something, find out as quickly as possible the weight of the thing you were lifting, unless it is going to be easy to do this in the future. If the thing you were lifting is about to be taken away, at least get someone else to look at it with you. Find out if there was any lifting equipment available, and whether this was working when you were injured. Find out if your employer has looked at ways to do the job that avoid lifting by hand.
• If you have had a serious accident, make sure the employers have notified the Health and Safety Executive. If you are not sure, you should notify them yourself. They will want to investigate it quickly. Their addresses and phone numbers appear later.
• Unless you are going straight to hospital, see the nurse or doctor at work as soon as possible. Make sure you tell the nurse or doctor that the injury happened at work and give an accurate account of what happened.Ý
• Compensation is lost because people give a confused account shortly after the accident and this is used against them later on by their employer's insurance company.
• It is advisable to see your own doctor if you have any pain or sign of injury, even if you have to wait for an appointment. Again, tell the doctor exactly what happened, and make sure the doctor understands you were injured at work, and writes this in your notes.
• If you go to hospital directly after an accident, or some time after an accident, make sure you tell the nurse and doctor that you were injured at work, and if you describe what happened, make sure it is a careful and accurate account of what actually happened. If you later claim compensation, and the hospital notes do not tally with what really happened, this could lose your case, if no one saw the accident.
• Get advice quickly. Do not leave it a long time before investigating a claim. There is normally a 3-year time limit for starting a court action, although this can sometimes be overcome if you have missed it. The general rule is that the earlier the information for a claim is collected, the better for everyone involved.

You have to be able to show that your employers were to blame. Whether they were to blame may be hard to decide. There are strict rules laid down by Parliament to protect people at work.

You can get a good idea if you are likely to win your case by asking yourself if the accident or illness was caused by:

• The equipment you had to use being unsafe
• An unsafe system of working
• An unsafe place of work
• Someone working with you (if it was, the law says that your employer has to carry the can)
• Poor supervision, or no supervision

If your injury was caused by any of these things, you should see a solicitor about making a claim.