Our client, a train cleaner from Edinburgh, contacted Thompsons via his union, RMT, with a view to claiming compensation for the personal injuries he sustained when a chair he was sitting on in his workplace staffroom collapsed.

The background

In November 2018, the claimant was seated in the staffroom at Edinburgh Waverley Station waiting for his 7am shift to start. At 6.45am the plastic chair he was sitting on collapsed underneath him, causing him to fall on his back.

At the time of his workplace accident, our client was employed as cleaner of trains. He had worked for his employer, Abellio Scotrail for 23 years.

The claimant told Thompsons work injury solicitors that he was aware of previous incidents of chairs breaking and had since been made aware of another incident involving a collapsing chair causing injuries to a colleague.

The consequences

The chair collapse left our client with a sore left leg and pain in his lower back. He completed an accident report but did not see a first aider and continued with his shift.

However, the pain from his fall intensified during the course of his shift and became particularly acute that night.

After attending his GP's surgery, our client was told he had torn a muscle and was given co-codamol for pain relief. He continued to experience pain in his back and left leg for some time after the accident and developed anxiety whenever he had to sit on a chair. Shortly after the accident his employer replaced all the plastic chairs with brand new models.

The settlement

The claimant had suffered a soft tissue injury to his back. Although the defenders did not provide a position in respect of liability, they made a pre-medical settlement offer of £2,500. This was accepted and confirmed on 4 July 2019.