Help injured at work. Company has no liability insurance

lynzpower

Have you spoken to the HSE about this?

withabix

The Directors of the liquidated company are LEGALLY (ie criminal law - applies to the person) liable for the accident and injury, irrespective of the company going into liquidation.

The OP should contact his local HSE office for a start.

SarEl

withabix wrote: »

The Directors of the liquidated company are LEGALLY (ie criminal law - applies to the person) liable for the accident and injury, irrespective of the company going into liquidation.

The OP should contact his local HSE office for a start.

No, they are not. The legal entity in any law, criminal or civil, is the company. Company law makes the company the "person".

withabix

SarEl wrote: »

No, they are not. The legal entity in any law, criminal or civil, is the company. Company law makes the company the "person".

You will find that the HSE can and will prosecute the PERSON, not just the company.

bris

How do we even know the company are liable for the OP's injury, just because it was done at work doesn't automatically mean the company are liable. Carelessness is the biggest cause of injury at work.
The HSE may prosecute the directors if the safety standards were dangerous, but it would be the company that pays the fine, in this case the company have nothing to give.

tagq2

It's a limited liability company, not a zero liability company. Directors can't always direct the law at their company.

SueC_2

Having established that the offending company had gone bust so could not be held liable, if I were feeling bloody minded I think I would start by identifying whether the new company had all of the required insurances in place. If they didn't, I might choose to bring that to the attention of the relevant folk. It would achieve precisely nothing in regard to my claim and/or injury, but it may make me feel just a tiny bit better.

SarEl

tagq2 wrote: »

It's a limited liability company, not a zero liability company. Directors can't always direct the law at their company.

As I said on the first page! But the required level of proof must show intent and/or criminal negligence. Which is exceedingly hard to do - "we were in financial trouble, the adminstrator didn't pay the insurance and we didn't know..." Case over. Proving someone made a deliberate and knowing decision to not take out insurance is impossible. SueC's suggestion is far more practicable - although I doubt they would be foolish enough to make the mistake twice. But you never know.

dickydonkin

bris wrote: »

Carelessness is the biggest cause of injury at work.

I would be interested to know where you got this information to substantiate your crass assertion. It could be argued that the only 'carelessness' involved with workplace accidents is the employers 'couldn't care less' attitude to safety.

Quite frankly, your comment is an insult to those who are injured and killed at work.

Generally, the biggest causes of injury at work are related to manual handling and slips/trips/falls - irrespective of the industry.

Unsurprisingly in these difficult times, sickness absence relating to injuries from manual handling and slips/trips has now been overtaken by stress.

InsideInsurance

Well beyond my detailed knowledge but the OP only said that the company had gone into liquidation and did not say if it was voluntary or compulsory. It is possible that it was a voluntary liquidation and that the company was still solvent at the time.

If debts are owed there are circumstances that you can force the company to be restored via court order which I guess could be used in these sorts of circumstances but you're going to want to check what the status was when it was liquidated as there is no point throwing good money after bad.