Schoolboy awarded £15,000 in compensation
Posted: March 12, 2014
Posted in: Hip Injuries Public Place Accidents School Accidents Workplace Injuries
An Essex schoolboy has been awarded £15,197 worth of compensation after a teacher threw a DVD case in the classroom and cut his eyebrow. The plastic DVD cover accidently hit the boy, causing him to sustain a “tiny cut to the eyebrow”. The boy’s family succeeded in securing a five-figure pay-out from Essex County Council. The council said that the teacher had not meant to throw the case with such force, and had only been trying to pass the DVD to a pupil but “unintentionally threw it with more force than expected and accidently hit him”.
With claims like this becoming more and more frequent, critics are beginning to complain of a “compensation culture” arising in schools and workplaces across the country. The council had to pay out £7,900 for the family’s solicitors’ legal costs, £6,750 in damages and £547 in NHS costs. Essex has already paid-out a total of £65,586 of taxpayer’s money to pupils who were injured between 2011 and 2013. One pupil was awarded with £16,812 after hurting his hip falling on wet stairs. Teachers in Essex are also starting to sue.
Affecting the quality of teaching
Between 2011 and 2013, a total of 34 payouts were made to teachers injured in the county. The compensation came to a total of £1.05million, with one teacher being awarded £230,000 after slipping on a sachet of tomato ketchup.
Chief executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, Jonathan Isaby, said that legal battles are beginning to affect the quality of teaching provided across the UK.
If you have suffered a personal injury in a public place or at work, and are looking to claim compensation, please contact us.
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Teacher slips on ketchup sachet and suffers serious personal injuries »
