One injured street cleaner who sustained an injury to his finger recently expressed his amazement when the local council allowed the work accident claim balloon to more than £100,000 in compensation.
In May of 2006 Steven Threlfall was working as a street cleaner when a jagged piece of metal that had been inside a rubbish bag he was handling protruded through and sliced deeply into his little finger. As a result of the personal injury claim, Mr Threlfall is now left with a crooked finger thanks to one of his tendons being sliced through.
Mr Threlfall filed an accident claim for his work-related injury. He made the claim that his hands were not properly protected because the gloves that had been provided to him proved to be ineffective in preventing the injury.
Legal costs relating to the case quickly began piling up. Finally, after a third and final hearing at the Civil Appeal Court in London, three of the UK’s senior judges declared the claim in favour of the street cleaner. The opinion of the court was indeed that Mr Threlfall had been denied the adequate levels of protection he needed in order to perform his job duties safely.
As a result of the accident claim, Mr Threlfall received compensation of only £3,000; legal costs for the council are valued in excess of £100,000, however, since top Judges in the UK were used by both sides of the lawsuit.
In an interview after the end of the hearings, Mr Threlfall was quoted as saying that the entire ordeal would have been over and done with in less than half a year, but the council refused to admit negligence.
When pressed, Mr Threlfall also stated that he was incredulous over how high the costs had become over just his little finger.