COVID-19 Group Claim: COVID Claims for Healthcare Workers

If you contracted COVID-19 because of negligent acts of your employer, or the Government’s failure to provide PPE, and suffered significant injuries as a result, we can help.

We understand that employees of the NHS were not appropriately protected during the pandemic, which resulted in them contracting COVID-19 and suffering long-term illness and injuries as a result. If you have been seriously affected as a result of contracting COVID in a healthcare setting, you should consider joining a group to claim to hold the relevant bodies accountable and to be compensated for any pain and loss you have suffered as a result. A claim can be made to claim also for your future financial losses and care and support where your symptoms are ongoing or likely to be permanent If the claim is successful it will help you access the rehabilitation care and support you may need For many clients, being able to access some funds to finance targeted rehabilitation and treatment tailored to your needs is key, as is professional vocational rehabilitation support to help you in a return to work or to look at suitable other viable alternatives and re-training where this sadly is not possible.

We need to fully investigate who is at fault and intend to explore all possibilities before we can determine the defendant in any COVID compensation scheme

We will investigate claims against the individual NHS Trusts and any other healthcare provider in relation to implementation of guidance, plus the Government bodies who created that guidance. We determine that they may have failed to protect you from infection during your employment. In our defence of NHS staff with Long COVID, this investigation will help to identify who the correct defendant is.

There are time limits for bringing a claim in the courts of England and Wales as per the stipulations in the Limitation Act 1980.
Accordingly, you have three years to bring an employers’ liability claim such as this. This starts from the date of negligence or the date of knowledge of that negligence.

Many clients who have contacted us so far have been nervous about bringing a claim against their employer as they are so worried about the repercussions, or they have been too ill to even contemplate any action or to have realised that their Employer had a duty to keep them safe. Some have been told by previous Solicitors they don’t have a case, or they cannot get insurance cover to bring a case. There are certain situations where a court can, at its discretion, extend the limitation period and for this reason we would encourage you to still come forward if you think you might have a claim even if it is 3 years since the date of exposure. However, we do not advise you to rely on this and recommend you act quickly to protect your right to bring a claim and make contact as soon as possible.

If you think this date may have passed in your case, we recommend that you complete the enquiry form on our website to allow us to advise on your individual circumstances. We are hopeful that with legal representation, healthcare workers with Long COVID will be compensated for their injuries and losses.

A group litigation claim is a legal action where a group of individuals (claimants) collectively bring a claim against a defendant or group of defendants for similar harm or wrongdoing.

Claimants typically seek compensation for damages or injuries caused by a shared issue. In this case, it’s contracting COVID due to a breach of duty owed to you during your employment, including the failure to provide PPE.

Group litigation claims are typically used for cases where many individuals have suffered similar harm, such as a result of contracting COVID or losses due to a common event or action, including injury at work.

Senior Master Cook at the Royal Courts of Justice has recently decided at a preliminary Court Hearing involving an early group of claims which have been brought by some healthcare workers that all claims where a healthcare worker claims to have contracted COVID in a healthcare setting should be co-ordinated and managed together by the Court. He has ordered that ALL cases involving claims for healthcare workers who claim to have contracted COVID at work should be formally notified by 5th July 2024*. There are we understand currently two firms of Solicitors who are representing a large group of healthcare workers in England and Wales, one of which is Bond Turner.

*Applying to healthcare workers who have contracted COVID at work in a healthcare setting in England or Wales.

There will be a further hearing in October 2024 when further directions will be made to co-ordinate the management of all the cases.

To determine if you qualify for our group COVID-19 claim, and if you have not already signed up, you should complete the enquiry form. We will then assess your eligibility based on the information you give us in our survey, which shows how the virus affected you and those close to you.

Please note that, unfortunately, we are unable to act for you if you contracted COVID whilst working in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

If you were working in Scotland when you contracted COVID-19, Debbie Milne, Partner at Jackson Boyd Lawyers, can assist. For healthcare professionals who were working in Northern Ireland, Damian McGeady, Partner at Lacey Solicitors, is available for support.

In a typical claim against an Employer for an illness or disease contracted in the workplace, we need to prove the following:

1. Duty of care – in the context of Long COVID claims, this is to keep you safe from contracting a virus such as SARS-CoV-19 and to take reasonable steps to keep you safe and prevent that happening.
2. Breach of duty – put simply this is to show that the Employer has not taken those steps to assess the level of risk to you of contracting a virus such as SARS-CoV-2 and failed to implement a safe system of work and take all reasonable steps to prevent this happening.
3. Causation – a causal link between the breach of the duty and your injuries and losses.

The usual course of action in a claim against an Employer is that after initial investigations have been carried out by your Solicitor, a Letter of Claim would be sent to the proposed defendants which will include:

• The basis on which the claim is made.
• A concise summary of the facts
• The details of the loss suffered.
• What the claimants seek to recover from the defendant

The court rules say the defendant should acknowledge the Letter within 21 days and respond in three months. This is called a Letter of Response and should confirm whether liability is admitted. Usually, the investigation period the Defendants are entitled to is 3 months. It can often take much longer in complex cases. At a recent preliminary hearing about COVID Claims for Healthcare Workers. Senior Master Cook recognised that all the potential parties to an action need to work in a collaborative way to reduce the timescales of the usual process with a modern approach to the litigation.

To determine how much your claim could be worth, we obtain evidence from you to support your injury and loss, including your medical records and report (s) from independent medical experts.

The evidence regarding injury, treatment, present condition, prognosis for the future including the care, treatment and support you will need and all consequential losses such as loss of earnings dictates the value of the overall claim resulting from your COVID infection at work. We will try to agree the compensation award with the defendants but if this is not possible, a Judge may need to decide the amount.

Compensation is split into two categories: General damages and Special damages.

• General damages

This is the payment for any pain, suffering and loss of amenity you suffered because of contracting COVID.

• Special damages

This is payment for any financial losses both in the past and future. This will cover past and future loss of earnings, loss of pension, medical expenses, rehabilitation costs, care and travel costs and other related expenses that are not covered by general damages.

This can include both your past financial losses and expenses you have already incurred and suffered and your future financial losses. For example, past losses might include loss of earnings, loss of overtime, private treatment you have paid for, prescription charges, aids, and adaptations to your home, change of accommodation. Future loses might include for example future loss of earnings, the loss of your career including loss of promotion, loss of overtime and reduced earning capacity if you are able to return to work but not in the same role or capacity. Future loss can also include the future care and support and rehabilitation and treatment you will need into the future.

Ultimately any financial losses that we can calculate or speculate will be included as part of your overall claim. We are very experienced in this area and together with expert evidence will be able to assist in proving these heads of loss.

Credit will be given for any payments that have been or are expected to be received, such as sick pay or ill-health retirement payments, as you are only able to recover for the same item once.

If you or your partner are in receipt of means tested benefits, any compensation of more than £6,000 could affect your entitlement to receive benefits in the future.

We will support you in signposting advice to you on your option of setting up something known as a Personal Injury Trust (PI Trust). Setting up a Personal Injury Trust can help you to protect your eligibility to continue to receive benefits.

We want to reassure you that we would not require, nor expect, any upfront costs to be paid before bringing a claim. Instead, if successful, any costs payable will be deducted from your award of damages. Like most of our cases, this group litigation runs on a No Win No Fee basis, also known as a Conditional Fee Agreement.

If your claim is valid and you co-operate with us and do not withdraw your claim, you will not be liable for any costs incurred under the No Win No Fee agreement.

If you feel that your physical or cognitive impairment is such that you cannot understand any of the information provided in the Conditional Fee Agreement or Client Care Letter, it may be that you do not have sufficient mental capacity pursuant to the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

If this is the case, please contact us (with the assistance of a family member or friend if required) and we will advise further on your options.