Work accident caused by aggressive resident of care facility

Healthcare institution and injuries due to aggressive behavior of residents

Employee injury due to patient aggression

An employee of the 's Heeren Loo Care Foundation sustained workplace accident serious injuries .

She is abused by a resident of the group where she worked.

This group was known as “difficult”. It included boys who did not accept the authority of female group leaders. As a result, the boys effectively held the reins themselves, according to the victim during various team meetings that personal injury claim preceded

The employee holds 's Heeren Loo liable as employer for the workplace accident and demands full compensation for her personal injury. However, 's Heeren Loo maintains that it has fulfilled its duty of care and therefore considers itself not liable as employer for the injury sustained by the employee. It rejects liability for this workplace accident. Consequently, the employee has no choice but to sue 's Heeren Loo.

Liability for industrial accidents

Under Dutch law, an employer is liable for an industrial accident unless he proves that:

there was “intent or recklessness” on the part of the employee or
all reasonable care obligations with regard to safety have been met, sufficient instructions have been given in this regard – if necessary – and compliance with these instructions is adequately monitored.

All this can be found in Article 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Code and the related case law.

Liability or not 's Heeren Loo

Legally speaking, it is the employer who must prove that he has fulfilled his duty of care. If not, he is liable for the workplace accident and the personal injury. The subdistrict court therefore orders 's Heeren Loo to provide this proof.

The employer states that it has properly organised, trained and guided its staff in the area of conflict and aggression management.
The employer also points out the biweekly interdisciplinary consultation in which an educational psychologist is present and draws up a treatment plan for all clients.
Finally, the employer argued that additional safety measures were implemented for this department in the first half of 2008. However, after the situation stabilized, these additional measures were no longer necessary. The fact that a workplace accident subsequently occurred does not, according to the employer, justify the conclusion that it failed to fulfill its duty of care.

The subdistrict court judge takes as a starting point that:

When determining the safety measures, it is important that the group in which the victim worked was known as "difficult"
there was an increased risk of aggression within this group and
management knew this, as was evident from the additional security measures taken previously and the content of the team meetings.

The subdistrict court judge then assesses the evidence submitted by 's Heeren Loo

Training and guidance for aggression management

Upon joining the company, the employee completed a multi-day conflict and aggression training course. However, no refresher courses were offered, or at least, that hasn't been proven.

's Heeren Loo accuses the employee of acting incorrectly during the conflict by standing in front of the resident with outstretched arms. In doing so, she contributed to the escalation of the conflict. The sub-district court judge thinks very differently about this. She states that it is certainly not inconceivable that the employee would have acted appropriately – and thereby the accident would have been prevented – had refresher training on aggression been offered.

Bi-weekly interdisciplinary consultation + treatment plan

's Heeren Loo states that a treatment plan is drawn up by a multidisciplinary team, which includes an educational psychologist. Risks for aggressive behavior are identified during this team meeting. All clients are discussed weekly in team meetings. The educational psychologist attends these meetings every other week. This psychologist advises the group leaders and can specifically address issues such as increased aggression or increased potential for conflict.

However, the subdistrict court judge ruled that it had not sufficiently demonstrated that this met the group leaders' training needs and could be considered a supplement to or replacement of the training courses. 's Heeren Loo should have specifically demonstrated this within the scope of its evidentiary burden, especially in relation to the specific approach taken by the residents in question. After all, the employee denied that the employer provided any methodological support.

general security situation at the location and the additional security measures of 2008

The groups are located close to each other and are connected by an alarm system. There is also an on-call service, designed to provide support in urgent situations outside office hours. The protocol stipulates that the on-call manager may not be away from the location for more than one hour.

The subdistrict court judge: “it is unclear whether effective support can be provided in urgent situations with this travel time.”

's Heeren Loo's additional safety measures to prevent workplace accidents caused by aggression consisted of the deployment of two aggression and conflict management trainers. These trainers were present on the premises and were therefore immediately available. These measures ceased in the second half of 2008.

Conclusion: employer liable for industrial accident

The subdistrict court judge ruled that it has not been established that:

the additional security measures were no longer necessary in the second half of 2008
's Heeren Loo provided sufficient refresher training in conflict and aggression management and
the risk of occupational accidents if these are sufficiently limited by general safety measures.

The subdistrict court judge therefore ruled that 's Heeren Loo failed to fulfill its statutory duty of care. It is liable for the occurrence of this industrial accident. Therefore, it must fully compensate its employee for her injuries. (Utrecht District Court, Subdistrict Division, April 20, 2011, date of judgment: July 7, 2011, LJN: BQ4780).

Only if your employer has done everything possible to prevent an aggressive incident will they be exempt from liability. But almost always, there's something wrong with staffing, instructions, training, and aggression management courses. Therefore, in most cases, an employer is liable for your personal injury. Given your profession, we think that's only fair! And besides, your employer is insured against this type of liability. So they do personal injury n't have to pay

Do you need advice on personal injury?

If you work in healthcare and have suffered personal injury due to a patient, please feel free to contact us for advicefrom us honest and clear advice , and then you can decide for yourself what you want to do with it.

Injury Van der Toorn is happy to help you, expertly and completely FREE of charge!

What customers ask

Is your help really free for me?

Absolutely, our help is truly FREE.

Your counterparty is also obligated to reimburse your legal costs (i.e., our firm's fees). This is stipulated by law (Section 6:96 of the Dutch Civil Code).

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Still unsure? Just contact us. We'd be happy to explain how our cost guarantee works.

If you'd like to learn more about our FREE personal injury assistance, click here. Clarity is paramount!

When can I claim personal injury damages?

You can claim damages for personal injury due to the fault of another person injury (been injured)

Personal injury can be caused by, for example:

In addition, you may think of injuries sustained during:

organized trip
unsafe product or
fall at someone else's home, in a shop or on the street

It's best not to wait too long to file a personal injury claim. It's best to do so immediately after the accident.

Even if it is not yet clear at that time what your injury and its financial consequences consist of.

However, someone else must liable and must have taken out liability insurance for this (AVP/AVB/WA).

However, even if you caused the accident yourself, you can sometimes still claim compensation for personal injury. For example, if you SVI (Passenger Injury Insurance) or SVO (Opzittende Inschadende).

Are you unsure whether and when you are entitled to personal injury compensation?

Don't hesitate to contact us now for a free, no-obligation consultation. It's free , and you'll know exactly where you stand. Afterward, you can decide for yourself what to do with our advice.

What injuries do you treat?

We can actually help you with all types of personal injury

Van der Toorn Personal Injury can help you with all types of injuries. We specialize in handling "serious personal injuries," such as:

brain injury (ABI)
spinal cord injury
burns
dystrophy
bone fractures and
cosmetic injury.

But of course, we are also very happy to be there for you if someone else has sustained an injury. Such as neck injuries, whiplash, back injuries, bruises, sprains, dog bites, temporary injuries, and you name it.

We cannot help with all types of personal injury

The only thing we cannot help you with is personal injury caused by:

violence
medical errors and/or
situations of abuse.

In that situation, we will of course refer you to a party that is specialized in this.

Always request free, no-obligation advice on personal injury claims

Do you have questions about your personal injury? Or are you unsure if we're the right place for you?

Please do not hesitate to ask us for a complete and free, no-obligation personal injury claim consultation.

When should I contact you?

You don't have to! But it's in your best interest to as soon as possible contact

Only then can you be certain that there is someone who thinks solely of your interests . Because that is our job: thinking of *your* interests.

But what is: as quickly as possible?

Sometimes an insurance company will contact you very shortly after the accident. They'll ask how you're doing and also ask for all sorts of other information.

You cannot know whether that insurer is asking “too many questions” from a legal perspective. About your health before the accident and which doctors you visited. You would rather avoid that, wouldn't you? So never wait too long to engage a personal injury firm.

It's also likely that you'll quickly incur significant expenses . Or your incomemay disappear. We'll handle the initial damage payments from the other party. Then you can focus on your recovery.

Would you like to know what's best for you? Don't hesitate to without obligation us

We'll give you right away advice clear. Then you can decide for yourself what to do with it.

If we think we can help you, we will let you know right away.

At the same time, we guarantee that our legal assistance completely free of charge .

To learn more about our FREE personal injury assistance services, click here.

What personal injury compensation amounts am I entitled to?

The personal injury compensation amounts you are entitled to are:

Allowances for additional assistance, such as:

household help, shopping, taking children to school, etc.
help in the garden and
help with the maintenance and painting of your home.

In addition, your personal injury may have consequences for your income, such as:

income that is not fully paid (self-employed person, temporary worker, zero-hour contract, etc.)
no more irregular hours allowance
no longer being able to work overtime
missed promotions and
missed pension accrual

Finally, you can consider other equally important personal injury compensation amounts, such as:

Study delay
Reintegration costs for guidance to other work
Costs associated with admission to a hospital or rehabilitation center
Travel expenses
Medical expenses
Non-pecuniary damages
Economic vulnerability
Statutory interest
Furthermore, all costs that you would not have incurred without the accident…
For example, the wages you did not receive because you could not go to work.
Gasoline because you had to go to the hospital or the physiotherapist.
Medicines that were covered by your deductible.

In addition, you are always entitled to compensation for pain and suffering, also known as non-material damages.

This is compensation for "loss of enjoyment of life." Your damages should compensate you for your grief, pain, and anything else that might have made you less happy than before the accident.

Unfortunately, Dutch law is not generous in awarding damages for pain and suffering. Therefore, the amounts awarded in the Netherlands are not considered "fair enough.".

If you'd like to learn more about non-pecuniary damages, click here. If you'd like to learn more about personal injury damages, click here.

Calculating non-pecuniary damages

Calculating non-pecuniary damages:

You are always entitled to compensation for pain and suffering. This is the "non-pecuniary component" of your personal injury compensation.

What is non-pecuniary damages?

Pain and suffering compensation is not in itself a “hard legal term”. It is compensation for damage that cannot be expressed in monetary terms.

So, everything that doesn't fall under additional costs or lost income. It's essentially compensation for your "mental damage.".

How to calculate non-pecuniary damages

People often ask us at the very beginning of their personal injury case how much compensation they are entitled to.

That question is actually impossible to answer. And any personal injury lawyer who claims otherwise is mistaken.

When can you calculate my non-pecuniary damages?

Your compensation for pain and suffering can only be definitively determined at the end of your personal injury case.

Only then will it be known what psychological consequences your injury has had and/or will have for you.

Because it is the psychological consequences that largely determine your compensation for non-pecuniary damages.

Important factors in calculating non-pecuniary damages

Important factors for calculating your non-pecuniary damages include:

the nature of your injury
the severity of your injury
your age
your gender
your level of consciousness
whether you will have permanent scars and where those scars are located
whether you have physical limitations that affect your quality of life
how much pain have you suffered and continue to suffer
how long your recovery period was and
whether you have recovered at all or whether there is permanent damage.

Indication calculation of non-pecuniary damages:

We cannot predict exactly how much your compensation for non-pecuniary damages will be.

What we can do is give you a general indication of the amount of your compensation for pain and suffering.

If this sounds appealing, contact us today for a free, honest consultation. Afterward, you can decide for yourself what to do with it.

We are happy to help you calculate and claim your compensation for pain and suffering and other personal injury damages, such as your additional costs and lost income.

And if you choose our legal assistance, we guarantee you in writing in advance that our assistance will always FREE .

Calculating non-pecuniary damages? Ask for advice! We're happy to help. Want to know more about calculating non-pecuniary damages? Click here.

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