As with other types of bacterial infections, making a legal claim for compensation for your injury and suffering is possible but it is almost always worth checking that personal injury lawyers you speak to have genuine experience with the specific type of claim and a track record of obtaining compensation either out of court or through the English Court process.

Legionnaires disease is a particularly nasty form of bacterial infection which can lead to pneumonia.

Our injury claim specialist solicitors have successfully dealt with many claims due to an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease. We offer no win no fee where we are assess that a claim has good prospects of success so please do call or email us to find out more about us and how we can help you.

What causes legionnaires disease?

The disease comes from the water supply and where there is unsatisfactory maintenance of water supply into premises and a lack of cleaning and hygiene. The toxins in the water then multiply to create a situation which causes a threat to human health and an outbreak.

Victims of the disease may either drink water or be exposed by ingesting the bacteria in some other way through the water supply such as air conditioning or swimming in a swimming pool.

Most commonly, outbreaks occur in enclosed public places. Examples of claims we have dealt with include claims where Legionnaires is found in hospitals, care homes, cruise ships or officed premises.

Who can you claim against?

Legionnaires  injury claims are made primarily based on breach of statutory health and safety duties and defendants can include landlords, local authorities, hotel or cruise ship operators or employers. Additional defendants based on common law negligence might include any cleaning contractors or where there is an inherent design or construction issue, contractors or engineers might also be liable, for example with an air conditioning system.

Sometimes with injury claims, there can be advantages to suing several defendants which can encourage them to each contribute towards an early settlement.

How to make an injury claim

To succeed 1 of the key aspects will be the records kept by the defendants which will show whether they regularly inspected water systems, ensured water temperatures were kept to a level which inhibit bacteria from multiplying and how regularly and to what standard  cleaning and disinfection took place.

Usually with legionnaires disease there will be an outbreak effecting many people which helps to identify where the outbreak occurred by cross reference the common location where these people were or had been when they started falling ill.

As with other forms of injury claims you normally have 3 years to start a court claim from the date the injury occurred and/or you became aware of it.

Compensation for illness caused by Legionnaires disease, as with other forms of personal injury claims will generally have 2 parts to it :

• Compensation for the pain, suffering and loss of amenity caused by the disease, the amount of which will depend on how badly you were impacted and your recovery and future prognosis.
• Losses caused by the illness such as loss of earnings and other out of pocket expenses which could include medical treatment you have paid for.