You must first show that an ‘accident’ has occurred. In most cases, an accident will involve an unexpected event. However, an accident need not be an unexpected event; the sustaining of an unexpected personal injury caused by an expected event (eg a fireman suffering post-traumatic stress disorder after attending a horrific incident) may itself amount to an accident (CAO v Faulds ( R(I)1/00 )).

Problems can arise if the injury developed relatively slowly through the normal course of work. This is called injury by ‘process’. If your injury developed as a result of a continuous process at work, you will not be entitled to industrial injuries benefits, unless your injury is listed as one of the prescribed industrial diseases.

However, the cumulative effect of a series of small incidents, each of which is separate and identifiable, that were slightly out of the ordinary can count as an accident (R