Work Injury Claims When Your Employer Has No Insurance
Most employers must hold employers' liability insurance. If yours did not, or has since gone out of business, you may still be able to trace an insurer or claim against an insolvent employer's insurer directly. The claim is not lost just because the employer has disappeared.
Compulsory Insurance
The Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 requires most employers to hold insurance covering injury and disease to employees, precisely so a successful claimant can be paid. An employer without cover commits an offence, and can be liable for damages personally, although recovering from a business that has no assets is difficult.
Tracing a Missing Insurer
Direct Answer: If your employer has closed or cannot say who insured them, the Employers' Liability Tracing Office database can help identify the insurer that covered the relevant period.
This matters most for disease claims caused by exposure years ago, where the employer may no longer exist. Solicitors also search company records and can restore a dissolved company to the register where needed to pursue an insurer.
When the Employer Is Insolvent
Under the Third Parties (Rights against Insurers) Act 2010, if the employer is insolvent, a person with a claim can pursue the employer's insurer directly in the circumstances the Act sets out, without first having to obtain judgment against the insolvent company. This can preserve a claim that would otherwise be worthless.
Frequently Asked Questions
What if my employer never had insurance?
What if my employer has gone bust?
How do I find out who insured my old employer?
Are all employers required to have insurance?
Do I have to prove my employer was negligent?
Can I make a workplace injury claim on a no win no fee basis?
You May Also Be Interested In
Employers' Liability
Workplace injury claims and your rights
Read moreIndustrial Disease
Claims for work-related illness
Read moreAccident at Work Claims
What to do and how to claim after a workplace accident
Read moreAgency & Self-Employed Workers
Who is liable when you are not a direct employee
Read moreWhat Is No Win No Fee?
How CFAs work in England and Wales
Read moreMore guides on this topic
Work-Related Stress Claims
A work stress claim needs a recognised psychiatric illness, not just unhappiness, caused by your employer's breach of duty.
Read moreConstruction Accident Claims
Construction site accidents can involve several responsible parties: your employer, the principal contractor, the client or another trade.
Read moreManual Handling Injury Claims
Employers must avoid hazardous manual handling where reasonably practicable, and where it is unavoidable, assess the risk and reduce it.
Read moreNeedlestick Injury Claims
A needlestick or sharps injury at work can support a claim if your employer failed to provide safer sharps, training or safe disposal, and you were…
Read moreFaulty Equipment Accident at Work Claims
If defective or unsafe work equipment injures you, you can claim against your employer even where the fault lay with the manufacturer, because the…
Read moreWhere this applies: This page covers England and Wales. The rules in Scotland and Northern Ireland are different.
Sources for this page
Every rule stated above is based on the primary sources below. Each link goes to the legislation, court rule or regulator itself so you can check it. Last verified 18 September 2026.
- Courts and Legal Services Act 1990, s.58 (conditional fee agreements)
The provision that makes CFAs lawful and enforceable. CFAs derive from this section, not from LASPO.
- Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013, arts. 4–5 · in force from 1 April 2013
Art. 4 caps the success fee at 100% of base costs. Art. 5 caps what may be taken from damages in personal injury at 25% of PSLA plus past pecuniary loss, net of CRU, at first instance.
- Civil Procedure Rules, Part 44 (incl. rr.44.13–44.17, QOCS)
Qualified one-way costs shifting and its exceptions. Rule 44.14 was amended with effect from 6 April 2023.
- Limitation Act 1980, s.11 (personal injury actions)
Three years from the date of the accident or the date of knowledge. Property damage such as a damaged vehicle is a separate claim with a longer six-year period under s.2.
- Limitation Act 1980, s.14 (date of knowledge)
The three-year period can run from the 'date of knowledge': when you first knew the injury was significant and attributable to the act or omission alleged to be negligent. Central in delayed-diagnosis cases.
- Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969
Most employers must hold employers' liability insurance covering injury or disease to employees, so that a successful claimant can be paid.
- Employers' Liability Tracing Office
Industry database that can help trace a former employer's employers' liability insurer, including for old disease claims.
- Third Parties (Rights against Insurers) Act 2010
Allows an injured person to claim directly against an insolvent defendant's insurer in defined circumstances.
- Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013, s.69 (civil liability for breach of health and safety duties)
For accidents from 1 October 2013, breach of a health and safety regulation does not by itself give a civil claim unless the regulation says so. A workplace injury claim must generally prove negligence, using the regulations as evidence of the standard of care.
Who wrote and checked this page
- Written and published by
- Edward & Amaury Solicitors (Edward & Amaury Ltd, company no. 12195443), regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under no. 800525.
- Legal review
- Checked for England & Wales by Edward & Amaury Solicitors — Solicitors regulated by the SRA (no. 800525) (verify on the regulator’s register).Review is recorded against the firm. The individual reviewer is not named on this page.
- Review dates
- Last reviewed 18 September 2026. Next review due 18 March 2027.
Fee rules change. California’s medical malpractice fee limits changed on 1 January 2023, and the QOCS rules in England and Wales changed on 6 April 2023. If you spot something out of date, tell us — we publish corrections.