Have you ever been involved in an accident at your local supermarket and the accident was not your fault? Depending on the circumstances of the incident, you might be eligible to make a claim against a supermarket for compensation. This is because the supermarkets have a duty of care to abide to when dealing with members of the pubic on their premises; if they do not abide by these rules and regulations and an accident occurs, then they are negligent and liable to compensate the victim. You should not have to suffer at the hands of someone else’s mistakes, especially in places open to the public; which is the reason the legislation exists – to ensure accidents don’t happen as a result of their negligence.
Big retail stores should always have a complaints procedure in place; they should also have an accident book and first aiders on hand. If you have been involved in an accident, always report the incident; that way, should you wish to pursue a claim for compensation, there will be records to rely on. If the store doesn’t have the necessary requirements to record the accident details, you should try and record exactly what happened and also note the steps that the staff members took in order to help you, and also record anything that you felt was missing or which contributed to cause your accident.
If you attended hospital, you medical records will also be of valuable use. If you did not attend hospital or visit your doctors then it is strongly advised that you do so as soon as you can. In order to value your claim for compensation, we will send you to a specialist medical agency to assess your injuries. It is always useful for the expert we send you for your appointment to have medical records to rely upon when they formulate their report. So visiting your doctor, or having some kind of medical treatment after an accident, is strongly advised.
Also try to keep receipts for anything you might have paid out for as a result of your accident; that way it is easier for you to recover your expenses back through you claim for compensation. You can also reclaim any loss of earnings or for any care you might have needed or you family may have needed in the time you were injured – you can even claim if it was a family member who took care of you and the assistance provided was unpaid.
If you do wish to go ahead in making a claim, perhaps it may be worth your while in following the complaints procedure also. This again provides further evidence to support your claim as the store at fault will have records of the accident.
It will be very worthwhile for you to research the best personal injury firm for you. Who are going to achieve the best results for you and take your claim to a successful conclusion? My advice would be to look for an independent firm of solicitors; that way you will know that the company have not bought your claim, which sadly happens an awful lot these days. If a firm does buy your claim they will have paid something called a referral fee which is usually a very high expense as it is often a bit of a competition between a panel of solicitors to offer the highest bid for your claim.
This means that in some instances you have already lost money, as that fee may well be paid from your settlement. Another issue is that a firm paying for your claim often falls short on the service as they have less resources to spend on your claim. It’s always best to try and avoid such firms; you will often find these kinds of firms work with insurance companies, and the whole thing is quite a sham really! And is very unfair to you of course. Not only will independent firms focus on recovering the highest amount of compensation for you, but you will also be able to build a relationship with your solicitor and you will be able to obtain updates on a more regular basis.
