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If you have sustained an injury at work, such as by tripping over boxes, you may be entitled to recover compensation. Many employees are reluctant to pursue a claim against their employer for fear of losing their job or fear that it will make life at work more difficult. This is certainly understandable and ultimately it is always your choice whether or not you would like to make a claim. It is your right to claim if you have sustained injury at work and it was not your fault. Whether or not you exercise that right is a decision only you can make.

Trips at work can happen anytime, whether it is tripping over bags on the floor, boxes or cables etc. Most working environments have some kind of equipment that could potentially cause a tripping hazard. There should be procedures in place to keep employees reasonably safe and free from harm. Bags and boxes should not be left in areas where they pose a tripping hazard. These kinds of hazards can often be avoided by adopting simple but effective measures such as keeping bags under desks. Not all trips will lead to injuries and it may just be a case of embarrassment. However if you have sustained injury, you may be eligible to make a work injury claim for compensation.
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Clearly if a roof collapses and people are beneath the roof, it is highly likely that people will be injured or quite possibly killed. The potential result of such an accident is devastating. A roof could collapse because it has not been adequately checked or maintained. A roof could also collapse due to some other cause such as an explosion or not being constructed properly.

If a roof collapses at work then you may have a claim against your employer. Basically your employer is under a duty to keep you safe and free from harm. There is a requirement to maintain the workplace and keep it safe. Such requirements are all a measure of degree. Clearly if a roof collapses because it is hit by an aeroplane, there is probably not a great deal that an employer could do about it and they are unlikely to be at fault. Such an occurrence would not be foreseeable.

The most common occurrence that could give rise to a personal injury claim would be a failure to adequately maintain a roof. Due to poor maintenance a roof could collapse and cause injury. In this scenario it is foreseeable as if the roof is not properly checked or maintained, it is likely to come into disrepair. Equally if a roof collapsed in a local shop, causing injury, a right of action would be against the owner of the shop in question.
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Here at The Injury Lawyers we deal with all types of personal injury claims. We deal with many workplace accident claims which are often referred to simply as accident at work claims. Such claims can include a wide range of accidents and injuries depending on the nature of the work in question. Although many procedures and health and safety measures should, and are often are in place, accidents at work remain one of the most common types of personal injury claims.

Serious accidents, diseases and dangerous occurrences must be reported in accordance with RIDDOR (which stands for the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations). Under RIDDOR an employer, the self-employed, or those in control of work premises must report any of the following:
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Occupier’s liability means that the occupiers of a premises are required to keep people safe whilst they are on the premises for which the occupier is responsible. Occupiers liability applies to lawful visitors and to trespassers although, rightly so, lawful visitors are given greater protection than unlawful trespassers.

The term occupier is quite wide and the Courts look at the degree of control over the premises. Occupier’s liability applies where people become injured in the supermarket, in shops, in garages, in petrol station forecourts etc. If for example you slip on oil in a petrol station forecourt then you may be entitled to claim compensation. This is because the occupier has failed in their duty to keep the premises reasonably safe and to protect people from injury. Presumably you are on the petrol station forecourt to fill up your car with petrol; clearly you are therefore a lawful visitor to the premises. Each case is viewed on its merits and the Court would look at whether anything was done to warn of the danger. In addition the Court would consider how long the oil had been left on the floor, were staff aware that oil was on the floor etc?
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If you fall over and sustain injury on someone else’s property or in public, then you may be entitled to claim for compensation. Courts look at each case on its own merit and although drink can be a factor, it does not necessarily mean that you will not be able to make a claim if you fall over whilst intoxicated.

First of all we would consider what caused you to fall. Did you fall due to a defect in the pavement? If so you may have a claim for compensation, even if you had been drinking before or at the time of the accident. There is no strict rule saying that people under the influence of alcohol cannot make a compensation claim. Some people may be very drunk which causes them to fall over for no apparent reason. Other people may have had one or two drinks and trip on a defective pavement or pothole. Clearly there is a big difference here. Just because you have had a drink, it does not mean that you cannot claim.
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In personal injury claims, you can claim General Damages which is money or compensation for the injury that you sustained. Further to this, you can also claim for Special Damages which covers any expenses or losses that you have incurred as a result of the accident.
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It cannot be surprising to learn that many personal injury claims are brought as a result of Road Traffic Accidents (RTA’s), especially when you think how many cars there are on the roads and how congested our traffic is nowadays. Due to the fact that there are so many claims brought about as the result of RTA’s it is necessary to have proper measures in place to deal with them in the right way when it comes to people making claims for personal injury compensation.

This is where the “Pre-Action Protocol for Low Value Personal Injury Claims in Road Traffic Accidents” comes in – but what is this?

Protocols and procedures are all very legalistic ways of saying that there are rules in place that say how something should be done. The Protocol sets out time-frames and deadlines for certain steps of the claim to be completed which apply to both Claimant’s and Defendant’s.
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Many people up and down the UK work in offices and many underestimate how easy it is to be injured in an office environment.

By far the most common injuries faced by those working in offices are slips, trips and manual handling injuries; in fact according to Health and Safety Executive statistics for the year 2011/2012 up to 2,000,000 working days were lost to these injuries (source). While not all of these will have been in offices it is easy to see how they might occur in your office workspace.

Trailing wires from printers or computers, a bag or a coat that hasn’t been hung up or put away under a desk, amongst many other things in an office could all be tripping hazards. At the same time corridors between offices and communal areas that have tiled floors that collect water and liquids create a real risk of slipping hazards.
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With so many personal injury firms to choose from it can be difficult to know who you can trust with your claim. Most of us would want the same thing when it comes to a personal injury claim – to get the maximum amount of compensation as quickly and as hassle free as possible. We would also expect professionalism, legal expertise, legal experience, regular updates etc.

Here at The Injury Lawyers we strive to give the best possible service to you, our clients. We have a motto that client’s are the lifeblood of our organisation. Without client’s the firm would not be operational as a business. The best way to obtain work is to do a good job and then people will not think twice about using The Injury Lawyers again. In addition, it gives us a great deal of satisfaction if clients refer our services to friends and family. We strive to do everything possible to bring your claim to a successful and swift conclusion. Just take a look at our Client Testimonials.

Of course personal injury claims do take time and at the outset no Solicitor can tell you with any great certainty how long your claim is likely to take. This is because all Solicitors work under the same rules and protocols. Insurers have set time frames in which to respond by, and in running a claim, we deal with outside agencies such as GP practices, hospitals, medical experts etc. A lot of a Solicitors job can be chasing matters, such as chasing a liability decision from an insurer. Ultimately if an insurer or third party is delaying the progress of a claim, action can be taken. We can seek the assistance of the Court in order to move the case along.
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Here at The Injury Lawyers we deal with many claims whereby people have sustained injury as a result of slipping on a wet floor. This most commonly occurs on premises such as supermarkets, shops, restaurants, bars, and clubs, as examples. You could slip on a wet floor whilst at work or whilst out doing your shopping. A wet floor is a hazard and whoever is responsible for the land or premises in question (the occupier) may be negligent and have to pay compensation to injured victims.

When floors are cleaned such as in a supermarket or shop, a wet floor sign should be deployed and displayed prominently. Displaying a clearly visible wet floor sign could be enough for the supermarket or shop to escape liability if someone slips and sustains injury.

If a wet floor sign is not erected and a person slips, sustaining injury, then it will be very difficult for the occupier to escape liability. A wet floor sign should always be erected after floor cleaning to warn people of the danger.
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