Slips and trips on a broken piece of wall or a fixture / fitting – Advice from The Injury Lawyers

The Occupiers Liability Act is an important piece of health and safety legislation that puts a duty on those who are in control of a premises to take all reasonable steps to avoid visitors being injured. So keeping the place maintained is an important thing to do – allowing a place to fall in to disrepair and become a hazard would leave the owners of such a place liable to compensate any injured victims.

Some examples of slips and trips caused like this could be:

• From a piece of concrete or wall or roof coming off and causing a trip of slip hazard due to poor maintenance.
• Slip on a broken piece or section of fallen off tiling – these specifically can be very slippery.
• Injury caused by a piece of defective chair or table or other fixture that has broken off through ill repair.

So what happens if you are the victim of such an accident? Can you make a claim for personal injury compensation?

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Slipped on Loose Ground, Paving Slabs, Cobblestones or Broken Concrete

When injured in the street, most people are the victim of a trip or fall accident caused by defective paving or potholes. But slipping accidents can be equally as dangerous, caused by the same sorts of defects.

You could slip on the edge of a pothole, or slip on broken and crumbled concrete around a defect. A loose paving slab or cobble stone could move and cause you to slip.

The law is generally the same; as long as the defect was the cause of the injury, you may have a valid slip, tip or fall injury claim for compensation. In fact, slipping accidents can sometimes be worse if you twist your knee or your back. You could easily cause serious ligament damage even if you don’t end up falling to the ground.
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Contributory Negligence Explained

Have you been injured in an accident and the defendant’s insurer has accused you of contributory negligence? As if your accident and injuries weren’t painful and difficult enough to come to terms with, someone accusing you of being partly liable for your accident and injuries can understandably be devastating.

What is classed as contributory negligence?

This is quite common in road traffic accidents, and can be things like; not wearing a seatbelt, helmet or protective leathers. In other situations such as work accidents or public or occupiers liability, this can include things like; not following instructions, signs or training given. So, for example, if you use any machinery labelled out of order, or drive down a road that is signposted as closed then unfortunately, you may be liable for contributory negligence.
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Slipped on Ice at Work Injury Claims

If you have been injured due to a slipping accident at work, you may be entitled to claim compensation. At face value, slipping on ice is rather different to slipping on a spillage at work, whether the spillage is water, tea, coffee or something else. Whilst at work and on works premises, your employer has a duty to keep you reasonably safe and free from harm. This means that if a spillage does occur it should be cleaned up as soon as practicable. Until the spillage is cleaned employees should be protected in other ways – i.e. there should be a warning sign in place to warn of the hazard (wet floor).
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Contributory Negligence Deductions for Failing to wear a Helmet

We deal with various types of personal injury claims including road traffic accident claims. We deal with claims on behalf of injured motorcyclists or cyclists. If, as a motorcyclist or cyclist, you were injured in an accident that was not your fault, then you may be entitled to claim compensation. You can still make a claim though even if you were not wearing a helmet. Obviously you should have been wearing a helmet and this will be taken into account, but a failure to wear a helmet (or other protective clothing/equipment for that matter) will not stop you from making a claim and being successful in recovering compensation.
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No Win No Fee 100% Compensation

Firstly I would like to address the difference between 100% compensation and 100% No Win No Fee as unfortunately at the moment, a lot of firms are using the latter when they don’t actually offer the former. Confused? I’m not surprised!

100% No Win No Fee probably means that, should you lose the case, there will be no fees (as it says on the tin!) – but this doesn’t necessarily mean that you will receive 100% compensation should the claim be successful. 100% compensation on the other hand means that should the case be successful you would receive 100% of the settlement – a subtle difference on paper but a potentially a big difference in reality.
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Physiotherapy Offer of Treatment from the Third Party

If you need treatment for the injuries you are suffering from, you are entitled to ask the other side to pay for private treatment such physiotherapy. There are often long waiting times with the NHS so you’re well within your rights to arrange for the other side to pay for treatment.

Sometimes the other side will instantly offer it to you – mainly in the case of road accidents the insurers will try and sort it out fairly quickly after the accident. So should you take it? How do you know that an offer of treatment with a third party insurer is going to be within your best interests?
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Do I Keep 100% of My Compensation?

April 2013 – a dark time for the personal injury claiming world as the government in their infinite wisdom decided to stop lawyers being able to recover all legal fees from the other side. For years most victims of negligence were able to keep all 100% of their payout because all legal fees could be recovered from the opponent.

That’s fair, right? Why should the victim lose out on what is rightfully theirs?

But the world isn’t always fair, and the result of these changes has dawned a new age of personal injury claiming.
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How long after an RTA (road traffic accident) can you make a personal injury claim in the UK?

In law, there are limitation periods that apply which mean a person can only bring a claim within a particular period of time. The length of that timeframe is normally dependant on where the accident happened, the circumstances, and the age of the person at the time of the accident.

For a road accident that happened in England and Wales, you normally have three years from the date of the accident to bring a claim. This means you must either settle the claim or issue court proceedings within the three year period. Failure to do so may mean you are statute barred from claiming. This normally means you will face difficulties making a claim as your opponent can raise a defence under the Limitation Act 1980.
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Wobbly Steps and Wobbly Paving Slabs – Injury Lawyers Advice

A bit of a niche area of law this one – can you make a claim for compensation if you fall because of loose and wobbly steps or paving slabs? Falling at the hands of a wobbly surface is fairly easy to do – no one expects the ground to suddenly move beneath them; unless you’re in a fun house…

There are two common types of claims where this could occur. Let’s look at them both:

In the Street / Public Grounds – Highways Act

If you fall due to a wobbly step or paving slab whilst out and about on public land, in the high street for example, the claim will typically be pursued against the authority who has responsibility for the area. This will normally be the local highways authority or the local council.
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