Wet Floor Hazard Injury Lawyers Advice

Wet floors can be incredibly dangerous especially if they are a material such as marble or laminate as the shiny surface can make it far more dangerous when the floor is wet. There are two main categories where you may be looking to claim for an accident caused by a wet floor; in a public place or at work. I shall address the two separately as, although they have similar principles at heart, they can be very different when claiming.

Accidents in a public place

Claims run under something called the Occupiers’ Liability Act; under this legislation the occupier of premises owes a duty to those using the premises to ensure they are safe.

For example; the owner of a shopping centre is responsible to ensure the place is not dangerous for people to use!
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Free Advice on Claiming for an Accident in a Supermarket

Accidents in supermarkets happen more often than you think. With accidents happening on a regular basis, with wet floors and spillages being the biggest cause of accidents, we take on a lot of these types of cases. You may be eligible to claim for compensation if you have an accident that wasn’t your fault whilst out shopping.

Supermarket accidents are commonly caused by:

• Spillages
• Falling shelves or products
• Tripping hazards in aisles

Supermarkets owe a duty of care to their customers under the Occupiers Liability Act 1957. This duty of care is to ensure that all reasonable steps are taken to make sure that the supermarket is safe for customers to visit. Compensation will be available if it can be seen that your injury is attributable to the supermarkets negligence and / or lack of care.
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Occupier’s Liability – Checking for Hazards in Supermarkets

Accidents can commonly happen in supermarkets, with customers slipping, tripping or falling because of the negligence of the supermarket.

Accidents commonly occur in supermarkets because:

• Wet floors and spillages
• Blocked aisles by cages or crates of stock
• Goods falling from supermarket shelves
• Defective shelves
• Defective supermarket trolleys

Under the Occupiers Liability Act 1957, a Supermarket owes a duty to each customer, ensuring that they take all reasonable steps to keep customers safe whilst shopping.  A supermarket needs to ensure that the premises are kept in a reasonable condition; clean and safe.
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Slipped, Tripped or Fallen in a Supermarket – Should I Claim?

It’s common for people to feel a little anxious about starting a claim for personal injury compensation for many reasons. The common ones when it comes to slips, trips, and falls in a supermarket that people often raise are:

• Is it right to claim for a “stereotypical” fall in a supermarket? I don’t want to be seen as part of the “claims culture!”
• What if I lose – will I get stung with huge lawyer’s fees?
• If I win how much of my compensation will I see if my lawyer takes a huge part of it?
• Is it even worth the hassle?
• Will I win against a giant corporation? The little guy never wins in these battles!

Well luckily for you, our unique way of working here at The Injury Lawyers mean that we can address and resolve all of the above common concerns. Here’s how:
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Slipped in a Shopping Centre Claims

The last thing we all want to happen when we go shopping is to end up leaving the shopping centre on a stretcher because you’ve had an unfortunate slip. However, in big shopping centre’s it is inevitable that there are several food outlets which sell fast food and all it takes is for one child to unfortunately drop their “meal” on the floor and for you to walk there afterwards for the worse to happen. That, or general liquid spillages.

If this scenario seems all too familiar, you may be entitled to claim for your injuries which also entitle you to recover any consequential losses such as loss of earnings, travel expenses and care and assistance from friends and family.

To improve your chances of the claim being successful and the case being resolved as quickly as possible, there are certain things that you can do and these are:
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100% Compensation for Slips and Trips!

April saw the biggest shakeup in the personal injury claiming world when the government in their absolute and infinite wisdom decided to attack access to justice by making certain things unrecoverable from the other side. The result is that most other law firms are now charging clients a huge percentage of their compensation if the claim succeeds.

In addition to this, most slip and trip accident claims that occur on or after 31^st July 2013 will be pursued under a new protocol which is similar to the one used for road accident claims. This new protocol is designed for speed and efficiency for claiming, but the government have fixed the fees at such a low rate that it again hampers the quality of legal services that other law firms can offer unless charges are made to clients.

So we are now in a situation where the innocent victims who have been injured through no fault of their own, but through the negligence of someone else, are having to pay to make a claim! The whole idea behind claiming is to put the victim back in a pre-accident position; losing money doesn’t do that.
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Can you claim for falling on loose steps?

Most of us use stairs several times a day without even realising what we are doing; so when we suddenly find ourselves tumbling head first down them because we just put one foot in front of the other and didn’t see the step was broken it can be a bit of a shock! It can also be extremely painful – especially if the stairs are made out of materials such as concrete, metal or wood. So are you able to make a claim for falling on loose steps? The answer is probably yes.

Commonly these types of accidents come under something called The Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 unless it happened at work. The “Occupier” under this legislation is often thought to be the person who has sufficient degree of control over the premises who should realise that if something is not right, may result in somebody being injured. Therefore, the defendant in these cases is usually the person that is entrusted with the responsibility for maintaining the building and the steps.
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Tripped or Fallen on Dangerous Steps some Injury Lawyers Advice

We take on a lot of compensation claims for people who have tripped and fallen on steps. To be fair, they are pretty dangerous. So when can you make a claim for personal injury compensation as a result of a trip on some steps?

There has to be something wrong with the steps for you to be able to make a claim. There has to be negligence and someone has to be liable. To coin a common phrase, where there is blame, there may be a claim.

So here are a couple of examples where you may be able to make a personal injury compensation claim for tripping on dangerous steps.

Broken Steps

If steps are broken and you trip or fall as a result, whoever is responsible for the maintenance of the steps may be liable to compensate you. Whether they are liable or not could come down to what kind of notice they had about the damage, or whether they have a reasonable system of inspection and maintenance to stop a hazard arising.
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Slipped on a Grape in Supermarket Compensation Claims

Every time I see one of these claims come in to the office, the first things that runs through my head is how common and classic these types of accidents are. General supermarket slipping accidents are of course common in general, but for some reason, grapes seem to be one of the biggest culprits of supermarket slipping accidents.

Perhaps it’s because they can easily end up falling out of a bag or out of a box, and their size is probably fairly difficult to spot on the floor. But despite its small size, they can be a horrendous slipping hazard when stepped on. You might not have thought it, but as I’ve said, we take on a lot of grape slipping claims.

The injuries can be fairly severe. Aside from the obvious broken bones from landing hard on a supermarket floor, you could easily stretch and rupture ligaments and tendons in areas like your back, ankles, or knees, which in the worst case scenarios can leave you needing surgical intervention. All because of just a grape!
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Loose Carpet Slip or Trip Compensation Claims Advice

One bit of loose carpet can be a serious issue if someone trips on it or slips because it isn’t gripping the floor. Tripping or slipping can be bad enough if you fall down to the floor fast and hard, but what about carpets on stairs? You take a fall down a flight of stairs and you can end up with serious injuries.

So is there a law or a duty when it comes to loose carpets? It depends on where it happens, but given its likely it will be in a place of work or in a public place, here is the info you need to know:

Loose Carpet at Work

Regulation 12 (2) (a) states:

The floor, or surface of the traffic route, shall have no hole or slope, or be uneven or slippery so as, in each case, to expose any person to a risk to his health or safety.
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