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If you go to a public place like a supermarket or a bar, restaurant, or a shop, the occupiers of the premises have an important duty under the Occupiers Liability Act to take all reasonable steps to look after your health and safety as a visitor to their premises. When it comes to slipping hazards, this is generally achieved by having a system of inspection and maintenance which aims to reduce the risk of someone slipping on a wet floor hazard.

Claims under the Occupiers Liability Act are inherently difficult to win because most places nowadays do uphold their duty to take all reasonable steps. As I said earlier, a system of inspection and maintenance can be classed as taking reasonable steps.
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I’m going to discuss the duty your employer has when it comes to working in an environment where a wet floor is common in the workplace.

Say you work in a car wash, or a water plant, or somewhere where the floor is likely to be wet. If this is the case, then can you claim for compensation for slippingon a wet floor at work?

After all, if the floor is wet because of the nature of the business, what can your employer do to prevent an accident occurring? For that answer, we turn to the relevant legislation…
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If you sustain injury due to falling, tripping etc over a defective or wobbly pavement, then you may be entitled to claim compensation. Ordinarily these claims would be against the local council if the accident occurred on a public footpath or road. However any potential claim could also be against a local shop for example if the accident occurred in front of a shop and that land is owned by the shop in question. Whoever owns the land (whether it be the council or a shop owner) owes you a duty of care. This is to ensure that you are safe whilst on their land.

To be successful with a claim of this type there must be some defect that has caused the injury. It is highly important that, should you wish to pursue a claim, you obtain photographs of the defect in question. This is of paramount importance should liability be disputed in the case. The depth and nature of the defect is likely to be extremely important in determining liability. Also note that the defect could be repaired at any stage meaning that you may lose the opportunity to obtain photographic evidence of the defect. Video footage showing the wobble of the pavement could also prove very useful to help show how dangerous it was.
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Contrary to popular belief, you are not automatically owed compensation if you have an accident in a supermarket. In fact, making a successful claim can be very hard indeed. That’s why we can step in and let you know what precautions you need to take that can increase your chances of making a claim.

The legal duty for the supermarket is to reasonably inspect and maintain their premises. This can be achieved with regular inspection to clear away slip or trip hazards on the ground, for example. Most supermarkets, at least on record, have good systems in place. So here is what you need to do to maximise your chances of making a successful injury claim.
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Today is a Friday – so most of the country (I imagine) is waiting for 5’o-clock to hit so they can escape the workplace and wind down after a week of working hard. Obviously we’re not – we’re open until 10pm tonight and 9am – 5pm over the weekend (and on the bank holiday) because we’re a little crazy and like to be as accessible as possible to our clients!

But the point I’m making is that the last thing anyone expects is to be going about their daily working business and suddenly slip over and injure themselves at work.
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We take on a lot of claims for people who have tripped up whilst out and about. It’s fairly common for people to ring us up and ask for our help because they have tripped over a raised drain or manhole. The injuries can be devastating – in the majority of occasions you land on a hard floor and end up fracturing something.

Because fractures are typically fairly serious, most people end up facing time off work and therefore lost earnings, a serious lack of mobility means you need lots of help around the house, and a stint of physiotherapy. It’s a serious enough situation to be in to warrant making a claim.

The big question is, as always – do you have a claim?
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This is a very common scenario! With the insane amount of potholes and defects that have been caused by the cold winter we have been through, I think it’s safe to say the highways authorities are facing huge amounts of work (and so maybe behind!) when it comes to rectifying defects on public ground. In this article, I’m going to focus on raised paving as oppose to pothole defects.

A raised section of the highway is a recognised defect. It can commonly occur when paving slabs become loose and rise up as part of the ground sinks down below it. Obviously a raised section of the paving is a dangerous tripping hazard. There is case law to support that you shouldn’t have to look at your feet all of the time when walking around, or you’d be liable to walk in to street furniture. So don’t be daft and think that it’s your fault because you should have been watching where you were walking!

Tripping on a raised section of paving can end up in serious injuries. If you’re lucky you might catch yourself and not fall over; but if you’re not, landing hard on concrete can easily lead to fractures and serious damage. The question is what can you do about it if you have been injured due to a raised section of paving? Can you claim compensation for your injuries and suffering?
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When you’re going about your everyday business, you rarely expect to end up on the floor after tripping over a hazard on the ground! But it does happen. For this article, I’m going to quickly discuss claims for compensation arising from tripping over an object on the ground.

If you go to a shop or a restaurant, or a pub or a club, or any place where you have free public access, there is somebody who is responsible for that premises. That person or company has a duty under the Occupiers Liability Act to make sure that the premises they are in charge or of safe for the public to use. This means that floors should be clear of any hazards.

Those in charge of a premises should have systems of inspection and maintenance to make sure that the floors are free from any objects that could pose a tripping hazard. Obviously in certain places like busy supermarkets, many an item of stock ends up on the ground after being knocked off by kids or falling out of a basket. So the purpose of having systems of inspection in place is for staff to clear away any potential hazards.
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Supermarkets can be like obstacle courses sometimes – what with cages, boxes and staff everywhere you turn! So what happens if one of these obstacles unfortunately causes you to have a nasty fall and consequently injure yourself? The answer – you are entitled to claim for compensation!

I am not going to pretend that these are the easiest cases we deal with here at The Injury Lawyers, as that simply would not be true. These cases come under something called the Occupier’s liability Act which means that the occupier of any premises has to ensure that the area is safe for lawful visitors. Leaving boxes hanging around in the aisles certainly does not appear to adhere to this principle.
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Although we use stairs all the time and they are in nearly every property, be it your home, at work, your local store or restaurant, unfortunately they can sometimes be the cause of some pretty nasty accidents and injuries! Accidents on stairs can happen for a number of reasons and therefore in this blog I will address 3 of the main types of accidents that we deal with every day involving stairs:

1. Defective stairs
2. Slips and Trips on indoor staircases
3. Slips and Trips on outdoor staircases

1. Defective stairs

The manufacturer or fitter of any stairs has an obligation to ensure that the stairs are free from defects and fitted properly to minimise the risk of any injury to their users. For example: the stairs should not have any protruding fixtures such as nails, they shouldn’t be all bumpy and uneven and they certainly shouldn’t wobble when people walk on them (this latter one mainly applies to metal and wooden staircases not concrete that stuff is pretty sturdy!). Another defect that may not be noticeable straight away is if the step has been created to be too high! Statistically if a step is just 1 inch of the common measurement more people are more likely to fall. If you have an accident because one of the above is present it is likely that you may be able to claim against either the manufacturer, company that have fitted the stairs in the property or even possibly your landlord.
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