Making a Personal Injury Claim After a Slip, Trip or Fall
Accidents can happen just about anywhere. If you have had a slip, trip or fall and it wasn’t your fault you may be able to claim compensation if negligence on the part of another person or organisation was to blame.
There are plenty of examples in modern life where an accident has been caused by someone not putting the right processes in place.
You may be happily walking along a road and trip over a loose paving or twist your ankle in a pot hole. The local council may be at fault because they have neither drawn people’s attention to the hazard or have failed to fix it in a timely fashion. If your accident causes you to have time off work, for example, or require treatment, you may be able to claim for the costs you incur including loss of income.
Another example might be a construction worker operating at heights. They trip and fall because their company hasn’t carried out a proper risk assessment and made sure there is a protective barrier to prevent them from having an accident.
Environmental factors such as a spillage might be the cause of an accident. It could be an office where floors become slippery during a rainy day and there is not enough effort to protect areas and clean up wet locations. Trips can be caused by uneven ground or things left in the way that people are likely to miss and fall over.
All businesses have a legal obligation to ensure that their property is safe to use and that there are no hazards in place that could cause an accident.
All these might seem like minor everyday occurrences but if you suffer a personal injury and require medical treatment, physiotherapy, time off work or worse, it’s usually no laughing matter. The guidance for keeping people safe in the workplace is pretty comprehensive and most employers understand what they need to do.
Quite often, slips and falls can happen when we have icy conditions. Again, most businesses have a duty of care to ensure that they take action to avoid accidents. If you are working in a yard that has become slippery due to a cold snap, your employer has an obligation to do something about it, either by issuing warnings or putting down something like grit to make footfall more certain. Car parks and other entrance ways can be areas where slips and trips regularly occur in icy conditions but business can often ignore.
If you feel that you have had an accident due to negligence by a third party, you may be able to claim compensation. The first thing you need to do is discuss your case with a qualified legal professional to see where you stand.
At Forster Dean, we operate a no win no fee service which means you can come and talk to us and get some good advice without being charged. We only get paid if we take on your case and win compensation for you. Contact us today to find out how our professional team can help you today.