For most of us, it’s in our genes to love a good shop every now and then; women more so than men. On a busy Saturday afternoon, the last thing we want to happen is to be injured when we’re out shopping and supposedly having a good time. So when you are injured in an accident in a shop, can you make a claim for compensation?
Firstly, injuries from shop accident claims can often be fairly serious. Most shops have hard floors, so landing on them can easily result in breaking bones. Whether you have a claim or not all boils down to the circumstances and the important piece of legislation that you can claim under for these sorts of accidents – known as the Occupiers Liability Act.
This Act states that the occupier of a premises has a duty of care to anyone one visiting the premises. This duty of care means that they need to make sure you are safe when using the premises in which they are in control of. So if you are injured, making a successful claim is about proving that this duty of care has been breached.
I will be honest; it isn’t easy to make a successful claim because it isn’t easy to prove that the duty of care has been breached. To uphold the duty of care, a shop should take all reasonable steps to look after you. If for example you slip due to a spillage on the floor, or trip over a coat hanger or item of clothing that has fallen on the floor, whether you have a claim or not comes down to what kind of inspection regime the shop has, or whether they had any knowledge of the hazard. Let’s face facts: you can’t expect a shop to be at fault if a coat hanger falls on the floor and then seconds later you trip over it. How could the shop have prevented that in the absence of superman speed like powers!?
So if this happens to you, your claim hangs in the balance as to whether the shop has a reasonable system of inspection in place. If they do, and they can prove it, they can defend the claim on the basis that they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent an injury. You were simply unfortunate enough to injure yourself between inspection periods…
Most accidents are usually slips and trips. There are circumstances where in inspection regime may not allow for a defence to the claim. If an employee of shop left a box or an item on the floor and you trip over it, we can argue that the shop is liable due to the direct negligence of the employee’s actions. In this scenario you have a fairly strong case. Or if an employee knocks you over whilst pushing a trolley full of stock, the same is applied.
Winning your claim can come down to evidence. Although a shop may have what appears to be a great inspection regime, have they kept to it?
CCTV is often one of the most crucial pieces of evidence in a case like this. If we can secure the footage, we may be able to see how long the hazard has been there for. If it’s been there for a long time and the footage shows this, we may be able to win the claim on the basis that the shop hasn’t kept up with their inspection regimes.
CCTV is normally retained for less than a month, so you need to act immediately and instruct a lawyer fast to try and secure the footage. After all, it may save your claim!
