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!
This is often why you find big heavy duty floor mats at the front doors as that is the shopping centre’s way of taking “reasonable steps” to ensure the floor is kept as dry as possible. Reasonable steps are what is required under the act from the defendant and usually whether they have done this comes down to things such as providing mats but also that they have a reasonable inspection regime in place. This is often something like the cleaners patrolling a certain area at certain times to clean up any spillages, mop up rain water etc. This is often what you see on the back of toilet doors where someone has signed saying they have “inspected”. If the defendant can provide documentation to show that this is the case; they may be able to defend your claim successfully.
These can be difficult cases as if the “inspecting” party has documented that they inspected the area of your accident 5 minutes previously and there was nothing there -is it really reasonable for them to be expected to have seen it and taken the appropriate action? Surely that would require somebody stood at every bit of floor, every minute of the day. Therefore it is important that you try and gather as much information at the time of your accident as possible such as photographs, witness details and accident report forms.
Accidents at work
These can be easier than the above- simply because your employer is under a heavier duty to ensure your safety at work and therefore in many cases there can be a stronger liability on them. This means that there does not have to have been “fault” just something has to have happened. Therefore, if you are at work and you slip on something you may have a better claim- unlike if the exact same happened in a shopping centre you may find it more difficult.
In both of these circumstances, once the letter of claim is sent to the defendant they will have (if your accident occurred prior to 31/7/13) 21 days to acknowledge your claim and 3 months to investigate and respond with their position on liability. If your accident happened after the 31/7/13 the defendant will have 30 business days to respond with their position on liability. This is because of new changes in the law that came in on 31/07/2013.
So if you’ve had an accident either in a public place or at work, contact us today to discuss making your claim. We can get things moving for you straight away if you wish and for certain claims you keep 100% of your compensation!
