Commonly a claim for personal injury for tripping will either be pursued against an employer if it was at work, against an occupier if it was in a public place like a shop, or the council if it was on public grounds. The difference between who is potentially at fault actually has a significant impact on how good your claim is; so to make things easy, I’ll split this article up for you in to three sections for each of the above.
Tripping Accident at Work
There are all sorts of rules and regulations that employers are duty bound to adhere to. The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 have a specific section for this as follows:
Every floor in a workplace and the surface of every traffic route in a workplace shall be of a construction such that the floor or surface of the traffic route is suitable for the purpose for which it is used.
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.
This important piece of legislation puts a duty on your employers to take all reasonable steps to ensure that there are no protrusions in the ground or affecting traffic routes that could expose an employee to a tripping hazard. When it comes to protrusions, commonly they are due to defects such as a tile becoming loose and raised, or a carpet strip curling up, or even a bolt or nail coming loose.
You’d expect that this is something that should be picked up on early and rectified by the employer. But if it isn’t, you may have a successful accident at work claim for personal injury compensation against them.
Tripping in a Public Place (Supermarket, restaurant, etc)
Under the Occupiers Liability Act, the person(s) in control of a premises have a duty to ensure that any members of the public who are entitled to visit their premises are not exposed to any danger. The law places a duty on the occupier to take “all reasonable steps” to ensure this.
Normally this comes down to inspection and maintenance regimes. There should be inspection and maintenance regimes to spot spillages and other materials accumulating on the floor and becoming a hazard, so a protrusion should really be something that is spotted and rectified as part of this. Whether you have a claim could come down to how long the protrusion has been a hazard for. If it’s something that has simply been left without anything being done about it, you may have a successful claim for compensation. But if a proven inspection regime is in place, it can be very hard to win a claim.
Highways Claims
These are by far the most difficult because Section 58 of the Highways Act 1980 allows the local authority a special defence to claims for personal injury compensation. Again, it involves this common term “taking all reasonable steps” which in the case of a highways authority makes it difficult. For example, a busy high street in the middle of a city centre may only be inspected once a month. This could be seen as reasonable. So if you trip on a protrusion in between their inspections, they can use their special defence.
But what if you trip on a residential area with relatively low levels of traffic? Well inspection regimes can be up to 12 months, so winning a claim can be extremely difficult in these circumstances. However, there are of course other occasions when a protrusion may arise and is nothing to do with a defect forming in between inspections. What about a worker cutting out a bollard or another piece of street furniture and failing to remove or make safe a piece of it still sticking out of the ground?
The best thing to do is call our free claims helpline on 0800 634 75 75 for help and advice today.
100% Compensation For You!
Unlike most other law firms, we still offer 100% compensation for work accidents, occupier’s accident, and highway claims. Most firms will deduct 25% from your payout due to recent legislation that stops lawyers recovering all fees from the other side.
For over law firms, the days of 100% compensation are over – but for us, we can still offer you a 100% compensation agreement meaning you can keep every single penny of what is rightfully yours!
