You’re walking around a supermarket or a shop when suddenly you are hit by shelving units that have fallen off the wall. The weight of the shelves, particularly if they are full of heavy items, can easily knock you to the ground and cause some fairly serious damage. So if this happens so you, what are your rights for making a claim for personal injury compensation?
Firstly, given the circumstances, we’d more than likely be able to investigate this for you on a No Win, No Fee basis and a 100% compensation basis as well. Shelving units should not just fall off walls, and we would argue that the Defendant has failed to take all reasonable steps to look after your health and wellbeing whilst visiting their premises. That’s their duty under the Occupiers Liability Act.
Let’s look at a few more examples:
At Work
At work, there is a similar duty under The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. The duty is similar to that of the Occupiers Liability Act – reasonable steps need to be taken to ensure you are not injured in your place of work. In this kind of situation you may have a valid claim through your employer’s liability insurance.
If a colleague has overstocked the shelves beyond their weight limit, or if you had been asked to do this, you may also have a valid claim for compensation in this scenario.
Rented Premises
In this kind of situation, you may have a claim against your landlord or the agency that is responsible for maintenance. It would depend though on how the shelving fell down. If it was in disrepair, or had been poorly erected (not by you) then you may have a valid claim for compensation. Normally with claims in rented premises, the duty is about reasonable knowledge; i.e. could the landlord have reasonably expected to know that the shelving was prone to injuring someone. Claims in this kind of situation could be hard to win.
