Supermarkets are busy places – it’s easy to see this as store assistants are constantly restocking shelves with stock cages and pallets. As Christmas draws closer and closer, the stores are only going to get busier and busier. That means more people, and potentially more pallets!
So, what happens if you are shopping along and you trip and fall due to a pallet on the ground? Can you make a claim for personal injury compensation against the supermarket?
Your Rights
Under the Occupiers Liability Act, a supermarket must take all reasonable steps to ensure you are not injured on their premises. Leaving a pallet in a walkway where it can easily be a dangerous tripping hazard would be failing in that duty.
There should be procedures in place to ensure that staff do not leave pallets lying on the ground. Don’t get me wrong – if the pallets are full of stock and as such not a tripping hazard, it’s probably not an issue. But an empty pallet on the floor which is raised only inches off the ground is hard to see. So staff shouldn’t be leaving them out unguarded.
If there are policies in place and a staff member has failed to adhere to them, you can still make a claim for compensation. The negligence of an employee falls on the employer as vicarious liability.
So:
The Process
For accidents that occurred on or after 31st July 2013, the process is dead simple:
- We submit a Claim Notification Form directly to the supermarket or their insurers via an online portal.
- They have 40 business days to accept liability – hopefully they will!
- We send you to see a medical expert who will provide us with a report that we will use to value your claim.
What are you waiting for? Get started now!
Call us now for free and friendly advice on 0800 634 75 75 and we can explain in more detail how things work, or we can take the claim on there and then, get it submitted straight away, and the ball is rolling!
