Have you recently had a slip or a trip in a shop or your local supermarket? Whether it was food, liquid, or loose packaging that caused your accident, you may be able to claim for compensation under the Occupiers Liability Act 1984.
The Occupiers Liability Act 1980 states that places like supermarkets must take all reasonable steps to prevent someone from being injured on their premises. Although accidents in shops are very common when it comes to personal injury, the Occupiers Liability Act also covers other places of interest such as theme parks, cinemas and restaurants. So basically it applies to anywhere people are likely to visit in their spare time.
Staff and employees must always ensure that their premises are not likely to cause injury to customers and clients; whether this means cleaning up food or drink spillage, picking up loose packaging such as plastic and cardboard, or ensuring that no boxes or pallets on the floor are likely to trip people up. Employee negligence affects the employer which is known as vicarious liability. So, if you think that your accident could have been prevented by the staff of the premises, and that further measures should have been taken to avoid this, then you may be able to claim.
If your accident happened on or after the 31st of July 2013, then the process in which you can claim is very simple and straightforward. The Pre-Action Protocol for Employers’ Liability (EL) and Public Liability (PL) (which will normally incude Occupiers Liability Act cases) came into force on this date. If your claim is valued between £1,000 and £25,000 (like most straightforward personal injury claims), then your claim would follow the rules set out in this Protocol.
For your claim to progress through the Pre-Action Protocol, the first thing that would need to be done is to fill out a Claims Notification Form. You can easily provide the information of your accident and injury details online. This form is then submitted electronically online to the supermarket, or whoever their insurers are, through an online portal. If we can’t do it that way, we post it to the Defendant by first class post.
Once this has been received, the supermarket or place in question then has 40 working days to accept liability for your accident. As soon as we are given your instruction to act on your behalf, we can send you to a private medical expert who will then assess your injuries and provide us with a medical report that will be used as evidence to support your claim – so you don’t have to wait around for the other side to admit fault before getting the important medical evidence sorted out.
If you would like more information about how this works, then give us a call today on 0800 634 75 75 and we can give you free, no obligation advice and maybe help you claim the compensation that you deserve.
