100% Compensation for Supermarket Claims!
Co-Ops are regularly found in most cities, towns and villages with the majority from what I’ve seen being the smaller local shops as opposed to the superstores. But just because you’re a smaller shop doesn’t mean you don’t have as big of a responsibility when it comes to health and safety for visitors!
Irrelevant of the size of the shop, there is an important duty of care you can expect to be upheld by the staff at your local Co-Op – so what happens if you have an accident?
How was it caused?
A lot of whether you can claim or not comes down to what actually caused the accident and injuries in the first place. Most common ones that people will make a claim for personal injury compensation for involve slips on spillages or general surface water, trips on defects or hazards in walkways, or being hit by falling objects.
If any of the above has happened to you, you may be able to make a claim. A lot of it depends on whether any steps have been taken by the Co-Op to prevent such an accident for occurring.
What steps can they take?
The law that applies is called the Occupiers Liability Act, and it generally puts a duty on the Co-Op and its staff to take all reasonable steps to prevent an accident occurring. Reasonable steps could be:
- Signs or cordons to warn / block off a spillage
- Regular systems of inspection and maintenance to spot and rectify hazards
- Training for staff to look out for hazards in general and take care not to create a hazard
We can normally only find out if they have reasonable steps by actually pursuing a claim against them – so we probably can’t tell you how good your claim might be unless we actually pursue it! If we can prove they have failed to take all reasonable steps, you may be able to make a successful claim for compensation against them.
How can I prove my claim?
Its more about them proving that they have taken all reasonable steps; but you can do yourself some massive favours by making sure to report the accident and making a claim as soon as possible to secure CCTV evidence that may prove your claim. You never know – they may have a reasonable system of inspection but CCTV footage may show that the hazard that caused your accident was missed, or perhaps caused by a member of staff – making the inspection system argument flawed.
Most footage is only kept for a few weeks so don’t let it slip away!
Will it cost me if I win or lose?
If you claim with other lawyers, then there may potentially be charges. Most will want 25% from your payout if the case wins because of legal reforms from last year that changed the way lawyers can recover fees – but here at The Injury Lawyers we can still offer 100% compensation agreements and a No Win, No Fee service for most types of claims.