You sit on a chair, and it breaks beneath you. It’s an awful scenario and it can end up in some fairly serious injuries if you fall as a result of the broken chair.
Our client in this case contacted us when he sat down on a chair at a seating area outside a high street cafe chain, and one of the legs unfortunately broke as his weight came down on to the seat. He fell down to the ground as a result and suffered multiple injuries to his body.
Thankfully he wasn’t seriously injured but the pain and suffering he went through was enough to warrant him bringing a claim. We were happy to accept his case and we offered him our unique and exclusive no win, no fee guarantee so he was able to relax in the knowledge that he wouldn’t be charged anything upfront, or charged if the case was lost.
We were successful in persuading the insurers to accept liability for the accident which in these kinds of cases isn’t always easy to do. The law that applies here is usually the Occupiers Liability Act, and it means that the café only had to take reasonable steps to prevent accidents from happening. Many places will adopt systems of inspection and maintenance and then dispute cases because they have taken what are seen to be reasonable steps.
Whilst you may think that it’s obvious because the chair has broken, you can only claim where you can prove negligence. The chair could have broken at any time – in fact, another customer may have broken it and not reported it just moments before our clients accident. It can be hard to know. That’s why the law only says they have to take reasonable steps like having systems of inspection and maintenance.
We instructed a specialist medical expert to provide a report for us to help us to show the extent and severity of our client’s loss and injuries, and after a negotiation period where we fought for as much as we could for him, he was happy to accept an award of more than £5,000 for his broken chair accident claim.
The case didn’t take long to settle either which is always a bonus. It can be on a case by case basis when it comes to the time length, but this was a good example of a fairly speedily resolved claim.
If you would like help from our specialist team just call 0800 634 7575.
