Every time I see one of these claims come in to the office, the first things that runs through my head is how common and classic these types of accidents are. General supermarket slipping accidents are of course common in general, but for some reason, grapes seem to be one of the biggest culprits of supermarket slipping accidents.
Perhaps it’s because they can easily end up falling out of a bag or out of a box, and their size is probably fairly difficult to spot on the floor. But despite its small size, they can be a horrendous slipping hazard when stepped on. You might not have thought it, but as I’ve said, we take on a lot of grape slipping claims.
The injuries can be fairly severe. Aside from the obvious broken bones from landing hard on a supermarket floor, you could easily stretch and rupture ligaments and tendons in areas like your back, ankles, or knees, which in the worst case scenarios can leave you needing surgical intervention. All because of just a grape!
So what can you do if you slip in a supermarket because of a merciless grape? Are you entitled to make a claim for personal injury compensation?
The applicable law is the Occupiers Liability Act – this puts a duty on the occupier of a premises, i.e. the supermarket company, to take all reasonable steps to make sure that all traffic routes inside the store are safe to sue by visitors. So if you slip, are they in breach of this duty and can you make a claim as a result?
Normally to succeed with a claim, we must prove breach of duty – i.e. we must prove that the supermarket company has breached the Occupiers Liability Act. But the key part in these claims is that phrase “reasonable steps” – so what is classed as reasonable steps?
Commonly a regime of inspection and maintenance will be used by the supermarket to check all aisles and areas of the store on a frequent basis and clear away any hazards like grapes on the floor. If they have a system of inspection and maintenance and they have upheld it, they can defend the claim very easily on the basis that they have “taken all reasonable steps.”
So whether you have a claim or not generally comes down to whether the supermarket has upheld a system of inspection and maintenance. Sadly for you, if they have, it doesn’t matter how injured you are, they can defend the claim.
This makes these types of cases quite risky to take on. We can normally assist on a No Win, No Fee basis, but the following helps:
- If you reported the accident and completed an accident report form
- If you have had medical attention.
- You make the claim ASAP as we might be able to get CCTV evidence which could prove whether a system has genuinely been upheld. Normally footage is destroyed after a few short weeks so this is important!
Give us a call on 0800 634 75 75 to get a claim started today.
