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It sounds like something from a slapstick comedy sketch; but it’s normally no laughing matter if you are the victim of falling through an open trapdoor. The injuries can be serious if the height of the drop is considerable.

So if you have been the unfortunate victim of falling through a trapdoor, are you entitled to claim for personal injury compensation?

As a member of the public

As a member of the public, whoever is responsible for the trapdoor has the duty to ensure that no one is hurt as a result of it. The common law that applies here is the Occupiers Liability Act which imposes a duty on property owners to take all reasonable steps to ensure visitors are not injured.
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Slipping and falling to the ground in any location can be a proper embarrassment; but slipping in a toilet is often seen as the ultimate, embarrassing slip situation to be involved in.

Given that toilet floors are, for want of a better phrase, usually wet from water and other substances, slipping accidents are more common than you think…

So what are your rights when it comes to making a slip injury compensation claim if you have injured yourself in a public toilet?
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As the cold snap in the UK marks the end of what was a summer of some seriously scorching weather, potholes will no doubt be on the rise in the coming weeks and months as water slips in to cracks in the surface, freezes, expands, and breaks open the ground. And with the rise in potholes comes the rise in tripping and falling accidents.

So what are your rights when it comes to making a claim for personal injury compensation if you trip in a pothole that was specifically on a car park?
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For those of you that like to maintain a healthy lifestyle, jogging or running is a great way to achieve this. When you walk around you are not expected to look at the floor to watch out for hazards on the ground, and when you are jogging or running you are probably concentrating even less on the ground.

So what happens if you trip and fall or stumble because of a pothole or a raised paving stone, or some other defect on the ground? Can you still make a claim for personal injury even if you were jogging or running at the time?
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As a firm of lawyers who only represent victims for accident claims, we take on a significant amount of claims for personal injury compensation involving drain and manhole covers. It’s fairly obvious to see why – many covers don’t appear to be of sound constructions, and many are driven over day in and day out by vehicles.

It’s common for covers to become tripping hazards when they either come loose and protrude, or sink down and cause a lip. To the unsuspecting walker, tripping and landing hard on the ground can cause some serious injuries.
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If you are fortunate enough to avoid falling down a flight of steps to the point of breaking something, it’s still highly likely you will end up with some form of pain or injury by slipping on stairs. Back pain is very common for two main reasons – the first is that you may slip and fall backwards and hit your back on the steps; the other is that the force of the slip may cause a whiplash type injury by jarring your back.

Your Rights

You do not need to have broken anything or have been seriously injured to make a claim for personal injury compensation from slipping on steps. So don’t think that you are unable to claim because you are still in one piece! That being said, a back injury can be very painful and can lost a considerable period of time; so you may well be entitled to make a claim.
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Commonly a claim for personal injury for tripping will either be pursued against an employer if it was at work, against an occupier if it was in a public place like a shop, or the council if it was on public grounds. The difference between who is potentially at fault actually has a significant impact on how good your claim is; so to make things easy, I’ll split this article up for you in to three sections for each of the above.

Tripping Accident at Work

There are all sorts of rules and regulations that employers are duty bound to adhere to. The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 have a specific section for this as follows:
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If you have tripped on a wobbly paving slab on a public street then it is likely that we could make a claim under the Highways Act 1980. An alternative is tripping on a wobbly tile or slab that forms as part of a private property, which would then normally fall under the Occupiers Liability Act 1957 if the property was not your workplace. This blog post will discuss the law, liability and negligence by those whom have breached their duty on a public highway and fall under the Highways Act.

Who is to blame?

Those to blame for wobbly paving slabs could include the relevant public authority, the highways agency, or perhaps another company who has been outsourced the highway maintenance contract. If you have tripped on a wobbly paving slab and reported it to the wrong authority, then those who you have reported it to should inform you it is owned by someone else. For example, if you have fallen on a wobbly paving slab whilst walking home and report it to your local council, they may say that the highways agency have authority over that area so you should report it to them.
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When fridges and freezers leak in a supermarket the residue can cause people to slip on the smooth floors. If you have slipped in a supermarket, the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 places a duty upon the supermarkets, as occupiers, to not cause you harm.

What duty does the supermarket owe?

The supermarket owes the common duty of care to anyone who enters the premises unless they restrict this. This means that the customer who enters the store will be reasonably safe to do the shopping. In addition to this, supermarkets must be aware that children are likely to be less careful than adults.
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Slipping accidents are very common in everyday life. We come across slipping accidents in supermarkets/shops as well as slipping accidents in the workplace all the time. If you have slipped and sustained injury and it was not your fault, you may well be entitled to claim compensation.

This type of accident would come under something known as occupier’s liability (if it happened in a supermarket or shop for example). Basically the occupier of premises is under a duty to keep the premises reasonably safe and to keep people on the premises safe and free from harm. Under occupier’s liability, there is a different level of care depending if the person on the premises is legally there (i.e. a visitor to a supermarket) or if the person is there illegally (i.e. is a trespasser). It is surprising for many but trespassers (that is someone on the premises illegally) are still owed a duty of care. Trespassers may be able to claim if they sustain injury on the premises. However most people will of course be legal visitors, such as when you enter a supermarket or shop to browse or to buy shopping.
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