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We don’t expect to sustain a personal injury when we are out in a supermarket doing our weekly (or daily for some) shop. The good news is that you are well protected if you do sustain injury that was not your fault in a supermarket. Basically the Occupiers Liability Act applies and this Act (or law) ensures that the supermarket in question owes you a duty of care when you are in the store doing your shopping. Indeed unlawful visitors are also owed a duty of care. However the level of care owed to lawful visitors is naturally greater than the level of care owed to unlawful visitors (known as trespassers).

To be an occupier the supermarket need not even own the store, it merely needs to have occupational control of it. Therefore the term occupier is quite wide in its definition. The level of care required is set out in Section 2 (2) of the Occupiers Liability Act 1957. This reads as follows:
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The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 were brought in to assess risks and take action to ensure the health and safety of the users of floors.

How Employers should prevent slips and trips!

Employers should assess the risk of slips and trips in the workplace to protect both the employees and other users of the floor. Every employer should make arrangements relative to their size and organisation to review the preventative and protective measures which could be taken to avoid risks. Employers should ensure that their employees are provided with such health surveillance which is appropriate, which has regard to any risks which have been identified from their assessment.
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We have dealt with many claims for victims who have sustained injury following a slipping accident. It goes to prove that wet floors are dangerous and can lead to accidents and injuries. Most commonly these accidents occur in supermarkets, shops, or at work. Basically when you are out shopping in a supermarket or shop, you are on premises owned and occupied by others. This comes under the term “Occupiers Liability“. The occupier of premises (i.e. the supermarket or shop) owes a duty of care to those entering the shop. Indeed there is even a duty owed to unlawful visitors (known as trespassers). The duty owed to trespassers is less than the duty owed to lawful visitors (i.e. customers to the store).

When there is a spillage in a store it should be cleaned up as soon as possible. Until it is cleaned up a wet floor sign should be erected to warn of the danger. Even if a wet floor sign was present, this does not mean that you cannot claim. There are other things to consider, such as whether the wet floor sign was clearly visible to you. You may often see a member of staff stood close to the wet floor to highlight and warn of the danger.
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Wet floors can be incredibly dangerous especially if they are a material such as marble or laminate as the shiny surface can make it far more dangerous when the floor is wet. There are two main categories where you may be looking to claim for an accident caused by a wet floor; in a public place or at work. I shall address the two separately as, although they have similar principles at heart, they can be very different when claiming.

Accidents in a public place

Claims run under something called the Occupiers’ Liability Act; under this legislation the occupier of premises owes a duty to those using the premises to ensure they are safe.

For example; the owner of a shopping centre is responsible to ensure the place is not dangerous for people to use!
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Accidents in supermarkets happen more often than you think. With accidents happening on a regular basis, with wet floors and spillages being the biggest cause of accidents, we take on a lot of these types of cases. You may be eligible to claim for compensation if you have an accident that wasn’t your fault whilst out shopping.

Supermarket accidents are commonly caused by:

• Spillages
• Falling shelves or products
• Tripping hazards in aisles

Supermarkets owe a duty of care to their customers under the Occupiers Liability Act 1957. This duty of care is to ensure that all reasonable steps are taken to make sure that the supermarket is safe for customers to visit. Compensation will be available if it can be seen that your injury is attributable to the supermarkets negligence and / or lack of care.
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Accidents can commonly happen in supermarkets, with customers slipping, tripping or falling because of the negligence of the supermarket.

Accidents commonly occur in supermarkets because:

• Wet floors and spillages
• Blocked aisles by cages or crates of stock
• Goods falling from supermarket shelves
• Defective shelves
• Defective supermarket trolleys

Under the Occupiers Liability Act 1957, a Supermarket owes a duty to each customer, ensuring that they take all reasonable steps to keep customers safe whilst shopping.  A supermarket needs to ensure that the premises are kept in a reasonable condition; clean and safe.
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It’s common for people to feel a little anxious about starting a claim for personal injury compensation for many reasons. The common ones when it comes to slips, trips, and falls in a supermarket that people often raise are:

• Is it right to claim for a “stereotypical” fall in a supermarket? I don’t want to be seen as part of the “claims culture!”
• What if I lose – will I get stung with huge lawyer’s fees?
• If I win how much of my compensation will I see if my lawyer takes a huge part of it?
• Is it even worth the hassle?
• Will I win against a giant corporation? The little guy never wins in these battles!

Well luckily for you, our unique way of working here at The Injury Lawyers mean that we can address and resolve all of the above common concerns. Here’s how:
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The last thing we all want to happen when we go shopping is to end up leaving the shopping centre on a stretcher because you’ve had an unfortunate slip. However, in big shopping centre’s it is inevitable that there are several food outlets which sell fast food and all it takes is for one child to unfortunately drop their “meal” on the floor and for you to walk there afterwards for the worse to happen. That, or general liquid spillages.

If this scenario seems all too familiar, you may be entitled to claim for your injuries which also entitle you to recover any consequential losses such as loss of earnings, travel expenses and care and assistance from friends and family.

To improve your chances of the claim being successful and the case being resolved as quickly as possible, there are certain things that you can do and these are:
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April saw the biggest shakeup in the personal injury claiming world when the government in their absolute and infinite wisdom decided to attack access to justice by making certain things unrecoverable from the other side. The result is that most other law firms are now charging clients a huge percentage of their compensation if the claim succeeds.

In addition to this, most slip and trip accident claims that occur on or after 31^st July 2013 will be pursued under a new protocol which is similar to the one used for road accident claims. This new protocol is designed for speed and efficiency for claiming, but the government have fixed the fees at such a low rate that it again hampers the quality of legal services that other law firms can offer unless charges are made to clients.

So we are now in a situation where the innocent victims who have been injured through no fault of their own, but through the negligence of someone else, are having to pay to make a claim! The whole idea behind claiming is to put the victim back in a pre-accident position; losing money doesn’t do that.
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Most of us use stairs several times a day without even realising what we are doing; so when we suddenly find ourselves tumbling head first down them because we just put one foot in front of the other and didn’t see the step was broken it can be a bit of a shock! It can also be extremely painful – especially if the stairs are made out of materials such as concrete, metal or wood. So are you able to make a claim for falling on loose steps? The answer is probably yes.

Commonly these types of accidents come under something called The Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 unless it happened at work. The “Occupier” under this legislation is often thought to be the person who has sufficient degree of control over the premises who should realise that if something is not right, may result in somebody being injured. Therefore, the defendant in these cases is usually the person that is entrusted with the responsibility for maintaining the building and the steps.
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