Slips, Trips and Falls Claims

Trips, slips and falls can happen to anyone, but  when they come about as a result of someone else’s negligence, there may be a need to take action.

Trips, slips and falls can lead to serious injuries and have a significant impact on your life. From sprains and fractures, to head injuries and long-term pain, a fall as a result of someone else’s negligence can be a distressing experience.

If you’ve tripped or fallen due to a hazard in a public or private place in England or Wales, it’s vital to know your rights before looking at how to make a trip, slip or fall claim.

Common causes of trips, slips and falls include:

Wet or slippery floors

Often from spills, cleaning or bad weather, without adequate signs to warn users of potential dangers.

Uneven surfaces

Potholes, cracked paving, loose floorboards, and damaged stairs are all potential accident hotspots.

Obstacles or clutter

Items left in walkways, trailing cables or poorly placed displays can quickly become trip hazards and mean someone has fallen short in their duty of care.

Poor lighting

An area that is poorly lit can make it difficult for users to see hazards clearly.

These incidents can happen anywhere, from your workplace to public places like shopping centres, supermarkets, public footpaths, leisure facilities, restaurants and even private homes if you’re visiting them.

Steps to take after a trip, slip or fall

What you do immediately following a trip, slip or fall accident can impact any potential claim, so do try and follow these steps to give yourself the best chance of obtaining the necessary evidence to support any claim you might make.

Seek immediate medical attention

Your health is paramount, so any accident needs medical attention. Get checked by a medical professional, whether it’s a workplace first-aider, your GP or A&E if your injuries are serious enough.

Don’t forget, some injuries, such as head trauma or soft tissue damage, may not present themselves immediately and symptoms may occur in the coming days. Ensure all injuries are recorded in your medical notes. These medical reports are vital to support any claim you go on to make. Ensure to keep similar records for any later but related medical visits.

Report the accident

Inform the property owner, Council, manager or  employer about the incident as soon as possible. Ask for the accident to be formally recorded in their accident book and get a copy of the report, or at least note down when and to whom you reported it.

Document evidence

If you can safely do so, take photographs or videos of the exact scene of the accident or ask someone else to do that for you. Be sure to capture the hazard that caused your accident from all angles, as well as the wider area for context. Also note the date, time and weather conditions. For tripping hazards, it is always helpful to take photographs showing the dimensions/height of the protrusion or drop.

Gather witness information

If anyone saw your fall, ask for their name and contact details. Their testimony could be crucial evidence in any trip, slip or fall claim.

Keep records

Keep hold of all documents relating to the accident and the subsequent injuries, including medical reports, prescriptions, receipts for any expenses (such as travel to appointments, medication, loss of earnings) and any correspondence relating to the incident.

How to make a trip, slip or fall claim

Making a successful trip, slip or fall claim relies on being able to prove that the property owner or occupier was negligent in their duty of care. This means that you will need to demonstrate:

Unsafe conditions

That there was a hazard on the property or public space that caused your fall.

Duty of care

That the person or organisation responsible for the property owed you a duty of care to keep you safe. This is usually implied for visitors, customers and employees.

Breach of duty

That they failed in that duty. This could mean proving that they were aware of a hazard but failed to fix it in a timely manner, or that they should have known about it but didn’t carry out necessary inspections properly. It can also relate to their failure to adequately warn users about a hazard with signage.

Causation

Finally, you will need to be able to demonstrate that this breach of duty directly caused your accident and injury.

You’re only likely to succeed with a claim if you can demonstrate all of the above and legal advice will be needed to help guide you through that process The process typically involves gathering robust evidence, notifying the responsible party and their insurers and then, if liability is admitted by the other party, entering into a negotiation period. The majority of trip, slip and fall claims are settled out of court.

Critically, as with other personal injury claims in England and Wales, there is a three-year time limit from the date of the accident in which to make a claim. For this reason, it’s always best to seek legal advice at the earliest opportunity to help establish if you have grounds for a claim and to help in procuring as much evidence as possible from the outset. A professional can also guide you through each step with expert legal advice.

How Ellisons can help

Recovering from an injury means that making a trip, slip or fall accident claim is often the last thing on your mind. However, the financial and longer term impact of such accidents can be significant. The dedicated personal injury team at Ellisons has extensive experience in these types of cases and a proven track record in obtaining compensation. If you’ve been injured at work, we can also advise and support you on how to make a workplace injury claim.

Expert legal guidance

We understand the finer details of highways, occupiers’ liability and health and safety law, enabling us to accurately assess the strength of your case.

Evidence collection

We can support you in gathering all of the necessary evidence, from obtaining official reports, photographs and any CCTV footage to securing medical expert opinions on your injuries and their longer-term impact.

Handling complexities

Whether your accident occurred on public land, in a commercial premises, or at your workplace, we have the expertise to handle claims against various entities, from local councils to large corporations and on both public and private property.

Securing maximum compensation

Our primary focus is to ensure you receive the full and fair compensation you are entitled to, covering your pain and suffering, lost earnings (past and future), medical expenses, care costs and any other losses you’ve incurred as a result of an injury. We aim to help you access the support you need to recover and move forward and guide you through how to make a trip, slip or fall claim.

Make a personal injury claim

Injured in a trip, slip or fall accident? Contact us for help with your compensation claim.