Personal Injury - Insurance policy?

koppite79

Hello

Not sure if this is the right place for his, but it seemed closest so here goes.

I am considering making a personal injury claim against a hotel as I had an accident there and I think they are negligent.

Basically what happened was I was at a wedding reception party and I slipped on the dance floor (whilst throwing some shapes) and cut my hand and face.
The reason I slipped was because someone had dropped a pint glass on the dancefloor and it hadn't been cleaned up - I slipped in the beer and landed in the glass.
I believe the hotel was negligent in 1) allowing glasses/drinks to be taken on to the dncefloor in the first place, 2)not taken adequate timely action to clean up the glass, 3)not having any staff checking to make sure this area was safe..

I have contacted a no win no fee solicitor called JMW, so I was just hoping for some advice from others as I have very little knowledge of this sort of thing personally I don't want to be sucked in to something.

I am slightly concerned that having gone through the paperwork authorizing them to work on my behalf, there is a section regarding taking an insurance policy out in the event that I lose. They admit here they have a financial incentive to get me to do this, and that the insurers they suggest may not be the cheapest or best. There is no mention of the cost of this policy either (it's with Allianz insurance?).

Any thoughts would be hugely appreciated (although high horse trolls please do me a favour and give it a rest)

Cheers
K

dacouch

Koppite do you have house insurance, if so you may have taken Legal Protection Cover that will pay legal expenses in this case (JMW should have told you about this and asked you to check). Alternatively if you are a member of a union they may well offer similar cover.

UK tyler slips and trips on licenced premises are slightly different as they are expected to take into account the fact their customers are likely to be inebriated and there to be spilled drinks / broken glasses etc. To avoid the claim they will normally have to demonstrate they have a proper system in place for collecting glasses, checking for spillages / breakages and dealing with them. The proof of this is not just saying they have someone who collects glasses when they get time. They would normally have to have a checklist they sign off each time they do a round and any action they took on spilled glasses etc (A bit like the checklist in a Mcdonalds toilet).

Without the documentry proof it is very very difficult to defend a slip / trip on a dance floor.

The part koppite has posted is basically taken from what his solicitor has told him / written to the hotel as being why they are at fault. The solicitor will write to the hotel and ask for the them to provide a copy of their Heath and Safety Policy / Risk Assesement and documentry evidence as to how they were preventing slips and trips in the dance floor area.

This is quite a common claim for nightclubs and places with dance floors, they will almost certainly learn after this claim the importance of documenting their processes to collect glasses and clear spillages / breakages.

I've had licenced premises that were getting three of these claims a year, some of the claims were from people who had not even been there but had broken a bone and realised how easy it is to claim. As soon as they bring in proper systems that are documented the claims stop as they can demonstrate that they had taken "Reasonable steps to prevent this type of claim". Basically if you can prove you have taken all reasonable steps to clear spillages etc and have it documented the customers normally cannot claim against you as its an unavoidable accident

koppite79

Thanks both for input, question raised and counter arguement equally.

Something to think about.

dacouch

Like I said check with your Home Insurers to see if you have legal cover and any union you belong to (Your solicitors should have advised you to check this at the start) as they may well cover the legal costs for you