Accident at work

parkside_stroller

I fell while working at beginning of September 2010 injuring my back, hip and leg and I am in constant pain. I have not responded to 5 weeks of physio and I have to go for an MRI scan to confirm what the health care professionals think is wrong and then probably for surgery. I was not in a building owned by my employer but I was in the foyer of the building I was visiting on business.
The building was a local authority owned high rise flat - I came out of the elevator, walking at normal speed and fell suddenly.
There were no obvious signs from a standing position that the floor was slippy but I could see a thin film of something on the floor as I was lying on it.
I phoned the concierge - he said they don't have an accident book for visitors but they do have one for their own staff - he said he would take a note of my call and he examined CCTV. On CCTV he said he could see me examining the floor and looking at the notice board but he said the camera didn't cover the area I slipped on. He said that someone had urinated on the floor and his colleague had mopped the floor.
There were no wet floor warning signs out and as I said before, I would not have known the floor was slippy beforehand as it was not visibly wet - I suspect they put too much detergent in the water and this left it slippy.
I filled in my employer's accident form.
I am lucky enough to be paid full pay for 6 months but I will go to half pay if I am off after this.
I have been unable to attend my usual pre-paid activities - gym membership and football season ticket.
So I have some financial loss but it's not running into thousands of pounds - yet!!

Problems is I don't know where this is going - I could potentially have long term health issues, I will probably need surgery, I could end up on half pay and my contract is up in June 2011 so I don't know if I will even have a job. I could need further surgery in future.
I've also been stuck indoors recently because I can't get about in the snow and ice.

I have never taken legal action for compensation before but I am considering it - does anyone have any thoughts on how to proceed or experiences they could share with me to help me decide how to approach this. I see these adverts on TV for compensation solicitors but I don't know if that is the way to approach it. When I asked in September, my professional organisation took the view that as I had not lost anything significant financially they would not help at that point - this could change in the future I suppose.

Any help much appreciated.

steve1980

Where there's blame, there's a claim. Although it won't be straight forward as you have already highlighted the fact that they saw you looking at a sign.

You would need photographic evidence to show that there was no sign on the floor to indicate that it could be wet as the security guards are not going to say that you are correct as they would lose their own jobs.

Has your doctor said that you will have to have surgery?

parkside_stroller

Just to clarify Steve - I was looking at a noticeboard for a phone number to report the accident, not looking at a sign. There were no signs of any kind to indicate that the floor had been wet. I have photographic evidence.
I have been told I will probably need surgery - when I attended orthopaedic outpatients recently. I have to get an MRI scan first to confirm the diagnosis.
Thanks for your help

hcb42

I would think we would need the long term prognosis from the doctor, rather than speculate on what might happen...the injuries could still clear up while you are in your six month full pay, and if so then that mitigates your loss