Personal Injury Claim

destiny391

Hoping to get some advice.. Not sure if this is the right forum but fingers crossed!

Last night I went to my local Morrisons. All of a sudden I slipped and fell over. Turns out there was a grape on the floor which caused me to fall.

There were no staff around but other customers quickly went to look for a manager who came over to speak to me. The manager filled out an accident report. They cleaned up the wet spot straight away. The staff offered me a chair and were very apologetic. Once the form was completed, the manager asked me if they could offer me a coffee/tea which I turned down. My knee was hurting then which I told the manager about.

Once I walked away from the manager, the lady who saw me fall came over and said I should take this further. She gave me her name and number and said she's more than happy to give a statement if need be.

After discussing it with a few people, I've now spoken to a personal injury claim company who seems to think I have a claim (I know, they all say that right?).

I feel a bit guilty though.. It's not the supermarkets fault.. But as someone said, they have insurance for this.

Does anyone have any experience about a claim like this?

Hintza

So you weren't looking where you were going?

I would also suggest that the grape could not have been there very long (heavy footfall) and therefore it would be difficult to prove negligence on the part of the supermarket.

Forwandert

Supermarkets usually have signed off hourly floor walks to ensure the aisles are free from anything that can cause slips, trips and falls. (It also provides due diligence again this type of claim).

destiny391

That's my point, I didn't even think it through..

But I haven't signed anything so I am not yet claiming.

InsideInsurance

destiny391 wrote: »

I feel a bit guilty though.. It's not the supermarkets fault.. But as someone said, they have insurance for this.

Does anyone have any experience about a claim like this?

The supermarket wont use their insurance for this type of minor injury, wouldnt be host effective for them as they inevitably get thousands of attempts of such claims a year.

Who you think ultimately pays for it anyway, insurance or not?

destiny391

InsideInsurance wrote: »

The supermarket wont use their insurance for this type of minor injury, wouldnt be host effective for them as they inevitably get thousands of attempts of such claims a year.

Who you think ultimately pays for it anyway, insurance or not?

I have no experience or knowledge about this that's why I came here. I'm going to the doctors this evening and I'll decide after that what to do.

I was looking for advice or personal experiences. I.e is it worth the trouble of claiming?

lazer

Give it a few weeks and see if your knee is better, if the injury lasts less than 2 weeks and doesn't really inconvenience you - I would not claim.


If the injury is giving trouble for a longer length of time, consider claiming.

mufi

destiny391 wrote: »

I have no experience or knowledge about this that's why I came here. I'm going to the doctors this evening and I'll decide after that what to do.

I was looking for advice or personal experiences. I.e is it worth the trouble of claiming?

Firstly, you have no idea of the eventual outcome - you may be better tomorrow, you may still be hobbling around in 2050.


Supermarkets have to have a policy in place when it comes to clearing their aisles. The legal outlook on it is that you can't have people suing a shop for something that might have happened a few moments before someone hurt themselves, for example your dropped grape, because they can't do anything to stop something like that.

So it's possible to win a case with actual evidence, but you have to prove that their cleaning policy was poorly implemented.


You'll struggle to prove negligence and the injury is (hopefully) minor.


ETA: If the injury is as minor as it appears, and you use a no win no fee company, they'll take in the region of 25% of anything you get - you're going to be doing a lot of form-filling etc, medical examinations etc, for the sake of a few bob.

VictorCharlie

Hintza wrote: »

So you weren't looking where you were going?

Come on now, I don't know about anyone else but when I'm in a supermarket my main focus is looking at the shelves not scanning the floor for hazards.
And a single grape would be very easily missed even if you were looking.

Spicy_McHaggis

destiny391 wrote: »

I have no experience or knowledge about this that's why I came here. I'm going to the doctors this evening and I'll decide after that what to do.

I was looking for advice or personal experiences. I.e is it worth the trouble of claiming?

No wonder people struggle to get appointments.

unholyangel

VictorCharlie wrote: »

Come on now, I don't know about anyone else but when I'm in a supermarket my main focus is looking at the shelves not scanning the floor for hazards.
And a single grape would be very easily missed even if you were looking.

Hintza raised a good point albeit perhaps a bit more blunt than needed.

In these types of claim (trip/fall) the best case scenario is usually contributory negligence - where the claimants shoes/lack of care has contributed towards the causation.

in order to succeed in a personal injury claim, conditions need to be met. Those conditions are:
1) that a duty of care was owed
2) that duty was breached
3) that the breach caused the damage and
4) that the damage is not too remote.

While the first part is pretty much a given.....2 & 3 are your stumbling blocks.