Fall on station platform can a lawyer help?

pinkshoes

As the train company weren't negligent, then there is no claim against the train company. Trains arriving at different platforms is quite a regular occurrence, especially at larger stations.

Unfortunately human nature and desperation to get a seat on a no doubt over-crowded train is what caused his fall. Those at the front of the platform suddenly are now at the back of the queue to get to the new platform.

If CCTV can prove that he fell due to a particular person pushing him over, then that's technically assault, but the odds of the person being found and police action taken is next to nothing.

Sorry he got hurt, but on this occasion it's best just to move on. 

eskbanker

One other point about the unannounced (or belatedly advised) platform alteration - I believe that real-time decisions about route-setting and platforming are actually the responsibility of signallers (employed by Network Rail) rather than train operators, so the latter is unlikely to have any liability for that change anyway....

Aylesbury_Duck

Crater said:

Before Christmas my husband fell on our station platform in a crowd rush to catch a train which had come in on the "wrong" platform (not the one normal or announced), several trains already cancelled or delayed. He was hurt and so couldn't travel. He is facing several weeks without proper use of his arm (dislocated shoulder, severe rotator cuff injury). Long story short, a No Win No Fee lawyer known to a friend, said that the case wasn't strong enough for them to take on (of course we requested the CCTV footage, and alas it wasn't working that day, apparently) but we might find a company that specialised in "slips and trips".  He can work (freelancer) but not his normal hours.

And the train company, which runs both the trains and the station, has not even refunded his ticket yet!  We seem to be blocked in all directions.

Any advice from experience? Is this just too fragile to get involved with, or is there some course we can take? AFAE, there seems to be nobody we can complain to about the train company, except the train company.

Thanks for any advice

This would appear to be where something like income protection insurance or personal accident cover would be applicable, if he has it.  As a freelancer, it would be a good idea because he won't have the protection of sickness cover than many employers provide. 

Like others, I don't see any basis for a claim against the rail company, for various reasons.  If he was part of the rushing crowd then it's self-inflicted, if he has evidence that someone in the crowd deliberately pushed him over, then that's another matter, but for which you'd need evidence to take it any further. 

Crater

Thank you to everyone who gave practical advice, which is what I was hoping for. I hope I made it clear that I knew this was an edge case - this isn’t something I know anything about, and all you can do in that situation is seek information and make enquiries. There is slightly more to the story, and I would have expected a station to have some kind of supervision with a situation like that building up, a narrow bridge and somewhat (but not very) uneven paving, but it doesn’t amount to much more. So we may have been saved spending extra time looking for answers, and been helped to avoid lawyers :-)

Eskbanker’s comment about the signallers controlling the trains is very important, as it does show that the station (train company employees) was probably taken as much by surprise as the rest of them. Eskbanker also cleared up the question about who was running the station. I didn’t know the background about National Rail, but many station web pages make it clear who is in charge of the station.

The law firm we spoke to mostly does medical negligence, is a completely genuine firm, and went through most of these points, making sure we looked to see if there was evidence. They suggested looking for a more specialist firm, but I think they were just letting us down gently :-)

We requested CCTV as he didn’t know why he fell, and were advised to try and find out if it was on an uneven area. I’m not sure we were expecting to get any footage, though, and friends to us that would be the case. And they were right!

A seat was definitely not on his mind. He just wanted to get on the train.

And thanks to people for your good wishes. It’s his left shoulder, so it could have been so much worse.