Slip & Fall Accident Advice

State and Ter­ri­tory Pub­lic Lia­bil­ity laws pro­tect you if you are injured in a pub­lic place through no fault of your own. The owner, ten­ant or even Coun­cil has a duty of care to ensure that there is no breach of safety standards.

If you have suf­fered an injury as a result of another per­son or company’s neg­li­gence then you may be enti­tled to claim expenses and direct com­pen­sa­tion for the injury suf­fered. All the States and Ter­ri­to­ries have dif­fer­ent laws that apply to such mat­ters, but the end result is always the same: loss. Lost wages, lost time, and lost qual­ity of life. Don’t take these losses sit­ting down, if you have the right to com­pen­sa­tion and to get the help you are owed in get­ting your health and life back.

The most com­mon places where pub­lic acci­dents take place include:

• Super­mar­kets
• Shop­ping Centres
• Fit­ness Centres
• Coun­cil Property
• Restau­rants
• Schools
• Another Person’s Home

Shop­ping and Super­mar­ket Accidents

Shop­ping and super­mar­ket acci­dents can hap­pen in a num­ber of dif­fer­ent ways; the most com­mon acci­dents include slip­ping on a spill, trip­ping over an unseen object or being hit by an object or shop­ping trolley.

Super­mar­kets and shops stock their shelves with prod­ucts (such as drinks, oils, liq­uids, etc) and if liq­uids or other haz­ards are spilt onto the ground, they pose a dan­ger to cus­tomers. It is the respon­si­bil­ity of the owner, man­ager and their employ­ees to ensure that the shop floor is kept clean, tidy and safe at all times. They are required to under­take reg­u­lar inspec­tions of all isles to ensure they are clean and free of haz­ards and a fail­ure to do this will result in neg­li­gence on their behalf.

Slips, Trips & Falls

There are many dif­fer­ent ways and cir­cum­stances in which slips, trips and falls can take place, here are com­mon rea­sons for such accidents:

• Dan­ger­ous, cracked or bro­ken pave­ments and footpaths
• Wet floors, spilt liq­uids, etc
• Obstructed walk­ways or isles
• Cracked or bro­ken floor tiles
• Dan­ger­ous or mis­placed obstructions

What to Do After a Slip or Fall Injury

After you’ve been injured it’s crit­i­cal that you:

• Report That You’ve Been Injured to the Shop Owner / Man­ager, Coun­cil, etc: This report should be in writ­ing, prefer­ably in the company’s Acci­dent Book. That way there is a record that can be traced in the case of any ques­tions or prob­lems in the future. If pos­si­ble obtain a copy of the report.

• Seek Imme­di­ate Med­ical Assis­tance: You should imme­di­ately seek med­ical assis­tance for the injury suf­fered from either a physi­cian or in more seri­ous mat­ters attend­ing hos­pi­tal. Make sure that in addi­tion to keep­ing a copy of your eval­u­a­tion, you con­tinue to doc­u­ment any con­tin­ued med­ical treat­ment that you receive as well.

• Prove the Case: The best way to prove that an area is dan­ger­ous and a slip­ping or trip­ping haz­ard is by pro­vid­ing pho­to­graphic evi­dence and wit­nesses to the inci­dent. The inci­dent might well be on CCTV so a copy should be requested and tem or evi­dence you can sup­ply the bet­ter chances your claim has to succeed.

Seek Legal Advice

Deal­ing with insur­ance com­pa­nies, Super­mar­kets, Coun­cils and indi­vid­u­als seek­ing com­pen­sa­tion for your acci­dent injury can be dif­fi­cult and slow-going at times. Insur­ance com­pa­nies will often drag their feet and offer to pay only the small­est amounts of com­pen­sa­tion for your injuries if you don’t have legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion to help you.

Insur­ance com­pa­nies have lawyers on their side and so should you. If you’ve been injured and are suf­fer­ing then hir­ing a spe­cial­ist injury lawyer may be the best way for you to get the acci­dent com­pen­sa­tion that you deserve. An expe­ri­enced lawyer will be able to review your case, cal­cu­late what your total com­pen­sa­tion should aver­age out to be, and rep­re­sent you both in and out of court.

Get legal advice and rep­re­sen­ta­tion today at compensationinjury.com.au.