If you have suffered an injury due to a fall, trip or slip in a public place in the last 3 years you may be entitled to compensation.

Accidents which involve falls, slips and trips are often thought of as trivial, many people do not realise that if you have a nasty fall it could have a serious impact on your life.

Many people who fall, slip or trip in public places do in fact suffer serious injuries such as broken bones and in some cases actually have adverse consequences for life.

Every public and private organisation owes a duty of care to the public ensuring that premises are safe for visitors. Local authorities are responsible for the pavements and public highways and must ensure that they are in a safe condition for public use.

The following are just a few examples of injuries and accidents that happen much too often due to a lack of care by public and private organisations alike.

• Injuries to motorists, motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians caused by poorly maintained roads.
  
  
• Council tenants and private tenants suffering injury or ill health due to badly maintained premises or inadequate repair work.
  
  
• Injuries to children whilst in playgrounds, sports centres and swimming baths.
  
  
• Injuries caused by slipping on wet floors, spillages in hospitals, schools, supermarkets and other public places.
  
  
• Defective pavements and kerbs causing injury to the elderly.
  
  
• Slipping on Ice

Trips and Falls Due to defective pavements
It is true that local authorities are working hard to ensure our safety on the streets, it is however, a sad fact that thousands of people each year are injured due to trips and falls on unsafe paving surfaces.

Injuries range from mild bruising to broken bones (this is very common with the elderly). In some circumstances it is possible to make a public liability claim for compensation against the local authority for trips and falls due to dangerous pavement surfaces, there is of course general legal criteria that applies in these circumstances, this is where Ormrods can assist in helping you to make your claim for compensation.

A major factor tends to be that the surface tripped over must be raised or indented by more than one inch. A secondary factor exists in determining liability against the responsible party (i.e. the local authority).

Local authorities must keep maintenance records on all public highways and where defects are reported, they must be repaired.

This all may sound very daunting, but it is in fact a straightforward process which Ormrods carry out on a daily basis.