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45 Year Old Woman Compensated After Incident With Trolley Boy

Case Overview
  • Our client was injured by a trolley boy while shopping at her local shopping centre.
  • She contacted us at Gerard Malouf & Partners in search of compensation for her injuries.
  • We were able to achieve a significant fund for our client with little effort on her part.

Our client, a Blacktown woman, had been shopping at her local Blacktown Shopping Centre and was loading her car with purchases from her trolley. A trolley boy moved to take our client’s trolley from her whilst her purchases were still in the trolley. Our client asked the trolley boy to wait, however the trolley boy ignored her and grabbed the trolley, still holding our client’s purchases and pulled on the trolley, resulting in injury to our client’s arm. The pull also caused our client to fall, sustaining further injuries to her legs and back. Our client came to Gerard Malouf & Partners seeking compensation for her injuries sustained in the incident with the trolley boy.

Our Approach

The Supermarket chain acted to deny the claim completely and withheld documents. They denied the incident and the team set about efforts in identifying the trolley boy subject to the incident who had caused our client’s injuries. The Defendant believed there was fabrication on the part of our client as to the incident and the seriousness of what had occurred. 

The Plaintiff pressed a claim for aggravated and exemplary damages, due to the nature of the trolley boys’ actions.

The Result

Thanks to the hard work of our Public Liability experts David Cossalter and Christopher Michael the Defendant ultimately capitulated and paid our client significant funds at an informal settlement conference, with little compromise on her part.

David Cossalter

Managing Partner
Frequently Asked Questions

More Information

Public liability refers to the responsibilities owners or occupants of a public space have to protect anyone who enters. If the owners or occupants fall short of these responsibilities, resulting in an injury, a case for compensation can be made.

Some of the most common incidents covered by public liability law include:

  • The food or drink from a restaurant makes you sick: The most common example of this type of public liability is food poisoning, however improperly disclosed allergens could also lead to litigation.
  • A slip and fall accident caused by negligence: Slip and fall incidents are especially common in busy public places such as playgrounds, schools, shopping centres, common walkways in buildings and outdoor event venues. They can result from negligent behaviour if poorly lit, uneven, unmarked or slippery surfaces are involved, amongst other reasons.
  • Injury caused by poor workmanship: If a product used by a space fails mechanically and causes an injury, a public liability claim can often be made. Examples include exploding gas bottles, poorly constructed furnishings and inadequate building structures. These cases may also be eligible for product liability litigation, if you decide to pursue both the property owner and the product manufacturer.
  • An attack by an animal while in a space: If the owners or occupants of a space fail to keep an animal, whether domestic or wild, contained as a result of negligence, you may have a potential case.

 

Following an initial meeting, the first task will be to establish the general facts of the case. This will include your medical diagnosis, which will need to be confirmed and documented by a doctor; and proof that the person or company at fault owed you a duty of care, which will need to be demonstrated. Together, this will show that your injury occurred when they breached that duty of care.

From there a further investigation will proceed—contacting and interviewing witnesses, speaking with expert consultants, and more—all in order to bolster the strength of your case even further. Only once this process is complete, and your claim can be demonstrated and proven in full, will the process move on to the next step.

Public liability claims enable you to recoup the financial and emotional costs of suffering an injury due to someone else’s negligence. Defendants regularly offer monetary settlements to claimants, particularly if they acknowledge liability and believe they would lose in court.

But should you accept the settlement or proceed to the later stages of litigation instead, where a judge will have the final decision? Every case is different, but here are some of the factors you may wish to consider before making your choice:

  1. The size of the settlement
  2. The strength of your case
  3. Your patience levels
  4. Your lawyer’s advice

 

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About Us
Gerard Malouf & Partners have provided friendly, experienced legal advice to communities across Australia for over 35 years. Our Personal Injury Lawyers have taken on ten’s of thousands of cases and we are proud to have won billions of dollars for our clients.
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Meet the diverse and dynamic team of compensation lawyers and supporting staff that have made this all happen below. Our multi-lingual team can discuss your claims in Arabic, Assyrian, Turkish, Greek, Italian, French, Serbian, Croatian, Armenian, Mandarin, Hindi, Punjabi or Malayalam.
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Meet the diverse and dynamic team of compensation lawyers and supporting staff that have made this all happen below. Our multi-lingual team can discuss your claims in Arabic, Assyrian, Turkish, Greek, Italian, French, Serbian, Croatian, Armenian, Mandarin, Hindi, Punjabi or Malayalam.

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