This case involved a woman who slipped on water spillage at a grocery store, falling heaving onto her side. She sustained injury to her right hip, right elbow and right wrist. There was no signage warning of the slippery floor and no attempt made to eliminate the hazard prior to her accident.
This woman contacted Gerard Malouf & Partners and was put into the care of one of our Accredited Specialists and Senior Associates, Jayne O’Sullivan.
Jayne and her team got straight to work by organising for the area to be inspected by one of our highly experienced health and safety experts. Our expert found that the flooring was not in line with standards and was a material that has a very high contribution to being slippery when wet. There were multiple precautionary measures that could have been taken by the store to identify the hazard or eliminate it altogether. It was our expert’s opinion that the Defendant had failed their duty of care under work health & safety legislation. This failure to provide safe access throughout the store, led to our client suffering significant injury.
Jayne’s team arranged for our client to be assessed by an orthopaedic surgeon who concluded that our client was left with impairment as a result of her slip and fall. She had ongoing pain, stiffness and weakness as result of her fall, which was impacting her day to day.
The team also arranged for our client to be assessed by an occupational therapist to comment on the domestic care needs that our client now had as a result of her accident. Despite our client having significant pre-existing injuries, this fall increased her needs for domestic care and meant that she had to rely on others to do things she once could.
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:
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:
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