This matter concerned a 47 year old woman who slipped and fell at her local supermarket while she was grocery shopping.
As our client was walking towards the check out, she walked past an open drinks refrigerator and slipped and fell on a liquid substance which was on the floor. As a result, she suffered a significant injury to her knee.
As a result of the injury, our client was required to take time off work and be reviewed by a specialist surgeon as well as physiotherapy. As she began to favour the uninjured knee, this knee became overused as a result. Overtime, arthritic changes became evident in the injured knee and it was certain that our client would require a knee replacement in the future.
Gerard Malouf & Partners commenced proceedings against the supermarket giant in the District Court. We gathered medical evidence so as to identify and evidence our client’s significant injury and also so that we could subpoena various records from the supermarket to identify whether or not the system of cleaning and inspection at the store of the time of the incident had been adequate.
Whilst waiting on the records to be produced under subpoena by the supermarket, the solicitors for the supermarket invited us to participate in informal settlement discussions in an attempt to resolve the claim.
A settlement conference occurred but unfortunately the matter did not resolve during these discussions.
We then took instructions from our client to submit an “Offer of Compromise” to the insurer in an attempt to put them on risk if they did not beat the offer should the matter proceed to Hearing.
Meanwhile, the supermarket were still preparing the documents which were required to be produced under subpoena. We were confident that once we received these documents that we would have sufficient evidence to prove negligence by the supermarket.
In the weeks following the settlement conference, the supermarket increased their settlement offers and finally, after several offers were made, we were able to successfully resolve our client’s claim for $245,000. This was a great outcome in light of the early stage of the claim and the fact that this was within the range of the result our client would have received should the matter have proceeded to a Hearing and Judgment.
Our client was very grateful with the outcome and relieved that she did not have to appear in Court.
If you have suffered from a slip and fall at a supermarket, you should always seek advice from a lawyer about your rights to claim compensation. Gerard Malouf & Partners are accredited specialists in public liability claims and we will fight hard against insurance companies to maximise the compensation that you are entitled to receive. Call 1800 004 878 to speak to one of our specialist lawyers.
