Not actual client image

Caroline was enjoying a meal with her husband.  As she finished, around 8pm, her son called and asked her to take some food home for him.  Caroline went to the server to ask about take-away food.  Before she got there, she slipped and fell badly, landing on both knees.

Slip caused by food on floor

Her husband and a member of staff went to help Caroline get up and it was apparent that she had slipped on some squashed carrot on the highly polished floor.

In a great deal of pain, Caroline visited A & E at Sheffield Northern General Hospital immediately afterwards.  X-rays were taken, but no fractures were detected.

Her knees were badly swollen and bruised and she was unable to put any weight on them – especially the left one.  She had to use crutches for 3 weeks.  Physiotherapy followed and she was told that due to the severity of the Impact on her knees, the injuries would take as long to heal as a fracture.   Caroline was in pain for a long time and her movement was severely restricted.  Upon examination over a year later, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon estimated that she still only had 50% use of her left knee.

Jonathan West

Jonathan wins £2,000 for slip

Jonathan contacted the owners of Toby Carvery, Mitchells & Butlers Retail Ltd, who denied liability at first and so Jonathan issued court proceedings.  Only a day before the trial was due to go ahead did the company decide to settle the claim and Caroline was awarded £2,000.

Caroline visited the carvery again around about 9 months after her accident – and it looked like cleaning habits had got no better – with water all over the toilet floors and food on the restaurant floor.  Perhaps it will have learned its lesson now!

No legal help if Government imposes changes

In its autumn statement last year, the Government announced proposed changes to claiming personal injury compensation this year. The planned changes are to:

• Raise the small claims limit for personal injury claims from £1,000 to £5,000, which means that claims of less than £5,000 will be transferred to the small claims court and solicitor fees will not be recoverable – leaving some injured people with no legal help or support, and
• Remove the right to compensation for ‘minor’ soft tissue injuries (includes whiplash)

If these changes go ahead as planned, Graysons’ experts would not have been able to help Caroline as her claim was for less than £5000 and he would have had to make the claim, with no legal knowledge or expertise, himself, in the Small Claims Court.

We think that these changes are unfair and will restrict people’s right to proper redress if they have an accident or injury that is not their fault.

If you feel that the government’s proposed changes are unfair and that victims of accidents and injury should be able to claim compensation and obtain legal advice, and you would like to voice your opinion, please sign the petition.

Graysons will continue to help victims of personal injury claims wherever possible so please do contact our specialist team now if you need help.

You can find out more about claiming compensation for slips and trips on our website.