Barbara was shopping
in Tesco when she caught her foot in nylon banding tape, protruding from one of
the store’s wheeled cages from which staff load the shelves.
Barbara fell heavily
upon her knees and having been treated by the First Aid officer, made her way
home.
Shops have a legal
responsibility to ensure the safety of their visitors and once a visitor
suffers an injury in a store due to an obstruction or a slippery substance on
the floor, causing them to fall, the
burden on the store is heavy. Effectively
the store must show that the accident was not their fault. Shoppers have to
take care of themselves, but shops display their goods in such a way as to
attract the attention of shoppers, who are not required to walk the aisles
staring at their feet to guard against hazards!
Supermarket chains
such as Tesco face thousands of claims each year, they have liability insurance to face these
claims and their lawyers are expert in dealing with them.
Barbara’s case was
not one they contested. They made a
“pre-medical” offer of £1750. A pre-medical offer is one made before the
defendant insurer has seen a medical report on the claimant’s injuries. As claimant lawyers, we do not like
pre-medical offers because they are usually prejudicial to the accident
victim. It puts the victim under
pressure to take the offer (they may face a costs penalty if they do not later
beat it) at a time when the long term injury suffered cannot yet be determined.
In Barbara’s case we
looked carefully at the GP records and were able to advise that she would not
better the offer if it went to court although the insurers were persuaded to
increase it to just under £2,000.
The insurers also
paid Barbara’s costs in full (this was a case started under the old costs
regime).
