By Jade Perry. Last Updated 30th July 2024. If you’ve suffered an injury from an accident in a public place, you may want to know if you can receive compensation. This guide will explain the legal principles for making a claim and under what instances you may be able to receive compensation. Furthermore, it will clarify the types of evidence you need and the benefits of claiming under a No Win No Fee agreement.
Additionally, if you have any questions or queries, our team of advisors offer free legal advice 24/7. They can tell you if you’re eligible to claim and even provide you with a compensation estimate. Please bear in mind that you’re under no obligation to use the services of our panel should you contact us. However, if you have strong grounds for a claim, we can put you through to our specialised panel of No Win No Fee personal injury solicitors who can help you.
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Read on to learn more about the types of accidents in a public place you may be able to claim for.
Who Can Claim for Accidents In A Public Place?
If you’ve had an accident in a public place, you might be wondering if you could be eligible for compensation. However, having an accident in public isn’t enough to make a valid claim; you also need to establish negligence.
Negligence, for the purposes of a personal injury claim, means that:
- Someone else owed you a duty of care
- They breached this duty
- You were injured as a result
Whenever you’re in a public place, you’re owed a duty of care by the controller of that space. This means that they need to make sure that you are reasonably safe while on the premises, as per the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 (OLA).
For example, if you are in a shop and a sign falls on you, this could cause serious injuries. If the controller of that space knew that the sign was faulty and at risk of falling, but made no effort to fix the issue, this could be seen as a breach of their duty of care.
Keep reading to learn more about making a claim for an accident in a public place, or contact our advisors today to get started.
What Must I Prove As Part Of A Personal Injury Claim?
To make a successful accident in a public place claim, you need to prove that your injury was primarily caused by the negligence of the owner or occupier.
Evidence is crucial in the personal injury claims process. As the person making a claim, the onus is on you to prove that negligence caused your injury. A solicitor can help you with this, however. Evidence you could use includes:
- CCTV footage
- Photographic evidence of your injury and the scene of the accident
- Medical records
- Witness statements
A specialised No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel could help you gather evidence for a claim. This could improve your chances of receiving compensation. To learn more about this, please contact us at a time that works for you using the details above.
Potential Examples Of Accidents In A Public Place
An accident in a public place can cause many different types of injuries. The amount of compensation you could receive will depend on the nature of the injury and how negatively it has impacted your life. You may be wondering, “what are the types of accidents you can claim for?” Examples of potential accidents include:
- Falling down a flight of stairs due to a faulty handrail. This could lead to arm, elbow, hand or leg injuries, for example.
- Slipping on ice if pavement hasn’t been sufficiently gritted. You could suffer a serious back injury from this kind of fall, for example.
- Suffering a slip, trip or fall due to exposed wiring.
- Slipping due to the floor being wet with no warning signs present. Depending on how you fall, you could injure your hip, knee, leg or ankle.
- Hurting your shoulder or arm due to a faulty door slamming into you.
Accidents leading to compensation have one factor in common: there is a direct link between the third party’s actions and your injury. You would only be able to receive compensation by showing that the third party’s breach of duty led to your injury.
Compensation Settlements For Accidents In Public Places
Compensation for successful public place accident claims could potentially be made up of two different payouts that address different damages. These two different payouts are called general and special damages.
A general damages payout will award you for the emotional and physical effects you are suffering from being injured in a public place. Aspects that could affect the value of a general damages payout include:
- The length of the recovery time.
- Whether you’ve suffered one or multiple injuries. For example, if you slipped on a wet floor in a supermarket, you could break both your arm and ankle.
- The severity of the injury.
- Whether there is any permanent damage.
The Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) is a document that can help figure out the value of a general damages payout. The JCG hosts a variety of guideline compensation brackets for differing injuries at different severities.
Guideline Compensation Table
You can find in the table below some types of injuries which could potentially be suffered from an accident in a public place. These injuries, along with their accompanying guideline compensation brackets, are from the JCG (only the top figure is not from the JCG).
However, it is vital to bear in mind that none of the guideline compensation figures from the JCG can be guaranteed.
| Injury Type | Severity | Compensation Amount | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple serious injuries and special damages | Serious | Up to £500,000+ | Where the injured person has suffered multiple serious injuries and financial losses, such as a loss of earnings and the costs for prescriptions. |
| Back | Severe (a) (ii) | £90,510 to £107,910 | Cases in this bracket have special features such as nerve root damage causing loss of sensation or bladder and bowel impairment. |
| Hand | Serious (e) | £35,390 to £75,550 | Injuries in this bracket can cause the hand to lose around 50% capacity. This can be caused by several fingers needing to be amputated, for instance. |
| Neck | Severe (iii) | £55,500 to £68,330 | Dislocations, fractures or soft tissue damage that results in significant and permanent disability. |
| Moderate (b) (iii) | £9,630 to £16,770 | Injuries that have led to an exacerbation or acceleration of a pre-existing medical condition over less than five years. | |
| Knee | Severe (a) (iii) | £31,960 to £53,030 | Injuries in this bracket cause continuing symptoms like discomfort, pain and movement limitation or instability that can lead to degenerative changes. |
| Foot | Serious (e) | £30,500 to £47,840 | Injuries in this bracket can cause continuous pain from traumatic arthritis and risk the need for spinal fusion. |
| Ankle | Modest (d) | Up to £16,770 | Less serious, undisplaced or minor fractures, ligamentous injuries and sprains. |
| Shoulder | Moderate (c) | £9,630 to £15,580 | A frozen shoulder that causes discomfort and limitation of movement for around two years. |
Special Damages
A special damages payout will award you for the expenses you have incurred from being injured in a public place. This payouts helps to restore your financial position to what it was prior to your accident.
Special damages can include:
- Loss of earnings (past and future).
- Private healthcare costs that aren’t covered by the NHS.
- Prescription costs.
This payout is not guaranteed to be awarded for successful claims, whereas general damages payouts are guaranteed. For this reason, please keep any evidence such as receipts, payslips, bank statements, and invoices.
Please contact us to learn more about compensation for public place accident claims.
No Win No Fee Claims – What Are The Benefits?
If you’ve suffered an accident in a public place, you may want to know the advantages of using the service from our panel of No Win No Fee public liability solicitors. The benefits of using a Conditional Fee Agreement (the formal term for No Win No Fee agreement) include:
- Only paying solicitor fees after a settlement has been agreed upon.
- No surprise charges or hidden fees as well as not paying your solicitor’s fees upfront or during the claim.
- Your solicitor’s fee comes out of your compensation. They will take a portion that is smaller and legally capped to cover legal costs.
To see if you can claim for an accident in a public place, contact our advisors for free legal advice. They’re available 24/7 and can tell you quickly and simply if you’re eligible to claim. They can also put you through to a No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel whose expertise could result in you receiving compensation.
Contact us 24/7 with the details below.
- Call us on the phone number above.
- Contact us through our website.
- Alternatively, write to us using our chat window.
Read More About Public Liability Claims
To learn more about claiming for an accident in a public place, please refer to the links below.
Have you suffered a sprain or strain? If so, and you would like medical guidance, please read this guide from the NHS.
Read this to learn more about how to treat a broken bone.
The Compensation Recovery Unit (CRU) recovers benefit payments from people who have had successful compensation claims. View their statistics to get a better idea of how many people claim for these types of accidents.
Why not check out more of our personal injury claims guides below:
- Can I Claim for a Pub Accident?
- Claiming Compensation For A Swimming Pool Accident Claim
- Compensation Claims Against The Council For Personal Injury
- How To Claim For An Accident In A Shop – if you’ve slipped, tripped and fallen in a shop, be it a high street store or a local corner shop, you could claim compensation. This guide provides lots of helpful information on your legal rights and the steps you can take.
- I Had An Accident At A Train Station – Can I Claim?
- Pavement Accident Claims Explained
- Compensation For Theme Park Accident Claims
- If you have been injured by an escalator in a public place, you can read our guide on potentially claiming for this type of accident.
- You can also read our guide on how to claim compensation if you’re injured in a hotel.
- If you have been injured in a health spa, you can read our guide on whether you could claim compensation.
If you still have questions or queries about claiming for an accident in a public place, please contact our advisors at a time that works for you.
