Can I make a broken leg claim for compensation against my boss if the injury happened when I slipped on a wet floor at work?
It may be possible for you to make a broken leg claim but only if it can be proven that your fall was caused by a breach in your employer’s legal duty of care to provide you with a safe working environment. Slips, trips or falls on a wet floor at work may appear to constitute employer negligence, but this may not necessarily be the case. Bear in mind that the employer’s duty of care is not “absolute” meaning that if the hazard had only just appeared it would not have been “reasonable” to expect it to be cleared in enough time to prevent your slip and subsequent injury.
Therefore, the likelihood of you receiving compensation for your broken leg claim will depend on the length of time the hazard had been present and whether it would have been realistic to expect your employer or a fellow staff member to have identified it and taken action to remove it. If possible, CCTV footage may be accessed to help fully determine the answer to this important query.
A failure to monitor the workplace for hazards such as wet floors is likely to signify a failure in your employer’s duty of care and this would be grounds for you to make a broken leg claim for compensation. It is your employer’s responsibility to have a system in place to allow hazards to be identified and rectified in the quickest time possible, and he or she would likely be liable for your injury if no risk assessments had been carried out, if other employees had been negligent and caused the hazard, or if the hazard had been identified but no action had been taken to remove it.
To confirm whether you have a viable broken leg claim, it is recommended that you speak with an experienced personal injury solicitor who can assist in determining whether there has been a breach in your employer’s duty of care. If your solicitor recommends that you pursue legal action, you will receive help with assembling evidence of negligence to support your claim for a broken leg and in recovering compensation from your employer’s insurance company.