Injury Lawyers?

Slow Downcp

Not cycling related, but can anyone recommend (or otherwise) any experience with injury lawyers? My wife had a fall a couple of weeks ago when she slipped on the dirty floor in the restaurant of a well known theme park, badly hurting her arm. My wife was seen by the onsite first aid team, and I made a written compaint whilst we were there but I have heard nothing from them since. I did make the comment whilst there that I thought the least they could do was supply complimentary tickets for a retun visit as we'd only been there for a short time, with the kids having three rides, before having to leave to go to hospital for X-Rays (luckily nothing was broken). Having heard nothing though I'm now tempted to see if it's worth taking legal action.

Slow Downcp

A letter of apology has arrived in today's post, along with 4 complimentary tickets. I'd be happy to take them up on the offer to save the hassle, but my wife (undertstandably as she suffered the pain) wants to take it further. Anyone think it's worth it? The only financial loss we've suffered is £40 for Taxi's to take the eldest to school as my wife couldn't drive for a week and it's too far for him to walk.

Icm76

Your wife should see her GP if she hasn't seen a doctor already (though I assume she did see a proper doctor before the X-Ray)

Talk to your local Citizens Advice Bureau for unbiased advice on what to pursue. Then find some local lawyers using the APIL website and Law Society websites (look for accredited personal injury specialists) See if you can talk to 2-3 different ones and get an idea of whether they would take your case and what they would pursue on your behalf.

Contact the restaurant and ask for their liability insurance company to get in touch, see what they offer and whether you can negotiate the settlement suggested by CAB and the lawyers you spoke to. If that fails get your preferred lawyer to take up the case and negotiate a realistic amount.

Don't be greedy, if you ultimately end up in court you need to show that you've behaved reasonably (99.9% sure it won't get that far)

Slow Downcp

Cheers - I will ring the CAB later today. My wife saw a nurse at one hospital who then sent her to another hospital to A&E as they didn't have X-Ray being a Sunday.

I think my wife wants to pursue more out of principle, rather than chasing money, as when she did fall no-one from the restaurant seemed to care and I had to tell them twice about the split food (plus what my wife dropped) before they did anything.

Harry B

you'll need to establish that the floor was dirty for a reasonable time and that the restaurant management were, or should have been, aware of it but were negligent in that they failed to either be aware of it or failed to clean it up.

If the food had only just been spilt your chances of recovering any compensation are pretty small if not non-existent.

My advice would be to write a stong letter to the management of the them park asking them what they are going to do about preventing any reoccurance and also pointing out the attitude of the restaurant management at the time.

With no broken bones and little financial loss its realyy not worth the hassle of pursuing it through the Courts and it seems that the letter of apology and free tickets is reasonable compensation in the circumstances.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do

Special K

If I owned a business where this happened

1) I would not really want the customer (note, not "plaintiff") to not be out of pocket for the visit. If you had to take some cabs the week after the visit, give me a chance to offer something towards the costs.

2) I would not want the customer to bad mouth me, I woudl even want them to advocate my business for being even handed and customer oriented enough to give out complimentary tickets.

3) I would apologise.

So why don't you give them a chance to pay for the cabs and other reasonable costs?

I think when you've given the business a chance on all three counts, then I would take it to court, otherwise you are just wasting people's time, falling into the category of "comp chaser" and giving more money to solicitors.

Harry B

There's nothing wrong with giving money ot solicitors...

verylonglegs

Theme parks are staffed by seasonal workers on minimum wage which is why they didn't appear to care, its not a career and they have little stake in the business. If you are pursuing this out of principle to change this attitude rather than any financial gain then I really dont think you have any chance of achieving it.

dag_on_a_bike

Slow Downcp wrote:

Not cycling related, but can anyone recommend (or otherwise) any experience with injury lawyers? ...

For my sins, I have quite a bit of experience of PI lawyers, having been one for years. Well, actually seems like a lifetime.

dag_on_a_bike

On a more serious note, it's difficult to advise whether your wife should pursue a claim...for compensation, not principle. Arguably they've already dealt with the principle matter by the 'gesture' of free tickets. No doubt their apology was accompanied by a 'without admitting liability' comment.

There are many other 'should I claim' threads, some of which you should find 'helpful' but there really is no substitute for free impartial advice which any competent PI solicitor should provide (and some so-called claims factories).

Just consider, no-one will do something for nothing, but if a potential claim is worthwhile any solicitor who deals with (or ideally specialises in) PI claims will be more than happy to assist. After all they do make money (from costs) for doing so. A solicitor is under a duty to advise you, in advance, of their funding advice for dealing with the claim.

I don't like to offer advice in open forum but |'m quite prepared to share gerneralised comments. For something more specific, send PM (which should be from your wife as it would be her claim).