Shopping Trip

Whilst walking through the carpark at a shopping centre Mrs D tripped and fell over a defect in the pedestrian walkway. This caused her to suffer injuries.

Andrew Marsden, based at our Batley office put Mrs D’s claim to the shopping centre. They denied it was their fault because they delegated responsibility for the maintenance of the car park to another firm.  Not an uncommon response in these types of claim. This is known as a competent contractor defence.

An owner/occupier of land can delegate some legal responsibilities and liabilities to firms that they contract to carry out work for them. It is not an automatic defence, and only applies in certain circumstances. You need to be sure that the firm representing you has experience of these cases, otherwise you could well be told your claim will fail in circumstances where it should still succeed.

In this case the claim was re-directed to that contractor, and then once again to yet another contractor, but persistence won out. The defendant has now paid Mrs D compensation for happened to her.

If you need help and advice following an accident and injury, contact Andrew on 01924 473065, or by email at [email protected] , or use the livechat on our website. All initial advice is at no charge to you, and we should be able to represent you on a no win no fee basis.