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INJURIES SUFFERED IN A FALL

You may be aware of the public outcry where people make claims as a result of falling while walking. The general public believe that a person should look where they are walking and if they fall over and injure themselves it is their bad luck.

In certain circumstances a person will take care watching where they are walking but due to other circumstances they do not see the danger and fall over and injure themselves. These injuries can be very severe.

Do they have a claim?

That would have to be one of the most vexing questions a personal injury lawyer now has to answer. The Courts have handed down decisions which cannot, in the writer's view, be reconciled and therefore each particular fall will have to be judged on its own particular facts.

An illustration can be provided by analysis of two Court of Appeal decisions, one in New South Wales and one in Queensland.

In the New South Wales decision a person was walking down the street, on the footpath, and reached the edge of the roadway. They fell over due to some repair work that had been previously undertaken to a hole having come apart.

Despite the fact that the person had walked that way on numerous occasions the Court held that it was more the mere inadvertence that created the fall and the person successfully sued the Council. The fall occurred in daylight hours, when, in the writer's opinion, the hole should have been obvious to a person watching where they were walking.

In a recent Queensland Court of Appeal decision the person entered a shoe shop and fell over a rack of shoes on the floor. The rack extended past the shoe display and was the same colour as the carpet.

The customer indicated that her attention was caught by a pair of shoes on display further inside the store. The Court of Appeal held that she should have noticed the rack. Her claim was unsuccessful.

One would think that a person would take substantially more care walking in open spaces where there are obstructions than a store where you expect to find everything properly laid out in a safe manner.

It is therefore very important that if you are injured in a fall that undertake the following immediately:

  1. Determine what has caused your fall;
  2. Recall why you didn't see it;
  3. Obtain photographs of the area as soon as possible;
  4. Take notice of the surroundings immediately after the accident and how many people were in the vicinity;
  5. Write down the comments, if any, made by staff.
The final comment is important in that staff of various shops or shopping centres have indicated the falls have taken place in that area previously and it is important to try to identify that person as soon as possible as they may have crucial evidence that could be the difference between winning and losing the case.

Please feel free to contact us for any personal injury claim and/or workcover claim assistance that you may require in and around Brisbane, Queensland.

Alternatively, please call us on (07) 3345 4388 to clarify any queries you may have in regards to our services.

Hatzis Lawyers are a dynamic firm of Brisbane lawyers and solicitors contributing their might to the smart state of Queensland.