How to Claim for Being Hit by a Falling Tin in Aldi
If you have been hit by a tin can that fell from a shelf and have sustained an injury that required medical treatment, you may be entitled to make a claim for being hit by a falling tin in Aldi.
Supermarket customers are owed a common duty of care under the Occupier’s Liability Act (1954) which places a legal responsibility on grocery store operators to ensure that all reasonable steps are taken to prevent customers from being injured while on the premises. While this duty of care is not absolute – it is not always possible to claim compensation for being injured by falling tin – in most cases, injuries from products falling of grocery store shelves gives a customer grounds for making a personal injury claim.
Even if you bumped a shelf causing a tin can to fall, it should still be possible to make a claim against the grocery store. The shelves should be sturdy enough to resist knocks and bumps without causing a tin can to fall from a shelf. When the shelves are stacked by grocery store staff, it is a standard procedure to conduct a ‘bump test’ to make sure that a minor knock is not sufficient to cause products to fall. If you were hit by a tin can in an Aldi grocery store it is unlikely that this test will have been performed. This is likely to constitute a failure in a duty of care and negligence on the part of the member of staff that stacked the shelves.
Timescale for Claiming Compensation for Being Injured by Falling Tin
The timescale for claiming compensation for an injury sustained due to being hit by a tin can in an Aldi grocery store is three years from the date of the accident. However, it is important that a claim for being hit by a falling tin in Aldi is not delayed, as the longer the time period between the accident and the claim being commenced, the harder it will be to prove negligence.
Evidence of negligence must be collected as soon as possible after an injury has been sustained to ensure a strong claim for compensation for being injured by falling tin can be prepared. Members of staff need to be contacted to obtain their version of events, eye-witness statements must be taken while the accident is still fresh in the mind and security camera data needs to be requested before it is erased.
In some cases it may be advantageous to delay the resolution of claims for injuries from products falling of grocery store shelves until the medical repercussions of an injury have been established, although the preparation of a claim should still start promptly. If a case is investigated by a lawyer and evidence of negligence is collected, the right to take legal action will have been preserved, and the claim can be initiated at any point within the claims window applied by the Statute of Limitations.
Settlement Offers from an Insurance Company
Receiving an offer of compensation from an insurance company for being hit by a tin can in an Aldi grocery store may come as a relief; however you should not accept any offer of compensation for being injured by a falling tin until you have had the settlement offer assessed by an independent personal injury lawyer.
When an insurance company makes an unsolicited offer to compensate an accident victim for injuries from products falling of grocery store shelves, there is considerable potential for the case to be undersettled. The offer is only made to increase the insurance company´s profits and limit losses, and the accident victim rarely benefits from accepting the offer. Even if you are experiencing financial difficulties and a quick payment of compensation will make life easier, you should seek legal advice before accepting an offer. It may be possible to recover a proportion of compensation quickly, while pursuing your maximum entitlement to personal injury compensation.
When you contact a lawyer to have a settlement assessed, you will receive an unbiased opinion about the fairness of the offer. If you are likely to receive a substantially higher amount of compensation by making a legal claim for being hit by a falling tin in Aldi, you will be advised to take legal action to recover a more appropriate amount of compensation. If the offer is reasonable and little can be gained by taking legal action, you will be advised to accept the offer you have received.