to be disgusted by this behaviour?

[kitesfoorever]

A relative of mine was in a clothes shop recently when she tripped on the stair (no hazards, her fault) and bruised her leg. She reported the 'incident' to the first aider and made a big fuss. The following day she told me about the 'accident' with glee and said she may sue the large retailer .

She was waiting for a call from the store to apologise and it didn't happen. So she contacted head office and their customer services took notes and invited her to meet the store manager to discuss
She declined and demanded that they make her a payout. She told me she regretted not going to a & e over said incident Then she complained about the store staff not recording the accident properly and so a member of staf for has now had a disciplinary.

I find all this appalling and totally immoral. She has admitted that although she had some bruises there's no lasting damage. Apparently now the legal department have offered her a token payment presumably to go away I have pointed out to her that the staff member she reported may get sacked or miss out on promotion etc, may have a family to feed etc.

Am I over reacting or was I right to fall out with her over this?

[Marylou62]

I tripped up a curb...my fault...I broke my elbow and as I had a 3 week old baby it was a very trying time....So many people said to find a broken pavement slab,(loads round here) take a picture and sue...even the physio in the hosp!! No way! It was my fault and morally I could not do it....£3000 was bandied about and the money would have been amazing...but I still didn't do it and never would... IT IS WRONG.

[phantomnamechanger]

YANBU, people like her make me sick.
It also means that people with a genuine claim are thought to be chancers/liars! A friend of mine is currently very debilitated following a car accident (not her fault, someone hit the back of her car at speed and shunted her into someone else). Serious ongoing back and neck trouble, months later. She used to run half marathons and can hardly walk, sit, sleep now.
Some people literally make a living out of this sort of claiming.
At DH work someone fell and broke their wrist. They were in a public outside paved area cordoned off with that stripey tape, taking a short cut somewhere they should not have been. There were posters up, and the area had been declared out of bounds in staff bulletins for several weeks while the repairs/renovations were being done. The injured employee tried to go to tribunal, or whatever it's called, and got nowhere. The company had done everything they could reasonably be expected to do to keep people off the area, tell them it was dangerous. It also came out that he had left his previous job for trying something similar there! It may even be possible that he "fell" deliberately while in the area that was out of bounds - risking permanent damage for the hope of a few grand?

[jopickles]

there was a lady in America who tripped over a child in a shop and sued them for thousands and won her case - the child was her own who she wasn't watching properly!!!!!!!!! you can't make these things up people are just crazy nowadays. Wasn't there one about a woman who sued a company for not putting a warning on a microwave about not putting animals in after she tried to dry her cat in one

[worldgonecrazy]

YANBU - disgusting immoral behaviour.

We had a problem at John Lewis which was entirely DD's fault, and the staff were brilliant. She even got a giant teddy out of it. No way would I have even thought of claiming compensation.

[WanderingTrolley1]

Yanbu.

I would distance myself from "friend"s like that!

[Jayne35]

yanbu.

I think claiming for things like this is disgusting (along with whiplash claims) and in the end these claims cost us all more money in our various insurance policies!

[nicename]

I hate this whole 'who shall I sue' culture that is creeping into the norm. You just need to see the ambulance chaser ads on TV to see this!

Shops need to start suing clumsy shoppers who fall over their fat feet and dent the shelving!

There was a case in the US when some dipstick decided to sue a fast food chain by 'accidentally' slipping on a spilled drink. He decided to practice his slip (spilling a drink then doing a Harold Lloyd type slip onto the floor) right under a CCTV camera before going into the main area and deliberately spilling his drink, slipping on it then landing on the floor. He actually won his case!

[thedevilinside]

I would say she is lacking empathy, I would run a mile

[LaFlambeau]

YANBU.

How grubby. And grabby.

[pointythings]

Awful and immoral. I was rear-ended by another driver, totally his fault and ended up with whiplash - the real deal, unfortunately, it will never be entirely right.

But.

I did not need substantial time off work, what I did need was covered by NHS sick leave and I did not lose out financially. I also got fast-track physio through my employer.

Since there was no loss to me, I did not sue because it would have been immoral to do so.

I hate those 'we have been informed you had a minor accident in the past three years that wasn't your fault' calls too - had one last night, asked them where they got their data from and they hung up on me.

[calculatorsatdawn]

I had a really nasty accident a few years ago resulting in a break in my ankle that has never healed properly and it was a company at fault. won't go into details but they never questioned they were at fault, it was so blatant. My solicitor sent me a form to record my expenses and after I sent it back they rang me to say I hadn't claimed enough and went through really spurious and ridiculous things suggesting I claim for them eg has DP had to do the cleaning due to my mobility, if so I should write down how many hours a week and claim for his being incovenienced. They also changed the form to claim loss of earnings following the accident and I had to wrote to them to point out that the change in my earnings was because of extra pensions deductions that were clearly shown on my payslips. They hounded me for months to provide them even through I told them I had full sick pay that covered all the time off I had and they claimed loss of earnings anyway. I had keep refusing to sign it until they took it off. The company were fine but my solicitors were awful to try and deal with. In the end I got 7.5k compensation but they claimed their fees were 21k!

[Frontier]

I once slipped on a piece of fruit in a supermarket. I was quite shaken and bruised but I laddered my tights and I was on my way to a meeting. They found me new tights and wouldn't take the cash. I was thrilled

[Icimoi]

I wish stores wouldn't give in on this sort of thing, it just sends a message out to other people that it's worth a try. All they needed to do was to send a letter saying "Dear kite'srelative, We are sorry to hear about the injury you have suffered on our premises. We have undertaken careful investigations which confirm that your injury was not caused by any fault on the part of our staff and we are not therefore liable to pay any damages. We hope you have by now recovered fully. Yours sincerely"

[SlicedAndDiced]

Same here

I wish stores and businesses would start telling grabby fuckers like op's relative to feck off.

[Icimoi]

I once worked somewhere where they had one of these spurious claims against them blatantly designed purely to extract a nuisance value payment. The company decided they were going to have none of it even though the claimant went as far as issuing a county court claim. The person dealing with the case had a lovely time raising every technicality possible under the court rules and applying for draconian orders and costs every time the claimant missed a deadline. He was completely taken aback and eventually went to a solicitor who told him the best he could do was to drop the case and hope the company didn't claim costs against him, and he disappeared thereafter. It was all very satisfying.

[DisgraceToTheYChromosome]

Icimoi: Unfortunately, such a letter as you describe would be a legal mantrap. It admits the existence of injury, confirms it that was on company property and expresses regret.

That's enough for Blame Direct, trust me.

[LittleprincessinGOLDrocks]

My mum went to the grand opening of a large shopping complex, and fell after catching her foot in a hole (was intended to have a lamppost put in that day) in the walk way. The centre were totally at fault (no signs or warnings etc) and they admitted it. They asked my mum what she would like as compensation - she asked for a cup of coffee and a new pair of tights - there was no way she was wearing those laddered ones for the rest of the day. They gave her what she asked for and got the first aider to clean up her knee.
Mum was thrilled as they gave her a multipack of tights, and the coffee was from Costa (she would have been happy with instant) for free.

I think its time we went back to being sensible about injuries and compensation. My mum was not seriously injured, so a coffee and a replacement of her tights seemed fair to her.

That said DH has sued a company over an injury at work, but TBF he was run over by a truck and was lucky to not to be killed! The driver didn't even apologise!
So there are times when suing should be considered, but tripping over a step or kerb is rarely one of those times.

[Mrsjayy]

Woman trips woman wants money for not watching her feet jeez yanbu

[xXxLoLxXx]

No offence but it's easy to judge until this happens to your own little daughter and she might be really upset and hurt and maybe even scarred but a gift from the guilty store could be just what she needs to stop crying! I'm not talking about multi thousand dollar payouts at all but a token as an apology and recognitition of fault never goes amiss

xx

[dawndonnaagain]

I have two very large left feet and fall over on a regular basis. I have never sued anyone. Selfish, nasty behaviour.

[nicename]

If there wasn't the 'no claim, no fee' thing then there wouldn't be so any bloody claims. I wonder how much insurance businesses need these days just to cover the rise in premiums caused by people like this.

I worked somewhere where a chap was brought in for maternity cover. Turned out he wasn't very good - but very good at telling everyone that he was! They decided to cut the contract and let him go (he was costing the business basically). Then the found out that his last 3 employers had been hit with caims around unfair dismissal in similar circumstances. That's why he had a lovely new porsche, maybe?

[ithoughtofitfirst]

What a twat

[AskBasil]

Actually if she took it to court she'd lose.

She might even be sued herself for vexatious litigation.

She has no case. The store did nothing wrong.

All the stories we hear about in the media of people being given pay-outs are either American, or they were not ordered in court, they were out of court settlements forced on companies by cowardly insurance companies who weren't prepared to let it get as far as court no matter how unlikely it was that the litigant would win.

There isn't a compensation culture. It's a media-fuelled myth.

[ChrisMooseAlbanians]

I know someone who is suing a pub for falling over in a pothole in the car park whilst drunk. Her company paid her full time while she was off sick. Yet she is still taking them to the cleaners for it.
Makes me rage

[ThinkAboutItTomorrow]

Very immoral. And worth pointing out to her that it isn't the big store that pays but everyone who shops there - prices are set to factor in this sort of poor behaviour (including shoplifting etc).