Personal injury advice please

[charlotte300]

Hi, I had an injury last month in a garden centre 3 large, heavy plant pots were stacked too high, and 1 fell on the back of my leg, cutting so deep that I required 11 stitches at A&E - it was a huge shock and lots of blood loss. I have not contacted the garden centre, and I will be scarred for life from the cut which is 2 and a half inches long. So are there any prsonal injury advisors here that could guide me - shall I just make a complaint to the garden centre and see the response?

What happened at the time, did any staff come to help or are you saying you just left the garden centre without letting any staff know and for some reason want to pursue it now?

Have you had to miss work? Or other things that specifically you’d be claiming for ? I don’t think being “scarred for life” on the back of lower is exactly a life changing injury… but if you’ve had loss of earnings etc then I’d guess a lawyer would be a good place to start.

Or asking the garden centre what has happened since in terms of learning from this accident. To avoid it happening again etc.

It seems a shame we’ve gone right to the “where there’s a blame there’s a claim”
USA attitude though rather than “accidents happen”…

Was it recorded by the garden centre at the time? Was it put in their accident book?

Are you a professional leg model and will never work again? How many days’ work did you miss by having the injury and stitches? Has it stopped you being able to drive? What are the actual losses you’ve incurred that you’d like reimbursed?

Getting injured in itself isn’t a cause for compensation. In your situation, I’d be asking them to demonstrate how they will ensure this situation can’t happen again, and asking for an apology. I don’t think you’re due anything more unless there’s a lot you haven’t told us in your OP.

Hi The garden centre rang 999 and paramedics arrived so yes they all knew

yes it was put in the accident book

They called 999

yes I do somehow agree with you with the blame and claim - which is why I wanted some advice and general feeling from mums net - thank you

What do you actually want to achieve from a claim? It may be best to think about that initially. Was the garden centre negligent? What caused the plant pots to actually fall?

I mean 11 stitches isn't very nice but it's not exactly life changing, unless you're a leg model?

I did say within my first post that the plant pots were stacked too high. thank you

I think they will only pay out in terms of fiscal loss. Not the fact you're 'scarred for life'.
It needs to have stopped you from working. Or you have incurred medical costs. If you have receipts/proof for that then you can make a claim.

But I don't think you can just for the fact it was upsetting and you needed stitches. There's no financial loss there.

Yes but a high stack doesn't necessarily mean they will fall down. Was this spontaneous or did someone try to remove one?

Post in legal OP. Otherwise you will get a ton of responses asking what losses you are claiming for, ignoring the fact that general damages for pain and suffering is a standard part of any PI claim.

Of course you should be compensated under these circumstances, based on what you've said. You were injured, suffered and required an ambulance. I guess that the garden centre are just waiting to hear from you or your legal representative. Best bet may be a no win no fee solicitor.

Absolute fucking nonsense. Please ignore all the “oh but what financial loss did you suffer” brigade. I wonder what they would think about being scarred for life through something that was no fault of thier own. Thank god those pots didn’t fall onto a child.

Get onto a no win no fee solicitor. Irwin Mitchell are excellent but there are others. They’ll evaluate the situation for free and tell you honestly if you have a claim or not. And if you do, then go for it. If people don’t take companies to task for failing basic health and safety protocols then the next time it could be much, much worse.

Sorry! Maybe I'm getting mixed up with an insurance claim? It's just that the council said this to me when I had a very severe injury on their pavement. Maybe just to put me off?

Yup, that’s exactly what they were doing.

This. Fiscal work loss and medical expenses are what they pay for.

You're either suing for financial loss or severe distress and inconvenience.

The garden centre may pay you off to avoid legal fees but unless you needed lots of unpaid time off work, incurred costs due to rehabilitation, needed therapy, ultimately you don't really have a valid legal claim.

By all means go for a no win, no fee, but they work on the basis of winning the claim, its usually needed to be an above 50% chance of winning before they take your case on. If you've got time on your hands have a crack but don't expect anything.

In whose opinion though? Has a manager from the garden centre said that they were stacked too high and it was all their fault? Did you see a risk assessment that showed they should be no more than 2 layers high? Was somebody moving things at the time? Or is it just that you think they must have been too high or you wouldn't have been injured. It's not as simple as "they were stacked too high".

18 years ago I slipped in Tesco as there was no wet floor sign and I severely bruised my knee… I reported it more to stress the point that it could’ve been worse but worked at a solicitors at the time and my boss offered to write to Tesco on my behalf to see if I’d get some form of compensation, in his words “maybe a £50 voucher”. I got £750!!! I was a student at the time so was BUZZING!

@MammyloveswineThank you for advice would appreciate a template for this type of legal letter as your boss would have more clout than myself

@Aposterhasnonamethanks for the positive advice

@Tel12Thank you much appreciated