Q: Someone has slipped on a floor I am responsible for, where do I begin?
We are slip risk consultants not legal advisors. As such the following should not be considered professional legal advice. If you are seeking professional legal advice we would recommend you contact a solicitor.
A:
If you have been blessed with a budget that permits a proactive periodic slip risk assessment you will have a robust defence against any slip claims, assuming of course that tests showed your surfaces to be compliant.
If you have not previously assessed the slip resistance of your floors you are by no means alone. If the floor on which the incident happened is not obviously slippery then it may be beneficial to immediately commission a forensic slip test at that location, with results (hopefully) showing the surface is safe in the conditions the slip occurred. If results show a slippery surface you will be hard pressed to convince a court that you have fulfilled your duty of care in the provision of a safe surface. It is worth noting however that the floor is not the only factor in slip cases and individual cases will proceed in different directions.
Whilst it won’t help with the current claimant, it would clearly be beneficial to initiate a periodic slip risk assessment schedule to prevent further slips and/or claims. Even if your floors are safe this is no guarantee that people will not slip, trip or otherwise fall, but with an expert independent certificate showing you have provided a suitably safe surface you will be able to defend claims far more rigorously. The costs of a compensation claim, or simply the increased insurance premiums, will often make a compelling economic case for regular slip testing, aside from the moral/legal obligation to provide a safe environment. The issue of improvement to the surface is often raised in these events. Given that personal injury cases are typically brought to court around 2 to 3 years after the event, floors are often in a different condition to when the slip occurred. Regardless of whether or not a slip has occurred, if a surface has been shown to be slippery you have a duty of care to improve that surface so as to prevent further slips occurring. Whilst some worry that the court may see this as an admission of guilt, the fact remains that further accidents occurring on the same surface will not help the current case and will likely generate further compensation claims with associated costs. It should be noted that many surfaces can be improved with changes to cleaning regime and/or working practices, or an anti-slip treatment, and very rarely will the floor require complete replacement.
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