£15,000 obtained for shop assistant following a fall

Louise Harper, an injury law specialist at Ashtons, has obtained a £15,000 settlement for Ms Y, a counter assistant who suffered a fall at work and aggravated a pre-existing back problem.

Ms Y was serving a customer from the narrow area behind a counter when a colleague placed a box of goods immediately behind her. Ms Y turned and fell, twisting her back. As a result of her injury Ms Y has needed to find a new job as she is no longer able to stand for long periods to serve customers. She now has a job where she works sitting down and on reduced hours; she therefore also has reduced earnings.

Louise comments: “This was a classic example of a case in which the defendant insurers initially tried to minimise the amount they needed to pay by suggesting that Ms Y was partly at fault for the accident. They suggested that she should have seen her colleague place the box behind her. This was clearly nonsense as it would have required Ms Y to have eyes in the back of her head! Once we issued court proceedings and the insurers could see we were serious about recovering the appropriate full amount for Ms Y, the shop admitted full liability and we settled the case”.