Slips Trips and Falls
Slips Trips and
Falls Claim
Check If You're Eligible
A slip and fall claim succeeds when someone who owed you a duty to keep the place safe failed to meet it, and that failure caused your injury. Who owed you that duty depends on where you fell: an occupier, an employer, or the council. We work out which, and there is no upfront cost to find out.
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Find Your Claim Type
Find the right slips, trips and falls claim
Slip and fall claims, slip and trip claims and slips, trips and falls claims are the same claim under three names. What changes the case is where you fell and who was responsible for that place, so the claims below are grouped by exactly that.
Public liability claims
Claims arising from accidents caused by unsafe public spaces, poorly maintained premises and occupier negligence.
Office accident claims
Claims arising from hazards in office environments, including wet floors and trailing cables.
Construction accident claims
Damaged tiles, loose carpets or step changes in level can cause serious trips if not properly maintained.
Accidents at work claims
Claims involving slips, trips and falls caused by unsafe workplace conditions.
Fall from height claims
Claims arising from falls from ladders, scaffolding, roofs and elevated working platforms.
Manual handling claims
Claims involving lifting injuries caused by unsafe manual handling practices.
Forklift accident claims
Claims arising from collisions and workplace accidents involving forklifts.
Back injury claims
Claims for back injuries caused by slips, trips or falls, including soft tissue injuries, spinal damage and long-term pain.
Wrist injury claims
Support for people who fractured or injured their wrist while trying to break the impact of a slip, trip or fall.
Elbow injury claims
Claims for elbow injuries caused by falling onto a hard surface, resulting in fractures, ligament damage or ongoing pain.
Ankle injury claims
Help for people who suffered sprains, fractures or other ankle injuries after slipping, tripping or falling because of someone else’s negligence.
Understanding Your Rights
What is a slips, trips and falls claim?
A slip and fall claim is a personal injury claim brought because a floor, a pavement or a surface was not safe and somebody should have made it safe. You will see it written a dozen ways. Slips claims, slip claims, trip claims, fall claims, slip trip claim, slip fall claims, a slip and fall injury claim, trip and fall injury claims, a trip and fall accident claim and slip, trip, fall injury claims are all the same claim.
One distinction does matter. A trip turns on a defect that was already there, such as a raised paving slab or a trailing cable, so the case is about how long it had been there and who should have found it. A slip turns on something that arrived, usually a spillage, rainwater or ice, so the case is about how long it was on the floor and what the inspection routine was. Tell us which happened and we know which records to ask for first.
What slip and fall compensation covers
Two calculations. General damages for the injury itself, valued on the medical evidence. Special damages for what it has cost you: lost earnings, unpaid care from family, travel to appointments, private treatment, damaged glasses or phones.
Trip or fall compensation is worked out the same way whatever the accident is called, and the second calculation is where two identical injuries end up worth different amounts.
Can I claim for a fall that was partly my own fault?
Yes. Under section 1(1) of the Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act 1945 your claim is not defeated by your own share of the fault; the damages are reduced by it. A finding that you were 30% responsible pays 70%, not nothing.
Insurers open with this argument on most slip claims because people assume it ends the claim and stop.
Who is responsible for a slip and fall claim?
You do not need to work this out. Three duties cover almost every claim. An occupier owes you the common duty of care under section 2 of the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 whenever you are lawfully on their premises.
An employer must keep floors free from anything that may cause a person to slip, trip or fall under regulation 12 of the Workplace Regulations 1992. A highway authority must maintain the pavement under section 41 of the Highways Act 1980.
The scale of the problem
HSE figures for workplace slips, trips and falls
30%
of employer-reported (RIDDOR) non-fatal injuries to employees were slips, trips or falls on the same level, making it the most common kind of workplace accident by a wide margin.
133,000
Average annual same-level slip, trip and fall injuries (LFS, 2022/23–2024/25)
These figures are workplace only. There is no equivalent national reporting duty for falls in shops, public buildings or on pavements, so the true number across all three is higher.
Claim Value
What could your slip, trip or fall compensation be worth?
Slip injury compensation, trip injury compensation, slip and trip compensation, slips, trips, falls compensation and compensation for slip and fall injuries are all calculated the same way: the injury itself, plus what the accident has cost you. Nobody can value it before a medical expert has examined you, so we assess individually rather than publishing an average that mixes a bruised knee with a fractured hip.
Back Injury
Minor to severe
Recovery time and lasting impact affect the final amount
Wrist / Arm Injury
Minor to severe
Including fractures sustained bracing a fall
Head Injury
Mild to severe
Wide range depending on injury sustained
Psychological Injury
Varies by severity
Medical diagnosis required to support a claim
Knee / Leg Injury
Mild to severe
Assessed against long-term mobility impact
Loss of Earnings
100% of net
Until return to work
Not sure what your claim is worth?
Most people leave out unpaid care from family and the cost of help at home, which on a wrist or ankle injury is often the largest recoverable item after lost earnings. Tell us what you have stopped being able to do and we will tell you what it is worth.
The words people use
What is a fall claim?
A fall claim is a personal injury claim brought by someone injured in a fall that somebody else was responsible for. Whether you call it a fall claim, a trip and fall claim or a slip and fall claim makes no difference to the law. They are the same claim, and the words simply describe how you came to be on the floor.
Slip and fall claim You lost grip on the surface
A spillage, a wet floor, ice, a freshly polished surface, rain walked in through an entrance.
What decides it: the cleaning and inspection regime. How often the area was checked, whether there was a written schedule, whether it was followed that day, and whether the hazard was signed or cordoned while it was dealt with.
Trip and fall claim Your foot caught something
A raised paving slab, an uneven floor, a trailing cable, a kerb edge, an obstruction left in a walkway.
What decides it: how long the defect had been there and whether anyone inspected. The question is almost always knowledge. Did they know, or should they reasonably have known.
A fall from height From a ladder, platform or stairs
From scaffolding, a loading bay, a ladder or a staircase, rather than a fall on the level.
What decides it: whether the right equipment and edge protection were in place, whether the work was planned, and whether the people doing it were trained for it.
Why the vocabulary matters. People regularly decide they have no claim because they used the wrong word for it. Someone who tripped on a broken step assumes the firm advertising slip and fall claims is not for them. Someone who slipped on a wet floor assumes a page about trip and fall accident claims is about something else. It is all one thing, and you do not need to pick the right category before you ring.
The three things you have to show
Can I make a claim for a fall?
You can bring a fall claim where three things are true. Each one has to be established on evidence, and the third is where most claims are actually won or lost.
One Somebody owed you a duty
Almost always the straightforward part. An employer, the occupier of premises, or a highway authority will owe you a duty of care as a matter of law. It rarely needs arguing.
Two They fell short of it
Not that something went wrong, but that reasonable steps were not taken. No inspection system, a system that was not followed, a known defect left unrepaired, a spillage nobody dealt with.
Three That failure caused your injury
The link has to hold. This is where claims are most often lost, and it is why the evidence about what happened matters more than how badly you were hurt.
And the honest part. Falling over on somebody's premises is not in itself a claim. If a floor was clean, inspected on schedule and had nothing wrong with it, nobody is liable simply because you fell on it. Plenty of genuinely painful falls have nobody to blame for them. We would rather tell you that in a ten-minute call than three months later.
The question everybody asks first
What is the average payout for a slip and fall in the UK?
There is no useful average, and anybody quoting you one is quoting a number that describes nobody. An average mixing a bruised knee with a fractured hip is arithmetic, not information. What there is instead is a method, and it tells you what actually moves the figure in your own case.
Part oneThe injury itself
Legally called pain, suffering and loss of amenity. Assessed on independent medical evidence from a doctor instructed to examine you who does not act for either side.
A court valuing this part works from the Judicial College Guidelines, the published framework judges and solicitors use to value injuries consistently. It is guidance for valuing a claim rather than a promise of any figure, and the amount depends on what the medical evidence says about your injury, how long recovery took and what you are left with.
Part twoThe money you have lost
Legally called special damages. This part is not an estimate at all. It is evidenced item by item from documents:
- Earnings lost while unable to work, and earnings you will lose in future if you cannot return to the same role or hours
- Treatment, including physiotherapy, surgery and psychological treatment, and treatment still to come
- Care and help at home, including help given unpaid by family, which is valued and claimed rather than ignored
- Travel, prescriptions, equipment and adaptations
- Damaged property, including clothing and glasses
In serious falls the second part is frequently larger than the first. That is the most common surprise in these claims, and it is why an average payout figure for the injury tells you so little about what a claim is actually worth.
What actually moves the figure
- How long recovery takes. A soft tissue injury that resolves in two months and one still troubling you two years later are not close to each other.
- Whether anything is permanent. Ongoing pain, a visible scar, restricted movement, or a fear of stairs that has not gone away.
- Whether you got back to the same work. Usually the largest financial variable by a wide margin.
- Whether you needed care, and for how long, including care given by family who took time off to provide it.
Why compensation calculators tell you almost nothing
A calculator that returns a figure from three dropdown menus cannot know what your medical evidence will say, because that evidence does not exist yet. It cannot know whether you will be back at work in six weeks or not at all.
It is guessing, confidently, about the two things that determine the answer.
We do not give a figure before a claim has been assessed, and we would be cautious about any firm that does. A number quoted early and not met later is worse than no number at all, because people make decisions on it.
What we can tell you early. Whether you have a claim worth bringing. Which heads of loss apply to your situation, including ones people routinely forget to mention such as unpaid family care. Roughly how long it is likely to take. And, where an injury is serious and money is needed before the claim ends, whether an interim payment can be sought. That is a more useful conversation than a figure, and it costs nothing.
Where it happened
Falls in shops, supermarkets and restaurants
A shop, supermarket, cafe or restaurant owes visitors a duty to take such care as is reasonable to see they are reasonably safe. The argument is almost never about whether that duty exists. It is about whether the business had a proper system for finding and dealing with hazards, and whether it followed that system on the day you fell.
Before anything else: CCTV is usually gone within about 30 days. It is the single best piece of evidence in most of these claims and the one most often lost. After the retention period it is overwritten and nobody can recover it. If there is one reason to make contact in the first few weeks rather than the first few months, this is it.
The records that decide it
- The cleaning rota and inspection log. Whether the area was checked, how often, and whether the checks happened that day or were signed off in a block afterwards
- The accident book entry. Ask for a copy at the time if you can. If you did not, it still exists and can be requested
- Any report of the hazard before your fall. Another customer mentioning a spillage, or a staff member reporting a loose tile, transforms a claim, because it goes directly to what the business knew
- Staffing levels at the time. A supermarket that cut its cleaning cover on a wet Saturday afternoon is a different case from one that did not
You are entitled to ask for these and so are we. Businesses do not always hand them over willingly, and there is a formal process where they do not.
Restaurants and cafes bring their own issues
Falls in hospitality tend to involve different hazards from retail: spillages between tables that nobody has seen, floors near kitchen doors and dishwashing areas, steps between levels that are poorly lit or unmarked, trailing leads, and outdoor terraces that become slippery in rain.
Where food or drink was spilled by another customer, the question is not who dropped it. It is how long it was there and what system existed for spotting it.
If your fall was in a shop or supermarket specifically, we have written separately about shop injury claims and what a store is responsible for. The evidence points above apply either way.
Winter falls
Slipped on ice: who is responsible?
Whether you can claim slipped on ice compensation depends entirely on where you fell, and the answer is different in each case. A fall on a public pavement, in a supermarket car park and in a works yard are three separate legal questions, even if the ice looked identical.
Before anything else: ice melts. It is the only hazard in this area that physically removes itself within hours, often before anyone has thought about a claim. If you can, photograph it where you fell, with something in frame for scale, and photograph the wider area so it is clear whether anything had been gritted or cleared. Note the time and the temperature. If you cannot do it yourself, ask somebody to. Everything else in a winter claim is easier when that photograph exists.
On a public pavement or roadThe highway authority
There is a specific statutory duty here. Under the Highways Act 1980 a highway authority must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that safe passage along a highway is not endangered by snow or ice.
But these are the hardest ice claims to win. The same Act gives the authority a defence where it took such care as was reasonably required, and councils grit to a published priority policy that cannot cover every street. A residential road that was never on the gritting schedule is usually a defence rather than a breach.
Where these claims succeed is on departure from the policy: a priority route that was not treated, a treatment run that was missed or late, or a forecast that was available and not acted on. Those records exist and can be requested.
In a car park or on business premisesThe occupier
A supermarket forecourt, a retail park, a hospital car park, a petrol station, the approach to an office or a gym. Whoever occupies the premises owes visitors a duty to take such care as is reasonable in all the circumstances to see they are reasonably safe.
In practice the question is whether they had a winter plan and followed it. Did somebody check the forecast, was salt or grit actually applied, when, by whom, and was it recorded. A business that grits its entrance at seven in the morning and never looks again has a weaker position than one that monitored conditions through the day.
These are more winnable than pavement claims, because the area is smaller, the duty is more focused and the records are usually better.
Slipping on ice at workYour employer
Workplace regulations require that, so far as is reasonably practicable, the surface of every traffic route in a workplace is kept free from any substance that may cause a person to slip, trip or fall. Ice on a yard, a loading bay, an external staircase or the path between a car park and the door is squarely within that.
An employer is also expected to assess the risk in advance. Winter is not an unforeseeable event, and a workplace with no plan for frozen conditions is in a weak position.
You do not have to choose between your job and a claim. Claims are made against the employer's insurance, which they are legally required to hold, and it is unlawful to treat you badly for bringing one.
Outside somebody's home or shopUsually nobody
This surprises people. A householder or shopkeeper is generally under no legal obligation to clear the public pavement outside their property, and the fact that they did not is not usually a claim against them.
The position can change where somebody did something that actively made it worse rather than simply leaving it alone, or where the ice came from their property, such as a leaking pipe or a downpipe discharging across a footpath and freezing. That second scenario is more common than people expect and is worth mentioning if it applies.
If you are not sure which of these describes where you fell, describe the place and we will work out who it belongs to.
Being straight about winter claims. Ice claims are harder than most, particularly against a council, and a lot of them do not succeed. That is not a reason to assume yours will not. It is a reason to ask early, while the weather records, the gritting logs and any CCTV still exist, rather than in the spring when the ice is a memory and the records have been overwritten. If you think you may have a slip on ice compensation claim, a first conversation costs nothing and takes ten minutes.
Simple Process
How a slip and fall claim works
Three stages, and you are involved in the first and the last.
Almost everything in the middle happens without you, which is the part people are most surprised by and the reason starting early costs you nothing in effort.
Tell us about your accident
A free call establishes where you fell, who was responsible for that place and how long your symptoms have lasted. If the claim is viable we send the CCTV and records preservation requests the same week, because those are the documents that disappear.
We handle everything
We obtain your medical records, arrange an independent examination, quantify your losses and put the claim to whoever is legally responsible.
You receive compensation
Most slip, trip and fall claims settle by negotiation without anyone attending a hearing. Where proceedings are issued it is usually to protect the three year deadline while negotiation continues. Your compensation is paid directly to you.
Case Example
What a claim like yours can look like
“After slipping on an unmarked wet floor in a supermarket, I wasn’t sure I had a case. My solicitor explained clearly what I could claim for and dealt with the store’s insurer throughout, so I could focus on recovering.”
Sarah (Name changed)
Typical Outcome
Settled
Once liability was accepted and the medical evidence was in, this claim moved through to settlement without needing to go to court. There was no cost to the client at any stage. As with any claim, the details, timeline and value are specific to what happened, so your own case may look quite different.
Learn More
Related guides
Got Questions?
Slip and fall claims
your questions answered
Straight answers on eligibility, time limits, and what happens if the responsible party disputes what happened.
What counts as a slips, trips and falls claim?
Any injury caused by a hazard someone else had a duty to deal with and did not: a spillage with no warning sign, a raised paving slab, a trailing cable, a missing handrail or an unlit step. The hazard decides the claim, not how dramatic the fall was.
Can I claim if I was partly at fault?
Yes. Under the Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act 1945 your compensation is reduced by your share of the responsibility rather than refused. A 30% finding against you pays 70%.
Who is responsible if I do not know who to blame?
In a shop or public building it is usually the occupier, at work your employer, and on a pavement the highway authority, which for most streets in England is the county or unitary council rather than the district council. We identify the right defendant. You do not have to.
How long do I have to make a slip, trip or fall claim?
Three years from the accident under the Limitation Act 1980. A child has until their 21st birthday, and time does not run against an adult who lacks capacity to conduct the claim.
What does a no win no fee slip and trip claim cost me upfront?
Nothing. If the claim fails you pay us nothing. If it succeeds, our basic costs are recovered from the other side and a success fee is deducted from your damages, capped and agreed with you in writing before we start.
What is the law on slips, trips and falls in the UK?
There is no single slips and trips statute. Claims are brought in negligence, supported by the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 for premises, the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 for workplaces and the Highways Act 1980 for pavements. The Limitation Act 1980 sets the three year deadline and the Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act 1945 governs shared fault. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own rules; this page describes England and Wales.
The shop says the cleaning company was at fault, not them. Is that right?
Usually not, and section 2(4)(b) of the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 says when it is. An occupier escapes liability for a contractor’s bad work only if entrusting the work was reasonable, they checked the contractor was competent, and they took reasonable steps to satisfy themselves the work had actually been done. An occupier who hired cleaners and then never inspected the floor fails the third. We ask for the cleaning schedule, the inspection log and the contract before accepting that the occupier is the wrong defendant.
I tripped on a pavement. Why do councils refuse these claims?
Because of section 58 of the Highways Act 1980, which gives a highway authority a complete defence if it proves it took such care as was reasonably required to secure that the highway was not dangerous. The court must have particular regard to whether the authority knew, or could reasonably have been expected to know, that the defect was likely to cause danger. So the claim turns on their inspection records, not on how deep the defect was. Two things beat the defence: a report of the defect logged before your accident, and a photograph showing a defect old enough that it must have been there at the last inspection. Photograph it with a coin or ruler in frame, because intervention thresholds are measured in millimetres.
I slipped at work. Does breaking the regulations mean my employer is automatically liable?
No, and this changed in 2013. Regulation 12 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 requires floors to be kept free, so far as is reasonably practicable, from anything that may cause a person to slip, trip or fall. But since 1 October 2013, section 69 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 means breach of health and safety regulations is no longer actionable in itself. It is strong evidence of negligence, and the claim is brought in negligence with the regulation showing what a reasonable employer should have done. That is why a slip and fall at work claim needs the risk assessment and the cleaning records, not just proof the floor was wet.
Is my claim big enough to be worth bringing?
The threshold is not what your total losses are. Under rule 26.9 of the Civil Procedure Rules a personal injury claim goes to the small claims track, where legal costs are generally not recoverable, if the damages for pain, suffering and loss of amenity alone are £1,500 or less. That figure excludes lost earnings and every other head of loss. The £5,000 threshold you may have read about applies to road traffic claims, not to slips, trips and falls. So what decides it is how long your symptoms lasted and whether anything is permanent. A fractured wrist clears it comfortably. A bruised knee that settled in three weeks does not, however much work you missed. Tell us those two things and we will say honestly whether the claim is better brought without us.
Do I need a slip and fall solicitor or a slip and fall lawyer?
The same person. “Lawyer” is the general word and “solicitor” is the regulated profession, so a slip trip and fall lawyer, a trip and fall lawyer, a slip and fall accident lawyer, a slip and fall at work lawyer, a lawyer for slip and falls, a personal injury lawyer slip and fall, slip fall lawyers and lawyers for slips and falls all describe a solicitor when the case is in England and Wales. Slip and fall solicitors, slip trip and fall solicitors, slip trip solicitors, slip solicitors, trip injury solicitors and slips trips and falls solicitors are the same people again, and every one of ours is regulated by the SRA.
Get in Touch
Discuss your slip, trip or fall compensation claim
If you have been injured in a slip, trip or fall, our slip and fall solicitors will review your situation in a free, no-obligation call. We act across England and Wales, with most of our clients in Manchester, Cheshire, Macclesfield and the north west, and in Birmingham and the west midlands.
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