How I successfully sued my employer for £500,000
19 06 07 - 14:57The first thing I noticed was that the floor was filthy, so I put some music on and filled the mop bucket. Carefully carryin the bucket through to the shop floor I managed not to spill a single drop. I began washing the floor giving all the plug sockets a wide berth.
Ten minutes later the entire shop floor was glistening with water and metallised polish, and I went to the staff room to have a cigarette and empty the bucket. Part way through my cigarette I heard the shops phone ringing, forgetting that I had washed the floor I rushed through to answer the phone.
Part way across the floor I felt my feet fly out from underneath me and I landed heavily on my back.
The doctor told me that I had bruised my coxix and needed to rest for a week.
My employers denied liability and said that the accident was my fault, so a month after returning to work, I filed papers against them.
The company made no attempt to settle out of court so in June I found myself in court with my solicitor. The company argued that the accident had been my fault, however after much deliberation the court gave the following ruling
"This court has concluded that due to the plaintiff being unable to locate the 'wet floor' sign, the defendants failed in their legal responsibility to provide adequate warnings with regard to hazards in the work place. This failure means that a substantial hazard was not clearly identified and so led to the injuries sustained by the plaintiff.
This court therefore awards damages of 500 thousand pounds to the plaintiff. This court is also awarding the plaintiff half his legal costs"
So I am now £500000 richer and working for a new employer.
None of the above actually happened, however in this litigous society it could easily become more fact than fiction. Every piece of succesful litigation sets a precedent which is then referred to by other cases. It simply takes
one ill advised case to succeed and the UK could find itself embroiled in the litigation hell that currently dominates the US. This could destroy the countries economy, if a company could be sued for an employees own mistake (in this case forgetting he had washed the floor) then the prospect of doing business in the UK will inevitably become less attractive.
In recent years a woman (in the US) filed suit against her company because she hadn't been trained to sit in a chair properly. The reality is that she had left her chair further back than she thought and so missed it when she tried to sit down. Thankfully this lawsuit failed, but sooner or later a court is likely to agree with one of the self centred litigees and a precedent will be set.
I am a staunch believer that if an accident is even partially my fault then that is where the blame shall lie. The consequences of a successful litigation are too dire to imagine.
So please if you are thinking of filing a personal injury claim, stop and reflect on whether any of the blame can be attributed to you. It may seem that with "no win, no fee" you have nothing to lose, but if you win you could just change the UKs economy.
As a now removed piece of London grafitti once read "Please remain behind the bar at all times, and don't feed the lawyers"
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