If you have been injured through no fault of your own, you may have wondered whether you have the right to claim compensation – especially where companies are involved (for example, you may wonder how to file a lawsuit against walmart or how to start a claim against a museum or cinema chain). These queries are normal. Let’s look at some considerations surrounding whether your claim will be accepted.

Duty of care

The duty of a care is a real thing that you may never have considered. The basics of the duty of care are that no matter where you are and what you are doing (as long as you are outside of your own home), there is an expectation that the landlord / proprietor / local authority will have carried out a risk assessment and completed all work necessary to ensure your safety.

Part of the problem with the duty of care is that it gets ignored as a valid basis on which to start a claim for personal injury compensation – instead, people tend to believe that they were to blame for the injury or that they had a part to play in their injury (through carelessness) that would mean their claim would not be accepted. The important thing to remember is that you should not be reasonably expected to have to maintain a heightened sense of awareness in order to avoid injury in normal situations such as visiting a bank or walking along the street. This means that if an injury does occur, you are not to blame.

Don’t accept any form of compensation before you speak to a lawyer

Let’s take, for example, the scenario of slipping on a spilled drink in a restaurant. Management will naturally wish to downplay the accident and tidy away the spillage before anybody takes any photos, and they may attempt to offer you a range of compensation options such as free dining or a small pay out. If you accept any form of compensation, this could affect a later personal injury compensation claim. If you are concerned that your claim may not be accepted for these reasons, always consult a personal injury compensation lawyer for more information. Remember, your initial conversation with a law firm is typically free – charges for services rendered only come into play when the case has been accepted.

Start you claim before it’s too late

In the United States, the time frame within which you must begin your claim is known as the statute of limitations. The time frames vary depending on the type of claim and where you plan to make the claim, but in general you can expect the time frame to be 2 – 3 years. However, there are exceptions to this time limit. For example, you may not have known that your injury was caused by negligence on behalf of a third party (such as illnesses that follow exposure to dangerous chemicals that were unknown to you at the time). This means that even if the time limit has expired, it’s always worth speaking to a lawyer to discuss your options.

This is a contributed post and therefore may not reflect the views and opinions of this blog.