Accident at trinity centre in Aberdeen awarded £18,500

People walking through a shopping centre

Digby Brown’s Aberdeen office helped an elderly woman secure £18,500 in compensation following an accident, after the other side’s insurance company originally tried to settle her claim without paying her any of the compensation she was entitled to.

How did the accident happen?

The accident occurred when the woman was leaving a shop in Aberdeen’s Trinity Centre.

She slipped on a dangerously wet tile on the shop floor. It was quite a fright, she felt the pain immediately and felt dazed and confused.

An ambulance was called and she was treated at the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary hospital where she was informed that she had fractured her right shoulder and needed to wear a sling.

Impact of accident injuries

After leaving the hospital, she was in a considerable amount of pain. The sling had to be worn day and night making sleeping difficult as well as causing a lot of pain in her neck. As a result, she felt very ill and tired most of the time.

She required multiple trips to her GP and check-ups to the Fracture Clinical at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. However, as a result of the injury, she was unable to drive or even get a bus as any jolt to her shoulder caused a severe amount of pain so getting to and from places was not easy.

Cleaning around the house and cooking was not possible, so she was forced to rely on her daughter to help around the house. To speed up the healing process, she received physio and aquatherapy which helped her shoulder heal although it was painful and not very enjoyable.

It took around a year to fully get back on her feet again. Even three years later, she still gets occasional pain if blow drying or styling her hair and she struggles to lift her arm above head height.

Shopping centre offered compensation - although she had not made a claim

After the accident, the client received a letter from the insurance company of the shopping centre wishing to settle the matter without an admission of liability – although she had not made a claim for compensation.

Dealt with insurance company directly, without solicitors

She initially dealt with the insurance company directly rather than seeking the assistance of a solicitor. However, the insurers were very slow at moving the claim along.

In 3 years, she was running out of time to bring a claim for compensation against the insurers.

Help from Digby Brown making a claim

When she came to Digby Brown, our solicitors immediately raised the case in the Court of Session in Edinburgh before the case ran out of time.

Through Digby Brown’s expertise we managed to persuade the insurers to admit liability.