By Stephen Hudson. Last Updated 4th September 2025. To be entitled to make a fall at work compensation claim, you must prove that your employer was in breach of their duty of care, directly resulting in your injuries. Accident at work claims should typically be made within three years of the incident; employers will typically have employers’ liability insurance to cover compensation pay-outs. Your compensation could include an award for physical and mental pain and suffering (general damages), as well as financial losses such as lost earnings and medical expenses (special damages).
You may therefore be wondering, “How can I sue my employer for a slip and fall?” If you’re asking this question, our guide can help. We will explain how slips and trips at work can happen, and we will look at the injuries a slipping accident can cause. Moreover, we will explain how to claim against your employer if their negligence caused your injuries.
To see if you can sue for a slip and fall at work, contact Legal Expert today. We can offer you free legal advice on claiming compensation for an accident. Moreover, we could connect you with a skilled personal injury lawyer to handle your claim. They can handle your claim on a No Win No Fee basis, which means that your lawyer takes on the financial risk, not you. So contact us today to begin your claim.
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Can I Sue My Employer For A Slip And Fall In The Workplace?
Employers owe their staff a duty of care to take reasonable steps to ensure their health and safety in the workplace. This is established by certain legislation, including the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The exact tasks an employer should carry out to fulfil their duty of care will depend on the type of workplace they operate in. Tasks may include conducting regular safety inspections of work areas and addressing or removing safety hazards, such as spills, as soon as they are reported. If such measures are not carried out properly, this could ultimately lead to a slip and fall accident at work.
You may be asking ‘Can I sue my employer for a slip and fall?’ It may be possible for you to do this if the following applies:
- Your employer owed you a duty of care.
- Your employer breached this duty, causing a fall or slip at work.
- The slipping accident at work led to your becoming injured.
To learn more about whether you’re eligible to start a slip and fall at work claim, you can contact our advisors for free either online or by calling our team.
What Is The Time Limit To Sue My Employer For A Slip At Work?
Generally speaking, the time limit to sue your employer for a slip at work is 3 years from the accident date, as established by the Limitation Act 1980. There are, however, some exceptions to the standard time limit.
Exceptions to the time limit are:
- Persons under 18 at the time of the accident have the 3-year limit paused until their 18th birthday.
- In cases where the injured person does not have sufficient mental capacity to make a fall at work claim, the time limit will be halted indefinitely, unless they regain this capacity. Then the 3-year time limit will run from this date.
In order to give such persons ample opportunity to start a claim, a suitable adult can be appointed by the court to act as their litigation friend. Litigation friends are assigned decision-making powers over the claim and coordinate with the injured person’s solicitor in order to act in their best interests. In the event a minor wins their claim, any compensation is held by the Court Funds Office (CFO) until they reach adulthood.
To ask our advisors, “Can I sue my employer for a slip and fall?” and to find out more about the relevant time limit to your particular circumstances, contact our team today using the details provided below.
How Can Workplace Slips And Falls Happen?
You may be wondering if you can sue your employer for a slip and fall at work. If you can show that the accident and injuries were due to your employer’s negligence, then you may be able to.
Here are some examples of how a slip and fall accident can happen in the workplace:
- Passers-by can slip on a wet floor. Cleaners should put up signposts to warn passers-by about a wet floor.
- Spillages on the floor, such as a spilt drink, can cause slipping accidents if not attended to.
- A leak that isn’t fixed can cause a build-up of liquid on the floor. This, if not marked by a floor sign, could cause a slip and fall.
How Do Slip And Fall Claims Against Your Employer Work?
To claim against your employer for a slip and fall at work, you must provide evidence to support your claim. You could use your medical records to prove that you were injured. What’s more, you’d attend a medical assessment as part of the claims process. We discuss this in the section below.
You can also collect the following evidence to support your claim:
- Photographs of the hazard that caused your injuries
- Photographs of your injuries, if they are visible
- A copy of the report, in your company’s incident logbook
- Witness contact details so you can get statements at a later date
- CCTV footage of your accident
- Receipts or other financial documents that show any purchases you have made because of your accident
To sue your employer for a slip and fall, you’d need evidence. If you’re unsure about the evidence you have, why not contact our advisors to discuss it?
Slip And Fall At Work Compensation Amounts In The UK
After addressing the question, ‘Can I sue my employer for a slip and fall?’, you must be wondering how much compensation you could claim. Your fall at work compensation may include the following heads:
- General Damages: This is compensation for the injuries you suffered due to the fall or slip at work.
- Special Damages: This is compensation for the financial losses you incurred because of your injuries
You may have to appear for an independent medical assessment to determine the extent of your fall at work injuries. This would serve to document your injuries in the form of a medical report. If you make your claim with us, we’ll try our best to ensure your convenience by arranging the medical appointment at your preferred date and location.
Apart from the medical report, your solicitor or the person responsible for valuing your claim could also refer to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). This is a list of compensation figures for various kinds of injuries. You can refer to the table below for some of the figures from the JCG. However, you must note that these are only guidelines, and the first row isn’t from the JCG.
| Category Of Injury | Category Of Severity | Guideline Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple severe injuries and special damages, such as care costs | Severe | Up to £500,000+ |
| Brain | Moderately Severe | £267,340 to £344,150 |
| Hip | Severe (ii) | £75,550 to £95,680 |
| Leg | Severe (iii) serious | £47,840 to £66,920 |
| Arm | Injuries resulting in permanent and substantial disablement | £47,810 to £73,050 |
| Hand | Serious | £35,390 to £75,550 |
| Hand | Severe finger fractures | Up to £44,840 |
| Elbow | Less severe injuries | £19,100 to £39,070 |
| Ankle | Moderate | £16,770 to £32,450 |
| Foot | Moderate | £16,770 to £30,500 |
As explained above, you may be able to claim special damages or compensation for financial losses due to your injuries. You could claim for the following:
- Medical costs such as prescriptions, physiotherapy and travelling to appointments.
- Loss of earnings
- Professional care or the care undertaken by a loved one
- Home or vehicle adaptations due to resulting disability
- Disability equipment
To prove the above, you could use receipts, payslips and bank statements.
If you need help in determining fall at work compensation in your case, use our compensation calculator or speak to a member of our team.
Talk To A Solicitor About Your Slip And Fall Claim
If you have an eligible fall at work claim, our team could connect you with one of our specialist accident at work solicitors. Our solicitors can do many things to make the claims process as easy as possible for you. For example, they can:
- Gather your evidence.
- Correspond with your employer on your behalf.
- Explain legal jargon.
- Update you regularly through the trip and slip at work claims process.
- Ensure the compensation is accurate and fair.
- Ensure the claims limitation period is adhered to.
What’s more, all of our solicitors work with their clients on a No Win No Fee basis, specifically through a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). What this means is that you don’t pay anything for their work via solicitor fees:
- Upfront.
- During the whole claims process.
- If the claim fails.
As such, if your fall at work claim is successful, your solicitor will keep a small percentage of your compensation for their work. This small percentage is known as the success fee, and is legally capped to ensure that the client always keeps the majority of the compensation.
So, if you’ve had a fall at work and are wondering, “Can I sue my employer for a slip and fall?”, please contact us today to find out your claim eligibility. You could potentially be connected with one of our No Win No Fee solicitors to work with you on your claim. You can talk to us for free by:
- Calling us on 0800 073 8804 to see if you can begin your claim
- Using our contact us via our website
- Or using the Live Support widget in the corner of your page to ask an advisor a question right now.
Related Employee Accident Claims
You may find these guides helpful if you wish to claim compensation for an accident:
- How to make an accident at work claim
- Find out who pays your medical bills if you are injured at work
- Case study: £22,000 compensation for an electric shock at work
- An HSE guide to the Work at Height Regulations 2005
- A guide to basic health and safety for businesses, from the HSE
- An NHS overview of head injuries and concussion
We hope the question, “Can I sue my employer for a slip and fall?” has been answered, but please feel free to reach out for further advice.