A fall in a shop or supermarket: the occupier's duty and the first week

You slipped or tripped in a shop, a supermarket, a pub or a gym, you are hurt, and you want to know what to do. This guide sets out the duty the occupier owes you, the record to make before you leave, the CCTV to ask for at once, what the insurer will say, and the two dates. It does not decide whether the occupier took reasonable care; that is a question for the Board's Authorisation and a court.

The occupier's duty

The Occupiers' Liability Act 1995 sets out what anyone in control of premises owes the people on them. To a visitor, which is what a customer is, section 3 imposes the common duty of care: to take such care as is reasonable in all the circumstances to ensure that the visitor does not suffer injury or damage by reason of any danger existing on the premises. The Act lowers the duty for recreational users and trespassers, but a customer in a shop is a visitor.

Reasonable care is the test. The Act does not make an occupier an insurer of every fall. A court asks what the occupier knew or ought to have known about the danger, what system it had for inspecting and cleaning, whether that system was followed, and whether a warning was given. The spilled drink, the grape on the floor, the loose mat and the unlit step are the usual facts. Whether the occupier's system was reasonable is argued on the evidence, and the evidence is what you gather this week.

Before you leave: the accident book

Report the fall to the manager on duty before you leave the premises. Ask for it to be entered in the accident book with the time, the place, what you slipped or tripped on, and your name and number. Ask for a copy of the entry, a photograph of it, or its reference number.

If you were taken to hospital first, report it by phone or email the same day or the next. A report made at once is the first independent record that the fall happened where and when you say it did.

The floor, the sign and the photographs

Photograph the floor before it is cleaned: the liquid, the item, the mat, the step. Photograph any sign and where it stood, from a distance, so the picture shows what a person walking in would have seen. Photograph your footwear and keep it. Photograph the injury as it develops.

A wet floor sign matters, but not in the way insurers sometimes suggest. A sign placed after the fall, a sign left out all day as routine, or a sign where no one approaching the spill would see it, is a different thing from a sign beside a fresh spill that was being dealt with. The photographs are what let a court tell the difference later.

CCTV: ask at once

Most shops and supermarkets record their floors. Footage is kept for a short period, often days or weeks, before it is overwritten. Ask in writing, within days, that the recording of the fall and of the period before it be preserved.

You have a right under GDPR to a copy of footage in which you appear. The Data Protection Commission explains the right of access, and the letter builder writes the request. Send it to the store and to its head office. An occupier that has been asked to preserve footage and did not will have to explain why.

Witnesses

Take the names and numbers of anyone who saw the fall or the state of the floor, including staff. Ask them to write a few lines now, with the date, rather than in a year. A witness who saw the spill there ten minutes before you fell is worth more than any argument.

The doctor and the record

See a doctor the same day, even if you walked away. Say how the fall happened and describe every symptom. The record made that day is the first evidence of the injury, and the Board's medical report, the Medical Assessment Form (Form B), is written by the treating doctor or GP. Keep every receipt from the start; the Board's making-a-claim page says expenses can be sent after the application.

What the shop's insurer will say

The occupier's public liability insurer, or a claims handler acting for it, may contact you. It may say that a sign was in place, that the floor was inspected minutes before, that you were not looking where you were going, or that the store has no record of the fall. None of these is a finding. Each is a position that the evidence answers.

Under the Central Bank's Consumer Protection Code an insurer dealing with a claimant must act honestly and fairly. That does not make a recorded statement a neutral thing, and an early offer is an offer to end the claim before the injury is known. Say that you will reply in writing. Do not sign a settlement or a discharge before the injury has settled; the direct settlement guide explains why.

Gyms, pubs, hotels and short lets

The same duty applies to every occupier: a gym and its equipment, a pub and its stairs, a hotel and its bathroom floor, a short let or Airbnb and its balcony, a landlord and the common areas of a building. The accident book may be called an incident report, and the insurer may be the host's platform cover rather than a shop's policy, but the Act, the record, the CCTV request and the two dates are the same. Where the premises is a workplace and you are the employee, the accident at work guide applies instead.

The one-month letter and the two years

The section 8 notice is a short letter to the occupier stating the nature of the wrong alleged: a fall on a wet floor at a named place on a named date. It does not describe your injuries, argue fault or name a figure. Served late without reasonable cause, it lets a court draw inferences and refuse or reduce your costs. The section 8 guide explains it. Address it to the company that operates the premises; the name is on the receipt, the lease board or the Companies Registration Office.

The two years run from the fall or from the later date of knowledge. A Board application pauses the clock while it is open and for six months after the Authorisation. The time-limit guide explains the date of knowledge and the last safe day.

The Board

Nearly every personal injury claim in Ireland goes first to the Injuries Resolution Board (still searched as PIAB; see the glossary). Section 12 of the 2003 Act means a claim cannot go to court until the Board has dealt with it or issued an Authorisation.

The application is the Board's online form (€45 online, €90 by post), the medical report on Form B and proof of identity. You name the occupier as respondent and its insurer if you know it. The respondent has 90 days to consent to an assessment. The Board then assesses on the documents, on the assumption that the respondent is fully liable, and must do so within nine months of consent. Where the occupier's insurer declines, an Authorisation issues and the claim may go to court, where liability is argued on the evidence you gathered. The lead Board guide walks through each step.

The Board's Award Values Report for July to December 2025 gives a median award in public liability cases of €14,118, up from €13,858. That is the middle award across every public liability claim it assessed, with expenses included, and not a figure for any injury. The figures page carries it with its date.

What not to do

Do not leave without reporting the fall. Do not post about it on social media. Do not describe the injury as more, or less, than it is: section 26 of the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004 requires a court to dismiss a claim that is false or misleading in a material respect, and the Board refers suspected fraud. Do not sign anything for the insurer before the injury has settled.

Where this leaves you

You have the order of things: the accident book before you leave, the photographs, the CCTV request within days, the doctor, the one-month letter, the two years, the Board. The first-week checklist prints these steps for a fall on premises, with the sources beside them.