You can claim for a fall, slip, or trip at work, provided your employer failed to take reasonable steps to keep the workplace safe and that this failure led to your injury.
Slips and trips are the single most common cause of workplace injury, comprising 30% of all injuries reported to the HSE in 2024-2025. Once you count the incidents that are never formally reported, an estimated 133,000 workers are hurt this way every year.
However, while such incidents might be relatively common, it does not make compensation automatic.
There is a line between an accident that was simply unfortunate and one your employer is liable for, and almost every claim is decided by which side of it you fall on. This guide shows you exactly how to tell which side yours is on, and what to do about it if your employer is at fault.
This article was written by Katie Wright, Senior Associate Solicitor and Head of Civil Litigation at WHN Solicitors. Katie works in the dispute resolution team and advises across a range of litigation matters, including personal injury claims.
Do I Have a Claim If I Slipped at Work?
You have a claim for liability following a slip, trip, or fall at work if three things are true:
- Your employer owed you a duty of care.
- They breached it.
- That breach caused your injury.
As an employee you are owed that duty automatically, so the first point is rarely in question. The second two points are where the potential grey-area comes.
So the question almost always comes down to whether your employer breached their duty. This is the part that is genuinely hard to judge from the inside, and it is where most people are unsure whether what happened to them counts.
When is Your Employer Actually at Fault?
A breach of duty of care means your employer failed to do something a reasonable employer would have been expected to do about a hazard they either knew about and failed to act on, or one they should have spotted prior to an incident occurring. The clearest test is whether they can be deemed to have had a reasonable opportunity to deal with any hazards and opted not to take it.
- A spillage left on a floor with no cleaning rota or routine checks is a breach. A reasonable employer would have had a system in-place to catch it.
- A colleague dropping something moments before you walk through it and fall may not be considered a breach, because no employer could realistically have dealt with it quickly enough.
The HSE (Health and Safety Executive) expects employers to manage risks of accident by:
- Implementing strict cleaning regimes and spill procedures.
- Installing suitable flooring and adequate lighting.
- Insisting on sensible footwear as uniform.
- Maintaining basic housekeeping standards at all times.
Footwear is worth singling out, because it cuts both ways. Being injured in footwear your employer told you to wear points to their failure; being injured because you ignored footwear they provided points to yours.
Most workplace slips and trips trace back to one of these basic measures being absent, rather than to a genuine freak accident.
Was the Floor Wet? When Does a Spillage Become a Claim?
A wet floor becomes a claim when your employer knew, or should have known, about it and failed to either have it cleared or warn you.
Contamination by water, cleaning fluid, or a spill is the single most common cause of workplace slips, and the questions that decide liability are practical ones:
- Was there a cleaning schedule?
- Were warning signs put out?
- How long had the floor been wet before you slipped?
A spill cleaned promptly with signs in place is not usually a breach. A spill that sat unmarked through a busy shift usually is. The same logic covers water walked in from outside, a leaking fridge or dripping roof.
The issue is never simply that the floor was wet and someone slipped. It is whether your employer had a system to spot the hazard and deal with it before anyone was hurt.
What if I Tripped or Fell Rather Than Slipped?
The same test applies to trips and falls. Trips and falls usually come down to a hazard the employer left in place. Common examples include:
- Trailing cables.
- Uneven or damaged flooring.
- Worn matting.
- Obstructed walkways.
- Poor lighting on a stairwell or another high-risk area.
- Ice left ungritted in a routinely used outdoor space.
Poor housekeeping, including items left in walkways and access routes, is behind most workplace trips and is exactly the kind of risk an employer is expected to manage rather than tolerate.
The hazard may change; but the question of whether they had a reasonable opportunity to fix it before anybody gets hurt does not.
What If The Accident Was Partly My Fault? Will That Impact a Settlement?
Being partly at fault does not stop you claiming for slips, trips, and falls at work. If you contributed to your own accident, for example by not using equipment you were given, your compensation can be reduced by the share you were responsible for, but the claim itself survives.
This is called contributory negligence, and it is a reduction, not a bar.
It also cuts the other way: if you were not properly trained or warned, what may appear at first to be your mistake, often turn out to be seen as the employer’s.
Can I Be Sacked for Claiming Against My Employer?
No. You cannot be dismissed simply for making a genuine claim, and if an employer tried, it would be unfair dismissal in its own right, giving you a separate claim against them.
Any compensation you win is met by your employer’s compulsory liability insurer, not out of their own pocket, so a claim is not the personal attack on your employer that people often fear it is.
Many people worry that bringing a claim will cost them their job. Legally, it should not. Employees have important protections against being treated unfairly for exercising their rights, and we explain them in full in our dedicated guide: Can I be sacked after a work accident? Your legal rights explained.
What Can I Claim Compensation For?
A successful claim covers two things: the injury itself and its financial knock-on.
The first is compensation for the pain, and for the effect the injury has had on your day-to-day life, your work, your independence, and the things you previously enjoyed but can no longer do.
The second covers what the accident has actually cost you financially: lost earnings while you were off work, treatment and rehabilitation, travel to appointments, care you needed while you recovered, and any adaptations to your home or routine.
What it all adds up to depends entirely on the severity of the injury and how it has affected you, which is something we assess case by case. If you had a pre-existing condition that the accident made worse, that doesn’t stop you claiming.
You can read more about how we handle these claims on our personal injury page. Additionally, for the wider picture on claiming after any workplace accident, see our guide: Accidents in the workplace and how to successfully claim.
What Should I Do Straight After a Slip At Work?
The absolute first thing you should do after suffering a slip, trip, or fall at work is report the incident and get it written into the accident book. This should be done the same day. Then, go see a GP as soon as possible so your injury is documented by a professional.
If possible, try to have the hazard photographed before it is cleared away and note anybody who saw it happen.
It is imperative that you keep copies of everything regarding an incident. This includes any emails you exchange with your employer.
No matter how small it may seem at the time, these are the things that decide a claim months later, and most of them disappear within hours of the accident.
How Long Do I Have To Make a Claim?
In most cases you have three years to make a claim, but the clock does not always start on the day of the accident. It usually runs from the date you were injured, but where an injury only emerges or is diagnosed later, it can run from the date you realised, or should have realised it was linked to what happened at work.
Limited exceptions apply: for children, the three years does not begin until their eighteenth birthday, and for someone who lacks the mental capacity to claim, the time limit can be paused entirely.
Three years can feel like a long time, but it is shorter than it sounds once you account for medical treatment, recovery, and gathering evidence.
As a claim brought closer to the deadline is harder to run, the sooner you seek advice, the more straightforward your claim tends to be. The time a claim then takes to resolve is a separate question, one which we cover in detail in: How long does a personal injury claim take to settle in 2026? Discover UK timelines.
Can WHN Solicitors Help With a Slip, Trip, or Fall at Work Claim?
If you have been injured in a slip, trip, or fall at work in the last three years, and you are not sure whether you have a claim, the quickest way to find out is to ask someone who understands these cases.
Our personal injury solicitors will look at how your accident happened, tell you honestly whether your employer is likely to have breached its duty, and explain what your claim could be worth, all in an initial consultation.
We work on a no win, no fee basis, so there is no financial risk in finding out where you stand. You will not pay us anything if your claim does not succeed, and any claim is met by your employer’s insurer rather than coming out of their pocket, so it need not affect your working relationship.
To talk through what happened, fill in our contact form to request a callback. Alternatively, contact Katie Wright directly on 01200 408303 or by email katie.wright@whnsolicitors.co.uk. She will discuss whether you have a case before you decide if you should take it any further.
