She was twenty-one and simply walking home through an industrial estate. Chains had been strung along the walls around a building; most had gone, but one remained, hanging low. Our client never saw it, caught her foot and went down, injuring her knee. The trip and fall claim that followed was resolved in June 2026 without an admission of liability, for a confidential sum.

It was more disruptive than it might sound. She was in real pain, out of work for three weeks, and could not get back to the gym for several months. It was her case that a low-hanging chain no one walking past could see was a danger and a trap, plain and simple.

How the claim was investigated

Rose Sweeney brought the trip-and-fall claim on our client’s behalf. A claim of this kind arises under the Occupiers Liability Act 1995, which sets out the duty an occupier owes to people who come onto their property. The question was whether the occupier had taken reasonable care to guard against a hazard that a person walking past would not readily see.

An engineer was instructed to examine the chains and the location, and to address how visible the remaining chain was to someone approaching it. That evidence was central to establishing how the accident had happened.

The outcome

The trip and fall claim was resolved in June 2026 by way of a settlement reached without admission of liability. The amount is confidential and is not published. Our client’s knee injury had by then resolved, and the settlement brought the matter to a close.

How Coleman Legal helped

Rose Sweeney handled this case from the outset. She instructed the engineer whose evidence addressed the visibility of the chain, gathered the evidence of our client’s injury and her time out of work, and negotiated with the insurer on her behalf. She kept our client informed throughout and set out the options before any decision was taken.