Whether it happened in a pub, a hotel, a shopping centre, a sports facility, or on private land — if a property owner or occupier failed to maintain their premises reasonably and you were injured as a result, Irish law gives you the right to seek compensation.
Under the Occupiers' Liability Act 1995, the owner or controller of any premises owes a duty of care to visitors to take reasonable care to ensure that visitors do not suffer injury while on the property.
This applies to shops, pubs, restaurants, hotels, gyms, sports grounds, car parks, stairwells, private houses, and rented accommodation. The duty extends to the condition of the building, the maintenance of fixtures and fittings, and the management of foreseeable hazards.
CCTV footage from commercial premises is routinely deleted after 28 to 31 days. If your accident was captured on camera, this footage needs to be preserved urgently. A solicitor can write to the occupier requesting its preservation. Do not delay on this if you think there may be footage.
Tomás was leaving a pub in Galway on a Thursday evening when he caught his foot on a cracked stone step at the entrance. He went down sharply, fracturing two bones in his foot and badly spraining his wrist. He was on crutches for eight weeks and missed a month of work.
The pub's response was immediate — and unhelpful. The manager suggested Tomás had been drinking, that it was dark, and that customers needed to watch where they were going. There was no mention of the fact that the step had been visibly cracked for several months and had been pointed out to staff on previous occasions.
Tomás's solicitor obtained a statement from a former employee who confirmed the step had been damaged since the previous winter and had been raised as a safety concern internally without action being taken.
The pub's insurer initially denied liability entirely. The case was eventually settled before it reached court.
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