Mrs Elizabeth Douglas was on a coach holiday with her husband when she suffered a fall that led to the rest of her holiday being ruined. She was staying at a well-known hotel in Blackpool and after having a swim in the hotel’s pool decided to use the Jacuzzi. But as Mrs Douglas climbed the steps to enter the Jacuzzi one of the wooden steps broke into several pieces and she fell, seriously hurting her leg and shoulder.

For Mrs Douglas and her husband it meant the rest of their holiday was effectively over. She was in such a high degree of pain that she wasn’t able to do any of the things her and her husband had planned including visiting many of the local sights. When she got back home Mrs Douglas contacted the hotel to try and come to agreement with them over compensation for her loss of her enjoyment on holiday and for the injuries she had suffered. She met with indifference and non-co-operation from the hotel management.

It was then that her husband said that as a retired member of a trade union she should speak to her former unions’ lawyers. That’s where Thompsons came in. When Elizabeth contacted Thompsons she spoke with Tracy McCartney who is a lawyer who specialises in helping people who have suffered this kind of accident. Tracy began by assembling the best medical evidence to demonstrate the level of injury suffered by Mrs Douglas and she also learned that staff at the hotel had in the past expressed concern over the state of the Jacuzzi step.

When this evidence was presented to the hotel’s management they very quickly made a substantial offer of compensation to Mrs Douglas that both she and Tracy found to be acceptable.

According to Mrs Douglas her settlement made her feel completely vindicated “When I tried to get this sorted out by myself I was simply shooed away by the hotel management. They obviously thought a pensioner could be ignored. But when I went back with Thompsons on my side they changed their tune. It was a point of principle really. My holiday was ruined and I was badly hurt through no fault of my own, why should anyone accept that. At first I was a bit reluctant to speak to lawyers. I thought they would be too fancy to deal with the likes of me. With Thompsons nothing could have been more different from that. I found Tracy to be kind, helpful and very sympathetic about what had happened. She was always there to take my phone calls and made sure I was kept up to date all the time. I really would recommend Tracy and Thompsons to anyone.”

Mrs Douglas’ lawyer Tracy McCartney commented “Elizabeth is a really lovely old lady who should never have been treated like this. Her holiday was ruined and she was badly injured. But it was only when Thompsons became involved that the hotel treated her claim seriously. It really was a pleasure to get this sorted out for her and the substantial level of money that the hotel agreed to pay her just shows that she was right to pursue this. It also shows how important it is to have expert lawyers on your side.”