Occupiers’ liability claims—lawful visitors

Produced in partnership with Andrew Wilson

Practice notes

Occupiers’ liability claims—lawful visitors

Produced in partnership with Andrew Wilson

Practice notes

Background

The Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 (OLA 1957) was enacted to provide for a ‘common duty of care’ owed by occupiers of premises. The duty was ‘common’ in that it was owed to various categories of lawful or authorised visitors such as invitees, licensees and those whose right to be on the premises arose from a contract.

OLA 1957 was introduced to replace the rules of the common law to regulate the duty owed by an occupier of premises to their visitors.

The common duty of care is not owed to trespassers who may have rights arising from the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1984 (OLA 1984). For further guidance on the duty owed by an occupier to unauthorised visitors, see Practice Note: Unauthorised visitors—the duty of care.

The duty of care

An occupier of premises is under a duty to their lawful visitors to take such care as in all the circumstances of the case is reasonable to see that the visitor will be reasonably safe when using the premises for the purposes for which they are invited or permitted

Andrew Wilson

Consultant Solicitor

Andrew has more than 25 years’ experience of working in the fields of personal injury and occupational disease litigation, acting for both claimants and defendants. He trained at L Bingham & Co, gaining early experience in a number of important high profile claims involving the MIB. During the 1990s Andrew worked at Hextalls and then Kennedys, predominantly for defendants across a range of motor, employers’ liability and public liability matters many of which involved serious injuries or death. More recently, he has dealt with cases for claimants who have suffered serious injuries or occupational disease. He was a partner in a large specialist practice. He has provided seminars to solicitors and other legal professionals both for an external conference company and in house on the workings of the Civil Procedure Rules in the context of personal injury claims, amongst other subjects.

He has now set up his own legal consultancy, providing advice and support to solicitors, particularly a specialist London practice, in connection with fatal accidents and very serious injury cases such as brain injury, mostly in the High Court. He has continued to develop his education and training activities, providing seminars and contributing articles and commentaries to legal information services.

Since his training, Andrew has retained a particular interest in issues of motor indemnity and the operation of the Road Traffic Act and Article 75.

Jurisdiction(s):

United Kingdom

Key definition:

Visitor definition

What does Visitor mean?

A person who makes an official visit of inspection of an institution.

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