If you have been injured through tripping, slipping or falling on a defect whilst out and about on the highways, whether it’s from tripping on a raised paving slab, or falling down because of a pothole in the road, you are eligible to initiate a claim with the local highways authority of council.
Every stretch of land is under the jurisdiction of a local council or some branch of highways authority; their responsibility is to ensure that all areas within their jurisdiction are regularly inspected and maintained and rectify any defect that may appear.
If you end up injuring yourself because of a defect in the highway, I, unfortunately, have some rather grim news for you. We here at The Injury Lawyers do not like to mollycoddle you when it comes to the serious business of making claims. We tell you straight, right from the start, whether we think you have a good claim or not. In many instances, it’s difficult to tell without some form of investigation with the other side on our Genuine No Win, No Fee basis. But what I can tell you is that making a claim against your local council or a highways authority is a very difficult process.
Now, don’t let this put you off from claiming. You should always give it a go, because it’s highly unlikely you will have to attend a court hearing, and it’s highly likely you will know the results of the council investigation within four to six months or so.
But I’m sure the real question on your mind is: why is it so difficult to claim against the council?
The thing is their duty only extends to inspecting and maintaining their jurisdiction of land on a reasonable and practicable basis. In all fairness, the way its worded is pretty open ended; reasonable and practicable.
What is classed as reasonable and practicable is on many instances down to the council or authority themselves. A particular area will be classified normally based on the rate of use of the area; i.e. a very busy main road is likely to be inspected every three months, whereas a small country pathway may only be inspected on an annual basis.
Unfortunately, defects don’t necessarily develop over years and years. A pothole can develop after a stint of cold weather, or a section of paving could break loose from a lorry parking over it. So the problem you face is that, if the council or authority responsible can prove that they have inspected and maintained their area of land in accordance with their policy, they can defend your claim.
Under Section 58 of the Highways Act, if they can prove that they have reasonably and practicably kept up with their inspections and maintenance regimes, they will not have any duty to compensate you whatsoever. Even if you fractured your back or neck and could no longer walk for life, they are not liable to compensate you if they have done their job correctly by law.
The reason they can call upon their special defence is because, as a public body funded by the taxpayer, they cannot be expected to keep an eye on the entire country 24 hours a day, seven days a week. What they must do is have their reasonable and practicable regimes in place to try and prevent any incidents from occurring as much as they can.
So – what you need to do is instruct a firm of specialist personal injury lawyers to act on your behalf on a Genuine No Win, No Fee basis. They will investigate with their other side and ascertain whether they can defend the claim or not. If they can, you should ensure that you are never charged a penny for the case losing. If your case is a winner or your lawyers fight all the way as we (on many occasions) will fight for a cause where we believe a particular council’s defence of the claim is unreasonable, you will still never be charged.
So, feel free to give us a call and we will see if we can help you out.
