Have you sustained an injury from an accident due to a pothole or a manhole, or another street defect?
Whether you were on foot, bicycle, or in a car, you may be able to claim. The chance of you winning your claim really depends on the law set out in the Highways Act 1980. The section in particular which most commonly applies is Section 58. This set out the standard guidelines for authorities in regards to inspection regimes and how dangerous the defect actually is to the public.
I’ve had an accident, what now?
When you’ve had an accident involving a pothole, the first thing you should do is take a note of the road name and location. It’s all right remembering the name of the road you had your accident on, but if you need to go back to the scene to gather extra information to support your claim, it can be difficult to locate exactly where the pothole is. For this reason, any markers as close as possible to the pothole are absolutely essential. Things like shops, bins, post boxes; anything significant on the road which would be enough information to allow any other person to locate the pothole.
If, like most people, you carry a mobile phone on you with a camera, then ideally this should be used to take photos of the pothole. Take as many photos as you can from every different angle. It would be a good idea to also transfer this onto a computer, or print the photographs, just to be safe in case you lose them off your phone!
I’ve gathered all the information and evidence I can, now what?
Whether you’ve sprained your ankle or broken your leg, the severity of your injury, unfortunately doesn’t contribute as to how likely you are to win your claim. As mentioned above, this really depends on the depth of the pothole and how often it is inspected. Section 58 states that the authority (such as your local Council), have a requirement to have inspection periods in place. The problem with this is, depending on when your accident is between their inspection period, depends on how easily they can defend themselves against your claim using the Highways Act 1980.
For example, if your accident was on the 1st of February, and on that type of road, the inspection period was every three months, with the previous one being on the 1st January, then the Council in question could argue that as your accident was in between the inspection periods, their last inspection was only a month ago and they shouldn’t be at fault. Unless the Council has had any previous complaint or notification of the pothole, then it may prove difficult to win your case if they are able to defend themselves under Section 58.
However, another factor which could determine whether or not you could claim compensation for your accident depends on Section 41 of the 1980 Act. This states that the authority has a duty to ‘ensure as reasonably practicable‘ that the public are to remain safe when using the highway in any way. Nowadays, solicitors tend to use the one-inch rule. This basically means that if the pothole is over one inch in depth, then you would have a significant chance in winning your claim, if it is under one inch, then it may prove a little more difficult for you. Presumably when you had your accident, you didn’t have a tape measure with you, which is why it’s crucial for you to be able to return to the scene if you need to collect this evidence.
Either way, the only way you’d really be able to find out whether you have a potential claim is to speak to a specialised advisor who’ll be able to give you friendly, expert advice. Give The Injury Lawyers a call today, to see how much you can claim.
