When injured in the street, most people are the victim of a trip or fall accident caused by defective paving or potholes. But slipping accidents can be equally as dangerous, caused by the same sorts of defects.
You could slip on the edge of a pothole, or slip on broken and crumbled concrete around a defect. A loose paving slab or cobble stone could move and cause you to slip.
The law is generally the same; as long as the defect was the cause of the injury, you may have a valid slip, tip or fall injury claim for compensation. In fact, slipping accidents can sometimes be worse if you twist your knee or your back. You could easily cause serious ligament damage even if you don’t end up falling to the ground.
So if you are the victim of a slipping accident caused by a defect on the streets, what are your rights when it comes to making a claim for personal injury compensation?
Highways Act 1980
This important piece of legislation states that the local council or responsible highways agency has a duty to reasonably and practicably inspect and maintain their jurisdiction of the highway. To do this, they must have a system of inspection and maintenance in place to find defects and make them safe or repair them as quickly as possible.
Depending on how well used the area is will often depend on how often the area is inspected. A busy high street in a city centre may be inspected every one to three months, whereas a side street in a residential village may be every 12 months.
So whether you can win your claim or not will normally come down to what kind of inspection regime the local responsible agency has in place. If they have a system that has been kept to, they can defend your claim using a special defence under Section 58 of the Act to show that the defect that has caused your accident must have appeared in between inspection periods.
For example, if you slip on the 5th of December 2013 and the area was last inspected in August 2013 and is inspected every six months, they will argue that the defect has become apparent in between inspection periods and they have therefore adhered to their duty in law to have a system of inspection in place.
As such, winning these types of claims can be difficult. But you should always contact us for advice as we will probably be able to help find out if they have a good system or not on a No Win, No Fee basis. If you win, you can keep 100% of your compensation as well – so you really have nothing to lose.
