So if this has happened to you, can you make a claim for personal injury compensation? Are the council liable to pay you out if you have been injured in a cobblestone accident?
First question – is there a defect?
There has to be a defect for you to be able to make a claim. You cannot simply claim for falling on cobblestones in general. Some may argue that cobblestones in general are potentially dangerous, but arguing this in a court of law is no easy task. Courts are much more on the side of the local government than accident victims.
If there is a missing cobblestone, raised cobblestone, or perhaps a broken cobblestone and this has caused the accident, you may be in the position to make a claim. The defect has to be classed as dangerous enough – on that point, there are no set rules so to speak, but the general rule solicitors use is the ‘one inch rule’ meaning a defect has to be more than an inch in height or depth.
When can I win a claim?
If there is a defect, we can lodge a claim for you to the council and ask them to either admit or deny liability. Now, the actual duty that they have in law, which is formed under the Highways Act 1980, is to have a reasonable system of inspection and maintenance for all roads and paths in their jurisdiction.
Some areas may be inspected every month, whereas some areas may only be inspected every six months, or perhaps even annually. To win a claim, we must prove that the council in charge of the area had reasonable knowledge of a defect and that they had failed to take reasonable steps to make the area safe.
We can achieve this, for example, by:
- Showing that the council have not adhered to a reasonable inspection regime
- Show that the council had knowledge of the defect and failed to take action within a reasonable time frame
So, if the defect has been there for a year in an area that is inspected every six months, it sounds like the council may have failed in their duty of care. Or, if the defect was reported to the council and they have left it there for a few months and done nothing about it, there may be a claim to make.
Unfortunately it can be difficult to win claims like this because most local authorities are wise enough to have systems of inspection and maintenance, and keep to them. If their records show that the defect was not there on the last inspection, and show that the coming inspection isn’t overdue, they can defend the claim.
We can only really know what records they have by actually making a claim – so it takes submitting a case to know whether there is claim to answer for or not. We work on a No Win, No Fee so you are not charged if the claim doesn’t win.