It is not uncommon for slips and trips to occur on public roads and pavements. For example, you may be walking along the pavement, catch your foot in a pothole, fall onto the ground and sustain injury. If this happens, can you make a claim, and who would you claim against given that the accident occurred on a public road?
It is generally your local council who acts as your highway authority and who is responsible for maintaining the pavements and roads in your area. The local authority has a duty to do this under an Act of Parliament known as the Highways Act 1980. If you slip or trip over an uneven or dangerous part of the highway, you may be able to argue that the local highway authority breached its duty under the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the highway and it should therefore compensate you for the losses you suffered as a result.
However, it is not always straightforward to succeed in a claim against your local highway authority. It is generally not enough to simply point to a pothole in the road and say that the local authority should compensate you as you tripped over the pothole and suffered injury. This is because the highway authority has a defence under the Highways Act 1980 if it can show that it took reasonable care to ensure that the road or pavement that the accident occurred on was not dangerous.
What this means is practice is that it will help if it can be shown that the local authority knew about the problem in the road, for example because there had been previous complaints about it, but did not act to rectify the problem. In turn, the local authority may be able to show that it had a regular system of inspection and maintenance of the highway in place and took reasonable care to ensure that the highway was not dangerous. However, it will not help the local authority if there is evidence which suggests that the defect had been around for a long time and that nothing had been done about it.
If you wish to discuss a possible claim, please consult our Directory of Solicitors to find a solicitor in your area who may be able to help you..