Slipped on pavement and broken wrist

[rockinmum]

Hi all.
after some advise if possible.
On Friday I slipped on an accumulation of mud on the pavement and broke my wrist in 2 places. The pavement is at a bus stop and has an overgrown hedge on the right hand side which forces you to the left of the pavement which is where mud has accumulated. I took 2 steps away from the bus and slipped in the mud on the pavement resulting in a broken wrist, significant pain and time off work etc
My question is can I make a claim against our local council for this?

That’s what sick pay is for.
just be aware - a colleague of mine received compensation after an accident at work. She had to pay back all her sick pay from the payout.

You'd have to prove negligence and your chance of being able to do that is so slim that's it's likely to just be wasting your time. If the council were, say, digging up the pavement and left a heap of mud you might have a slight chance. I wouldnt expect a no win no fee lawyer to be interested.

Ha ha!

TL;DR money, money, money, money

I was just going to say this - I used legal cover on my house insurance to make a personal injury claim when I was injured by being knocked off my bike by a car. They were absolutely excellent.

That's incorrect, you missed the update. It's money, money, money, money, flounce.

Not a lawyer.

But have written articles on this sort of thing in the past on this and on related issues such as damage caused to cars by potholes. I think I remember that you have to prove that the council is negligent - that someone else had reported a dangerous road, or pothole, or pavement, and that they had failed to act.

I am not usually in the "where there's blame there;s a claim" camp, but in your position you have suffered a financial loss and I don't see anything wrong in exploring whether you can claim for losses.

At the very least, the council would have had to have known about the situation and it was reasonably for someone walking there to have had an accident.

But she doesn’t say she has suffered financial losses. Just that - as one would expect with a break - she will be inconvenienced and not able to work at usual standard … any employer would be expected to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate such a situation with an employee who had broken their wrist or whatever

it’s a shame but part and parcel of life.

Unless the LA put the mud there, in the same way farmers deposit a load on roads (can't see this as possible) or the accumulation of mud was a naturally occurring incident caused by the recent heavy rain making the pavement unusable and thus had been reported, then no.

Broken flagstones that have been reported as dangerous and not repaired within a reasonable time are the type of thing they are liable for. Mud is just a natural occurrence in most cases.

You could do, but the reason they haven't cleaned the mud is because they can't even provide residential care for people with extreme dementia. Path maintenance is going to be right down on that list.
Sorry this happened but the compo will be tiny or non existent because in the words of Liam Byrne there is no money