Making a complaint to the council after injuring myself on a wonky pavement

[itwasnevermine]

On Monday I was walking to the train station when I rolled my ankle on a wonky pavement. The slabs on the pavement must be 2-3 cm out of whack, the entire pavement is pretty uneven.

I’ve got a bad sprain, missed a day of work to sit in A&E (so missed a day’s pay), I’m on crutches for two weeks and I’m in a great deal of pain. I’ve got one hell of a swollen ankle and bruised knee, which I scraped quite badly too.

My parents seem to think I’m going to be able to sue the council for this, I don’t personally think I can? I think they’ll just turn round and say it was my fault.

What’s the likelihood of actually getting anything out of them? I’m going to email them anyway because it’s dangerous as hell, but I just can’t see that the council will actually care

I've attached pictures of my ankle, knee and the pavement.

You can usually report it online. If it has been previousky reported but nit dealt with you may have grounds for complaint. What loss and damages have you sustained?

Lost a day's pay because of my day off work to sit in hospital waiting for treatment

If the pavement is poorly maintained, you are entitled to compensation for the physical pain and suffering, any psychological injury (stress, anxiety, etc.), and your financial loss. They cannot simply say it was your fault and brush off their responsibility.

"Dangerous as hell," is a bit dramatic.

I think it's quite clear her loss is a days pay and the damage is her injuries?

Yes of course you can sue.

If you're not going to answer my question, don't comment.

If I, an able bodied 25 year old can injure myself so severely that I'm on crutches for two weeks, I hate to think what could happen to someone who's elderly or disabled.

There is a concept of the "magic inch". If the surface is uneven by over an inch then you may have a case for litigation, otherwise generally not (I have personal experience of this involving a broken ankle!).

To my eye it looks more than an inch but I'm not 100% 😅

If you lost a day's pay, won't you also lose two weeks pay?

The "magic inch" isn't a general rule about uneven surfaces, but there have been cases where the courts have accepted that 1 inch is the point at which highway authorities would/should repair a trip hazard. So it would be useful for you to find out how far out the pavement is. You need to measure it quickly, before they repair it.

It depends who owns the pavement. It isn't always the council. e.g. round here, most of the pavements are unadopted and getting anyone to do anything is nigh on impossible. There is a general principle that the freeholder of any business facing onto the pavement is responsible for maintaining the area outside their property up to the edge of the road, which is where council responsibility begins. In practice, the freeholders are distant corporate conglomerates who don't care and do nothing.

I'm dragging myself to work because I can't afford to be off

I'll take another look tonight!

Years ago you would have done- I know someone who did. It won't happen now tho.

If you sue, there will be even less money for the government to do repairs and prevent someone else suffering as you have.

They go out and measure it, it has to be uneven by a certain amount. I know someone who was injured and out of work for a long time and missed the cut off by a tiny measurement so no compensation was paid.

I'm not talking suing for millions. I'm more after making sure it's fixed because I walk along that pavement every day.

But it would be nice if I could be compensated for the time off work, because that's cost me a chunk of money

I wouldn't sue, but I would complain. As you say if you are young and able boddied and not sight impaired you just need to watch where you walk. I'm clumsy as hell by the way, so do sympathise. Its sensible to let the council know there is an issue to protect more vulnerable members of the public.

Again - not intending to sue, but if there's a way I can recover the lost wages I'd consider recouping that.

My point is if I'm able bodied and able to injure myself like this, what could happen to someone else?

You will have to prove that the council was negligent. Were they aware of the defect(if indeed it is a defect)? How often do they carry out inspections, and when was the last one carried out? Claims against councils are notoriously difficult.

Insurance...

It’s a claim against the council’s insurance.

To pay out, you have to be able to show:

the defect existed at the time you say it did
actual damage/injury (your photos would be fine)
that the council were in breach of their duty to repair it. This last one depends - each council will have a published policy of how frequently they will inspect and repair roads and pavements. Main roads will be inspected more frequently, and bigger potholes/trips will be repaired faster. If you are in a residential street, for example, it’s unlikely that they have committed to inspect more than once a year. If the defect wasn’t there at the time of the last inspection, they aren’t liable unless it has been reported to them in the meantime.

You can make an FOI request for a) their inspection and repair schedule, b) date of last inspection, c) records of defects found at the last inspection, d) records of defects reported since the last inspection and e) records of any repairs made. This is a really common request and they’ll be used to getting them. If you can see that they knew about the defect but didn’t repair it within their published timelines, then you have a claim.

I went back to where I broke my ankle (travelling from another country to do so!) to measure the stepped paving stone, and they hadn't repaired it and it was indeed just under an inch! I did try making a claim with the owners of the pavement anyway but they weren't having it.

It's on a main road so hopefully that's promising!

The area is governed by two local councils - the county council is responsible for transport etc., is that who the pavement would fall under?

Not really directly the case. This is the argument made by people who feel uncomfortable suing NHS Trusts because they think they are taking money directly from the patient services of that Trust. It is paid by insurance.