Claiming compensation against a council or local authority requires satisfaction of the same legal tests that are applied to most other cases of negligence law. In this respect, the claimant must be able to establish that the council's negligence actually caused the harm inflicted. Furthermore, it is usually not sufficient to merely prove that the damage or personal injury occurred on council property, as it must be shown that there is a satisfactory causal link between the act or omission of negligence and the injury itself.
Such is the nature of claiming compensation against a local authority; it is sometimes the case that a council may use the law to successfully defend a compensation claim even where negligence has been established. Accordingly, claimants are advised to seek professional legal advice from specialist personal injury solicitors whenever claiming against a council.
Claiming Against a Council - Making a Case
A proportion of
personal injury claims against the council involve incidents that have occurred on residential council property. The outcome of such claims hinges on the key principles of negligence law:
that the defendant owed a duty of care to the claimant at the time of the accident, that this duty of care was breached and that the breach caused the harm. In other words, for a personal injury claim to succeed against the council where a person is injured in a council property, it must be established that the council itself was to blame.
If the injured party fell down a poorly maintained and inadequately constructed staircase after the railing broke, for example, any subsequent claim against the council would have a reasonably good chance of succeeding. If, on the other hand, the injured party fell down the staircase after tripping over an object left by a tenant or visitor to the property, there would be no causal link between the council and the injury so any compensation claim would fail on its facts.
Most compensation claims against the council, however, occur on roads and footpaths. According to section 41(1) of the Highways Act 1980, the highway authority (or local council) is required to maintain any highway that is "maintainable at the public expense". The definition of a highway for the purposes of the Highways Act 1980 includes highways, special roads, trunk roads, bridleways and footpaths.
Personal injury claims are often brought after somebody has slipped, tripped or fallen on a poorly maintained road - raised tarmac, exposed drains and potholes are common causes of injury in this respect.
Although personal injury claims can be brought without professional representation, the importance of using a specialist personal injury solicitor is made apparent when claimants encounter various legal stumbling blocks; for instance, a council can use section 58(1) of the Highways Act 1980 to successfully defend against a compensation claim - even where negligence has been established - if it is able to demonstrate that it routinely carries out a competent system of inspections. It is a commonly held misconception that personal injury solicitors are expensive; in reality, choosing a
'no win no fee' solicitor is usually the most affordable route available to claimants who wish to obtain justice.
Sitemap
