If you have tripped on a raised grate and injured yourself it is likely you will be able to pursue a claim for compensation. Compensation is based on the losses incurred as a result of injury. For example if you are to suffer a broken leg it is likely you would have to take time off from work resulting in you suffering a loss of earnings.
It is important to take a number of factors into consideration at the time of and following the accident. It is essential to establish is whether or not the defect was the cause of injury, who the owner of the land containing the defect is and where the accident took place. Many accidents, such as falling down a pot hole, tripping due to raised paving slabs, or falling down a damaged drain cover take place on land which is owned by the council.
Defects on council land are governed by the Highways Act 1980. Injuries which do not occur on council land are likely to be owned by an individual or business and are generally covered by the Occupiers Liability Act. In order to pursue a claim it is essential to establish who owns the land in order to seek an admission of liability from the right person or company. It is also important to consider how long the defect had been present. This is because if the defect had been present for a substantial period of time then the council should have had the opportunity to correct the defect preventing you from suffering an injury. This is because they are under a duty to inspect and maintain the highway and if the council had recently inspected the area containing the defect then they would not have had knowledge of the defects existence. This is covered by Section 58 of the Highways Act 1980.
“In an action against a highway authority in respect of damage resulting from their failure to maintain a highway maintainable at the public expense it is a defence (without prejudice to any other defence or the application of the law relating to contributory negligence) to prove that the authority had taken such care as in all the circumstances was reasonably required to secure that the part of the highway to which the action relates was not dangerous for traffic.”
If the defect had been present for a long period of time someone else may have had an accident due to the same defect, which may have been reported to the council giving them opportunity to rectify it as well.
It is important to obtain photographs of the defect and the surrounding area as they not only provide you with evidence of the defect’s existence, but they establish how far the grate was raised in the event the council the rectifies the defect after your accident.
