{"id":13075,"date":"2013-07-10T10:05:11","date_gmt":"2013-07-10T09:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theinjurylawyers.co.uk\/injury-lawyers-blog\/?p=13075"},"modified":"2013-07-10T10:05:11","modified_gmt":"2013-07-10T09:05:11","slug":"wobbly-steps-and-wobbly-paving-slabs-injury-lawyers-advice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theinjurylawyers.co.uk\/injury-lawyers-blog\/2013\/07\/10\/wobbly-steps-and-wobbly-paving-slabs-injury-lawyers-advice\/","title":{"rendered":"Wobbly Steps and Wobbly Paving Slabs – Injury Lawyers Advice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"trippedA bit of a niche area of law this one – can you make a claim for compensation if you fall because of loose and wobbly steps or paving slabs<\/a>? Falling at the hands of a wobbly surface is fairly easy to do – no one expects the ground to suddenly move beneath them; unless you’re in a fun house…<\/p>\n

There are two common types of claims where this could occur. Let\u2019s look at them both:<\/p>\n

In the Street \/ Public Grounds \u2013 Highways Act<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you fall due to a wobbly step or paving slab whilst out and about on public land, in the high street for example, the claim will typically be pursued against the authority who has responsibility for the area. This will normally be the local highways authority or the local council.
\n<\/p>\n

The claim is pursued against them under the Highways Act 1980<\/strong>. So you may have a claim if we consider that the wobble is dangerous enough to warrant intervention. However, winning these claims is, unfortunately, not so easy to do.<\/p>\n

The duty that the authority responsible for the area has is to reasonably and responsibly inspect and maintain their area of jurisdiction. To put it simply, if you have a fall in an area that is inspected by the council every six months, and you fall in-between inspection periods (say three months in) then they can defend the claim using a special defence. If they can prove that they have an inspection regime, prove that it is reasonable, and prove that they have adhered to the regime and had no adequate knowledge of the defects existence, winning a claim will be very hard. They can simply rely upon the defence and defend the claim in full.<\/p>\n

If their inspection regime is considered to be not sufficient, or if we can prove that they had adequate knowledge of the defect (say a member of the public reported it) or show that they haven\u2019t adhered to their inspection regime, we could smash their defence. But it isn\u2019t easy…<\/p>\n

On Occupied Land \u2013 Shops, Restaurants, Bars, Other Public Places<\/strong><\/p>\n

So what about the duty if the accident happens on land that is occupied and therefore not the responsibility of a local highways authority? Commonly this will fall within the realms of the Occupiers Liability Act<\/strong>, which imposes a duty on the occupier of a premises to take all reasonable steps to ensure that no one is hurt on their premises.<\/p>\n

Occupiers should normally have their own inspection and maintenance regimes, but with something like a wobbly step, or even a wobbly paving slab in the front area of a shop, you\u2019d expect them to have been made aware of it. You\u2019d expect that staff had probably walked over it and should have reported it to a member of their management.<\/p>\n

If the occupier fails to take steps to either repair or \u2018make good<\/strong><\/em>\u2019 the defective area (signage, cordons, etc) then there may be a claim to answer for.<\/p>\n

There are two vital pieces of evidence that can help prove these cases \u2013 photos showing measurements (or even videos) and CCTV evidence<\/strong> if available. Most CCVTV is erased after a few weeks so take steps early to get it secured before it disappears.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bit of a niche area of law this one – can you make a claim for compensation if you fall because of loose and wobbly steps or paving slabs? Falling at the hands of a wobbly surface is fairly easy to do – no one expects the ground to suddenly move beneath them; unless … Continue reading Wobbly Steps and Wobbly Paving Slabs – Injury Lawyers Advice<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"yoast_head":"\nWobbly Steps and Wobbly Paving Slabs - Injury Lawyers Advice - The UK's No 1 Injury Lawyers Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theinjurylawyers.co.uk\/injury-lawyers-blog\/2013\/07\/10\/wobbly-steps-and-wobbly-paving-slabs-injury-lawyers-advice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wobbly Steps and Wobbly Paving Slabs - Injury Lawyers Advice - The UK's No 1 Injury Lawyers Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A bit of a niche area of law this one – can you make a claim for compensation if you fall because of loose and wobbly steps or paving slabs? 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