{"id":14980,"date":"2014-02-13T21:47:51","date_gmt":"2014-02-13T21:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theinjurylawyers.co.uk\/injury-lawyers-blog\/?p=14980"},"modified":"2014-02-13T21:47:51","modified_gmt":"2014-02-13T21:47:51","slug":"pothole-compensation-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theinjurylawyers.co.uk\/injury-lawyers-blog\/2014\/02\/13\/pothole-compensation-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Pothole Compensation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Winter is what I like to call \u201cpothole season\u201d because they\u2019re far more likely to occur in the colder months. Generally speaking, a pothole is formed when water seeps in to cracks in the surface and then freezes and expands in low temperatures. This causes an extreme amount of pressure to build up in the concrete and can cause it to crack and break.<\/p>\n

Over time, the hole normally will deepen and deepen. As such, cold weather is a common catalyst for the creation of pothole, divots, and other defects that cover our highways and paths.<\/p>\n

So what happens if you trip and \/ or fall because of a pothole? Or what happens if you drive over a monster of a hole and end up with an injury?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Can you claim?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

You are entitled to make a claim for personal injury compensation if you are injured by a pothole. There is a duty under the Highways Act 1980 for a council or local highways agency or authority to maintain roads and paths at the expense of the public as reasonably as possible.<\/p>\n

However, the law isn\u2019t very Claimant friendly I\u2019m afraid. Under the same act, specifically in Section 58, the council is allowed to use a special defence which practically prevents them from having to pay you out for a pothole compensation claim. To use this defence, they have to prove that they have a reasonable system of inspection and maintenance for the area where the pothole has formed, and prove that they have adhered to it. In addition, they must show that they had no lengthy prior knowledge of the portholes existence either.<\/p>\n

So what does this mean?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

This means that they only have to check for potholes at reasonable intervals, which could be every one to three months for busy highways, or even as long as every 12 months in country areas. So if you are injured by a pothole and the pothole wasn\u2019t there the last time an inspection was carried out, and the next inspection isn\u2019t due yet, they can defend your claim.<\/p>\n

To give you a practical example:<\/p>\n