FOI (FOLLOWING TURNED DOWN CLAIM)

8th March 2010

Hi,

I'll try to be succinct here - I hit a pothole in January, put in a claim (for the £485) and got the standard legal reply saying no. I then found your website, read about the FOI and so, discretely, put in a request for this information on 12 February. I heard nothing , chased it up and surprise, surprise, was told their system had crashed and to submit my request again. I did this on 25 February, received an email confirming my request and since then heard nothing.
I getting more and more disillusioned here, especially after reading the stories on your website. Am I wasting my time ? Can I chase the council for the info. ? Is it worth paying for legal help ?

Thanks for any help.

Replies (1)

Potholes.co.uk Expert     posted : 10/03/10 at 9:46 am

They have 20 working days (so a month) to respond to your FOI request, so you aren't in a position yet to start chasing them for the records.

Only you can decide if you're wasting your time. Make no mistake - most (as many as 90+%) highway claims do not suceed. Local authorities are fully aware of what they need to do to defend 'everyday' claims, and the days of easy pay-outs from councils are long gone. You have to show that the local authority have been neglient, and that is not easy as they rarely are.

Paying for legal help will probably not help you as your chances of success are so low in the first instance. Also ... claims like yours are dealt with eventually in the small claims court, where legal representation is frowned upon and even if you win, you often do not get awarded your legal costs. I've seen claimants win £300 in the small claims court, but have their £2000 legal costs turned down!