Case won

by mrangry

10 Jun 2009

Hi all Case won.
Wrote last year asking if anyone had gone down the Health and Safety route but no one had at that time.

I decided to take this to small claims court against the Council who appointed a solicitor and were represented in court by a Barrister and the person in charge of Highways Maintenance and I won representing myself on the main argument that the council knew about the pothole and did nothing to ‘make safe’, therefore failing in Duty of Care. There is a difference between making safe and repairing.

It is interesting that statutory defence section 58 makes reference to what signage and warnings are in place, and most local codes and national codes of practice refer constantly to Risk Assessment.
The important point is you have to do your research and take a risk but this depends how strongly you feel about the principal.
Unfortunately you cannot rely on Freedom of Information acts as this council simply did not respond, so you have to issue the summons (£25) and you will receive a response from solicitors including council statements. In your request for information from the defendant you ask for the usual information regarding inspections histories etc. but most importantly the history of complaints of that road.

Match everything up against what you know and can prove. Not only did I get all money back but as I paid for legal protection on my insurance and the insurer wouldn’t help (‘because pothole claims are difficult to win’) I demanded and got back the premium paid for the assistance.
I complained to the FOI commission about the lack of response and the council got their arses kicked and told to respond within the next 10 days. I’ve still not had a response and even though the case is now over I will not let the council off the hook over this.
It must have cost the council two grand to fight this – my claim was only £265 but there is a principal at stake when the council just dismisses legitimate claims out of hand.