Sad day, 'for the Man on the Clapham Omnibus'.

by scruffy

23 Nov 2009

Just returned from my small claims court appearance and am seathing with rage!

Breifly, on the night of January 15th 2007 with my wife and family in the car and travelling at no more than 30mph, I hit a huge pothole full of water. It caused both front and rear tyres to very rapidly deflate, buckled both alloy wheels and serverely damaged my suspension. The total cost of the repairs exceeded £1,500.00. Despite a wealth of evidence, which the judge complimented me on, he still found for ESCC Highways who had a solicitor acting for them on the standard 'Get out of jail free card', of Clause 58 of the Hyways Traffic Act. Frankly, I am totally baffled by what one has to do to win a case against any County Council as long as Clause 58 is in place. All ESCC's solicitor kept doing was quoting Clause 58 when all the evidence clearly indicated that they had not maintained the road.
My total costs including damage and repair bills, solicitors and court fees has now exceeded £1,900.00, this of course takes no account of the immence number of hours I have spent researching and preparing the case, getting documentary evidence from the Freedom of Information Section of the County Council, highways studies and road make-up documentation etc.
After nealy two years of hard battling I have come away with nothing, other than a contempt for the Government who introduced Clause 58 to protect them from their liabilities. The legal system that allows, even when presented with overwhelming evidence of the Counties failure to maintain the highway in a SAFE condition it still takes the easy option and goes with the status quo!
As I said at the start, its a sad day for the man on the Clapham omnibus, and for those not familiar with the phrase, it's a legal precident quoted for what the man in the street could reasonably expect, i.e. Joe Public.
Whereas I applaud what this website attempts to do and gives people an opportunity to vent their anguist, I would have to say after my experiences, unles you are prepared to spent a great deal of time and money trying to get justice and can accept an almost zero chance of success, and can deal with the almost inevitable failure then you have my heart felt blessing and admiration. However, my advise as long as Clause 58 exists, just accept the inevitable and PAY.
Your truely, a very frustrated, angry and disillusioned passenger on the Clapham omnibus! James