If you’re a road user in the UK you may be well aware of the poor state of repair of roads and pavements. This state of disrepair can be as a result of councils carrying out repairs and inspections that are not adequate and even as a result of them not being aware that they are responsible for the maintenance and repair of a particular highway area.
We recently acted on behalf of a young woman who suffered an accident after her foot went into an open concrete drain situated at the edge of a layby. She sustained some very nasty injuries to her foot as a result of the accident.
The complication in this case was that the layby included the entrance to an industrial estate. Both the industrial estate owner and the local council blamed each other and claimed that it was the other parties’ responsibility to maintain the section of highway and denied any fault for the accident.
Neither party could prove when nor who had constructed the drain. A check of the Land Registry stated that the location of our client’s accident was unregistered. As neither party was willing to accept ownership or responsibility of the drain, we started court proceedings against them both. In an attempt to get one of the defendants to settle the claim we made an offer for the case to be settled out of court for a total sum of £5,000. Neither defendant accepted so we continued with our action of taking the case to trial.
Three weeks before the trial started, the local council decided to accept our offer and agreed to pay our client compensation of £5,000 for the injuries that she sustained as a result of the accident. Their decision also meant that the council had to pay the industrial estate owner’s legal costs.
How Can Nelsons Help?
Nelsons have a proven history of acting for claimants in complicated highway accidents. Depending on the circumstances of the accident it may be necessary for us to carry out a detailed investigation to find out who is responsible for the section of highway or nearby area that caused the injury so we know with certainty who to pursue the claim with. In our experience, this is not always necessary and we can settle claims without the case even going to court. Whatever the situation, we always act in our claimants’ best interests and ensure that they get the compensation that they deserve.
If you have any questions in relation to the topics discussed in this article, please contact our expert Personal Injury team in Derby, Leicester and Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online form.