Injury meaning unable to work for a period of time - claim??

mawk86

Hello,

Firstly, apologies this is the wrong thread - i wasn’t too sure where it sat!

Last week, my partner tripped over on a broken paving slab and injured his ankle leaving him unable to work and drive. He has been for furthe tests today and told that he has to have an MRI scan in two weeks time and should keep his ankle rested and not drive until MRai results. Doctors have suggested it could be 6 months until he fully recovers. He needs to be able to drive for his job, and today his employer has said that next week he will move to SSP, which will really affect his wage.

Someone else in the waiting room suggested contacting a no win no fee lawyer to make a claim against the council for the broken paving. Has anyone had any experiences with this? We’re not one to exploit the system but just thinking it could be an option to help out financially as he will be out of pocket.

Thanks in advance

sangie595

Such claims against the council are generally, in my experience, based on economic issues. They aren't legally responsible for a broken paving slab automatically, and not if it isn't reported. So they generally hand out a few £hundreds maybe to shut you up. Six months wages, possibly more - they'll probably fight you into the ground. The precedent for such sums would open flood gates. Unless you can prove some form of negilgence on their part, this is part of life's tapestry. S--t happens.

Annisele

I know this won't help you now, but posting anyway because it might help others - or help you in future.


Some illnesses and accidents are nobody's fault, but they still screw you over financially. But it is possible to insure against the financial impact - with things like accident/sickness/unemployment cover, income protection cover, critical illness cover and so on. Obviously you can't insure youself against something that's already happened, but once your partner is well he might want to consider taking out insurance in case something like this happens again. If you work, you might want to think about it yourself.


That cover tends to be expensive, so lots of people self-insure / just hope they don't become sick. But I think it's at least worth finding out how much the cover would cost so you can make an informed decision about whether or not you want it.

Crazy_Jamie

sangie595 wrote: »

Such claims against the council are generally, in my experience, based on economic issues. They aren't legally responsible for a broken paving slab automatically, and not if it isn't reported. So they generally hand out a few £hundreds maybe to shut you up. Six months wages, possibly more - they'll probably fight you into the ground. The precedent for such sums would open flood gates. Unless you can prove some form of negilgence on their part, this is part of life's tapestry. S--t happens.

This isn't entirely correct. The council's statutory obligations in this respect are covered in section 41 of the Highways Act 1980.In practice there are two main hurdles in a case like this. The first is that the defect has to be 'dangerous', which generally means a defect of more than an inch. A lot of these claims fail because claimants cannot prove that a defect was dangerous, as they don't have photographic or other evidence. The second is that even if a defect is dangerous, the council can resist such claims by showing that they have a reasonable system of inspection in place. In most cases that means a proactive system of inspection, so the duty is higher than simply responding to reported defects.

However, the reality of such claims is that in recent years councils have become very good at defending them, and making sure that they have good evidence of adequate inspection regimes. There can still be issues if a claimant says that a defect is sufficiently old that the council must have missed it in a previous inspection, but it can be very difficult to prove such an assertion.

Ultimately it's very difficult for any of us to tell you if you have a viable claim. It's best to hunt down a local no win no fee solicitor and get their view on whether or not your claim has reasonable prospects.

Akahotpot

6 months ??
As a life long biker I have seen and experienced many nasty breaks and I think 3 months is more likely all be it with a limp

ReadingTim

Whilst "full recovery", ie to play sport etc might indeed take 6 months, "sufficient" recovery to sit on your @rse and press a clutch or accelerator pedal will take far less time.

Suggest you're making a bit of mountain out of a molehill right now, as it's likely to be far less serious and lengthy as you fear, and consequently, less worth trying to make a claim out of it.

Me2you

Yeah they will give you a claim form (council) and you give it to them. You will get a solicitor that will take 25% of the money. Make sure there are no fees if you are unsuccessful.

You may have house insurance legal costs? I bought that with my contents insurance. Not sure about excess.

Up to you if you want to claim. If he’s off work for a number of weeks and you are only getting SSP then why not. People get a lot of money for injuries because when they are older they can have chronic injuries like arthritis.

The council has insurance against such events. From memory you have three years to claim for injuries afaik.

So yes why not make a claim....

meer53

You're not one to exploit the system but are already talking about claiming ? Your OH hasn't even had a scan yet !!

I had a full knee replacement and was driving after 6 weeks ! Full recovery from a knee replacement is 12 months but i can still drive my car and get myself to work. Think about claiming when you have confirmation that this is a life altering injury.

Crazy_Jamie

I've never quite understood the vociferous reaction to someone saying they may make a personal injury claim. Such claims do not succeed without fault (or a notable risk of fault being found, in the case of settlement), and if someone is injured by the negligence of another person they quite correctly have the right to claim compensation. Fraudulent claims, of course, are deserving of such a reaction, but the quite considerable difference between legitimate and fraudulent claims (plus the relative rarity of fraudulent claims) seems to have been lost in recent years.

Me2you wrote: »

Yeah they will give you a claim form (council) and you give it to them. You will get a solicitor that will take 25% of the money. Make sure there are no fees if you are unsuccessful.

You may have house insurance legal costs? I bought that with my contents insurance. Not sure about excess.

Up to you if you want to claim. If he’s off work for a number of weeks and you are only getting SSP then why not. People get a lot of money for injuries because when they are older they can have chronic injuries like arthritis.

The council has insurance against such events. From memory you have three years to claim for injuries afaik.

So yes why not make a claim....

This is not reflected in awards unless it is specified within the medical report as an explicit risk, and even then it depends greatly on what the risk actually is. In practice it's very unusual for the risk of future issues to be a consideration at all, let alone for it to result in "a lot of money".

Taking it at what seems to be the current worse case scenario, an ankle injury resolving fully within 6 months is worth (very) roughly £2,000-£2,500 on current guidelines, depending on the specifics. Obviously the loss of earnings will be less than that because, as people have correctly pointed out, even if it does take 6 months to fully recover, the OP's partner will clearly be fit to drive well before that.