What happened?

Our client was walking along a public footpath when he tripped over the foot of a sawn off post, causing him to trip and fall, landing directly onto his right knee and face down.

Injury details

Client suffered injuries due to falling directly onto his right knee, which resulted him needing to take two weeks off work to recover. He experienced intermittent aches with stiffness, along with superficial grazes to his hand, right forearm, face and left knee.

How True Solicitors were able to assist?

True Solicitors were able to build a case against the local council’s Highway’s Authority responsible for the upkeep of the public footpath, in which the accident happened.

We were able to prove that the local authority failed in their responsibility to maintain or repair the highway, causing the council to be in breach of section 41 of the Highways Act 1980. They permitted the highway, in particular the sawn off remnant of a post, to remain in a dangerous condition. The council also failed in their duty of care to enforce any adequate system of inspection and maintenance of the highway whereby the defect might have been detected and remedied, before our client’s accident. Furthermore there was a failure to ensure that the pathway was sufficiently well lit to ensure that the hazard could be seen and avoided.

The county council initially denied liability, alleging that the area in question was a category C road – which is only subject to an annual walking inspection. The council stated that they last inspected the area 11 months prior to the date of our client’s accident, and did not note any defect.

True however were able to prove, through witness statements of others who had tripped on the same post and through evidence from Google maps, that was not the case and that the defect was indeed present in September 2016, well before the date of the accident. This evidence was presented to the council, who after considering this, changed their stance and admitted liability subject to causation and contributory negligence.

True Solicitors arranged for an independent medical assessment for the client which recommended that the client have 6-8 sessions of physiotherapy on his right knee.

The TPI offered to settle the claim for £2600 – a below value offer for a claim of this nature. We advised our client to reject this offer and to commence court proceedings. After negotiating back and forth the claim was settled for £4000.