Falls on pavements and other "trip and slip" accidents are surprisingly common and can often lead to serious injury particularly, although by no means exclusively, in the case of elderly or infirm members of the public.
In general terms, every local authority is under a duty to maintain the roads and pavements in its area.This means that the council is required to carry out regular inspections and keep detailed records.
Although the council is not responsible for every defect in the street, if they failed to notice or repair a dangerous part of the highway and this causes you to suffer injury, you may well be entitled to claim compensation.
The Council has a statutory defence under the Highways Act where they can show that they had a reasonable and regular system in place to inspect the pavements.Much may depend upon where the pavement is situated. A pavement in a busy shopping centre would have to be inspected more regularly than a pavement in a rural area.
Pavement falls are caused either by a raised/broken paving slab or by a paving slab which has become loose and "rocks" when stepped upon.Generally the "trip defect" must be at least one inch deep if liability on the part of the Council is to be established.
We have had notable successes at trial including a High Court decision which may be considered to set legal precedent in relation to manhole covers.
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