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Your injury may be minor, moderate or severe
Head injury, or brain injury, back injury, whiplash injury, shoulder injury, broken bones including nose, arm, leg, finger or toe fractures including fractured shoulder, arm, leg or finger, loss of limb I.e the loss of a leg or arm, loss of finger, thumb or toe, wrist injury or hand injury and there are many more...
The law in relation to roads and footpaths under the control of Local Authorities is complex with many different aspects that need consideration. They are certainly not liable for every deficiency in the roads and paths under their control, particularly if it is a matter of which they may have no knowledge. They could however be liable if they fail to exercise reasonable care in the design and maintenance of their roads. In addition, they may also be liable for defects of which they had been aware or which they ought to have become aware.
Factors which will be taken into account when assessing whether a council has acted reasonably include:-
If the Authority has carried out work then they are certainly liable if the work is not carried out to normal and usual standards. Therefore if a Council inadequately repairs a pothole or inadequately constructs a road in the first place making it likely potholes will form, it will be liable for any injury proven to be the result of the inadequacies.
A road authority has only to have completed the works complained of to the standard appropriate at the time those works were undertaken. Road and footpath users are themselves required to take care for their own safety and if they fail to see and avoid an obstacle which ought to have been obvious to them, they may be considered to be responsible for their own injuries, at least in part.
The first thing you should do is call Legal Compensation assistance service on 1300 850 441 and work with our 'No Win No Fee' structure.
The points made over are also applicable to design/construction and surveillance/maintenance which applies to public areas that are a Local Authorities responsibility.
A Local Authority may be liable if it fails to take reasonable care to prevent injury by a lack of adequate maintenance, or by failing to warn of dangers of which it ought to be aware. Local Councils have been held liable for the nuisance created by its failure to clear a drain and for the personal injury resulting from its omission to warn the public of the dangerous condition into which a public structure had fallen.
Where there is a concealed 'danger' or an unusual 'danger' of which the Authority should have known and a person is injured then a compensation claim may well succeed. Examples include failure to warn of the risks of submerged logs at swimming holes where Courts have found that the duty of care extends to entrants for a failure to take reasonable care.
Councils may also be found liable for injuries caused on their property and in parks, etc. to the extent that they fail to take reasonable care. This includes failing in the design, construct or reasonably maintain of playground equipment.
You may not succeed with a claim or the extent of your compensation may be reduced (proportional liability) if you have failed to have taken reasonable care for your own safety, for example if an obvious risk is ignored and thereafter an injury sustained.
The first thing you should do is call Legal Compensation assistance service on 1300 850 441.
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