Claiming Compensation For A Pavement Accident

You may be looking into pavement accident claims if you’ve suffered a pavement injury in a public place. This guide will explain how you might be able to claim if you’ve suffered an accident in a public place. It will also answer questions such as, “can I claim for a fall in the street?” and “how do I claim against the council?”

pavement accident claims

Pavement accident claims guide

Our advisors are available 24/7, offer free legal advice and can answer any questions or queries you have about pedestrian injury compensation. They can also provide you with a compensation estimate for the pavement accident injury if you’re eligible to claim. Furthermore, they can also put you through to our panel of personal injury solicitors who are specialised in public accident claims. They can work your case on a No Win No Fee basis.

Contact us at a time that’s convenient for you using the details below.

  • Call us using 0800 408 7825
  • Contact us through our website
  • Write to us using the Live Chat window on your screen

Please read on for more information about pavement accident claims.

Select A Section

  1. What Are Pavement Accident Claims?
  2. What Could Cause A Pavement Accident?
  3. Injuries Caused By Pavement Accidents
  4. Who Could You Make Pavement Accident Claims Against?
  5. Evidence Needed To Prove Pedestrian Injury Compensation Claims
  6. Pavement Accident Claims Compensation Amounts
  7. Start Your No Win No Fee Pavement Accident Claim
  8. Learn More

What Are Pavement Accident Claims? 

A personal injury claim must meet specific criteria. This means that you need to prove the following three things:

  1. Firstly, that the third party has a duty of care
  2. Secondly, that their actions breached this duty of care
  3. Lastly, that this breach caused your injury

Therefore, with pavement accident claims, whether you can claim or not partly depends on where the injury occurred. Certain third parties in Great Britain, such as controllers of public space, have a duty of care to ensure that the public can use the space without risking injury. This duty of care is detailed in the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957.

Third-party negligence is when a third party breaches this duty of care, resulting in your injury. As you’ll be the one seeking pedestrian injury compensation, the onus is on you to prove that this caused your injury.

You may be pursuing a pavement accident claim if you’ve suffered an injury caused by a slip, trip or fall due to the state of the pavement. As previously mentioned, claiming successfully involves proving that your injury resulted from negligence by the owner or controller of the space. Please call our advisors as they can provide you with the legal advice you may need for your case. If you have the foundation of a personal injury claim you could be connected to a solicitor who could help you pursue your claim. Our advisors are available 24/7 and can tell you quickly and easily if you’re eligible to claim.

What Could Cause A Pavement Accident?

In many public places, your local authorities or council will be liable for ensuring that the state of the pavement is safe to use. This is because they will be the designated controller of the space. Furthermore, if you injure yourself because of things like broken pavement, you may be able to claim.

Other instances where you may be able to claim for pedestrian injury compensation includes:

  • Icy pavements. In some circumstances, you may be able to claim if certain pavements have not been gritted and this has caused you to slip and injure yourself.
  • Large potholes that the right authority has been made aware of but failed to repair in a timely manner.
  • Overgrown tree roots that are hazardous.
  • Fallen road signs that are blocking a pedestrians route.
  • Defective pavements that are sunk or risen to at least 1 inch.

Depending on who is responsible for the area in which you had your accident you would need to prove that they are liable for your injuries. It is not possible to ensure that every pavement has no cracks and there are no potholes anywhere. However, when these defects become dangerous and are not repaired in a timely manner then it may be possible that the controller is liable when injury is caused.

If you are not sure whether your circumstances meet the criteria needed for making a pavement accident claim all you need to do is call our advisors for free legal advice. They will be able to advise you on the best course of action for your case.

Injuries Caused By Pavement Accidents

The amount of pedestrian injury compensation you’re able to receive for the injury will depend on how badly the injury has affected your quality of life. It will also be valued on how much pain and suffering occurred and how this injury will affect your future life. Injuries you may be able to make pavement accident claims for include:

Who Could You Make Pavement Accident Claims Against? 

A crucial aspect of claiming compensation for an accident on the pavement is ensuring that you identify the owner or controller of the space. This is because, as previously mentioned, the controller generally is liable for the upkeep of the space to ensure, within reason, that the public using it can do so without injuring themselves.

An important part of being the controller is ensuring you adhere to your legal obligations, referred to as the duty of care. Therefore, if you are injured because this duty has been breached then you could be eligible to make a personal injury claim.

However, you may be wondering who the controllers usually are in these instances. Public places can be owned and controlled by different entities i.e. supermarkets are controlled by the owner whereas public parks are usually controlled by the local council. To find out who may be liable in your case please call our advisors and they will be able to assist you.

Evidence Needed To Prove Pedestrian Injury Compensation Claims

As with any personal injury claim, evidence is vital to pavement accident claims because you need to prove that your injury was caused by third-party negligence to receive pedestrian injury compensation. Whether you choose to claim through a personal injury solicitor or not, showing how your injury was caused can show causation between the third party’s actions and your injury.

Every successful personal injury claim has been able to do this because this is why you receive compensation. There are lots of types of evidence that could be used to prove your case. Here we have listed a few below:

  • CCTV footage
  • Photographic evidence of your injury and the accident scene
  • Medical scans
  • Medical assessments of your injury

For advice about pedestrian injury compensation, please contact our advisors at a time that works for you. They can tell you if you’re eligible to claim and provide you with a compensation estimate. However, if you call us, you are under no obligation to use our services to claim. Contact them using the details above.

Pavement Accident Claims Compensation Amounts

In pavement accident claims, general damages and special damages can be sought. You must be eligible for general damage in order to receive special damages. Below we discuss these damages in more detail;

  • General damages can be paid for psychological and physical pain.
  • Special damages are paid to reimburse the claimant for any financial losses incurred

To claim special damages, you need different types of evidence to the ones listed above, as you need to prove the financial losses you want to claim. Therefore, you will need evidence like receipts, invoices and bank statements. The things you could claim compensation for include:

  • Loss of earnings
  • Loss of future earnings
  • Travel costs
  • Private health care costs, such as physiotherapy sessions
  • Costs of needing a nurse

However, one thing to remember is that if you don’t receive general damages compensation, you won’t receive any compensation for special damages. This is because, by not receiving general damages, the court has deemed that your injury was not caused by third-party negligence.

Due to work done by the Judicial College, you don’t need to use a personal injury calculator to estimate the amount of compensation for general damages you could receive. They analyse previous payouts and the nature and severity of the injury. By doing this, they’ve created compensation brackets. You can see examples of the figures they provide in the table below.

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Injury Type Severity Compensation Amount Description
Hand Moderate £5,260 to £12,460 Injuries in this bracket include soft tissue injuries, penetrating wounds and crush injuries.
Leg Severe iii £36,790 to £51,460 Cases in this bracket are for injuries like serious compound fractures or ligament or joint injuries leading to prolonged treatment, instability and a lengthy period of non-weight-bearing.
Knee Moderate ii Up to £12,900 This bracket includes injuries like dislocations or torn meniscus or cartilage as well as lacerations, bruising or twisting injuries causing continuous discomfort and aching.
Ankle Moderate £12,900 to £24,950 This bracket includes ligamentous tears and fractures causing less serious disabilities like walking difficulties and difficulty standing for longer time periods.
Ankle Severe £29,380 to £46,980 Injuries in this bracket necessitate an extensive treatment period involving a lengthy period in plaster or plates and pins having been inserted.
Foot Moderate £12,900 to £23,460 Injuries in this bracket include displaced metatarsal fractures causing continuous symptoms and deformity that is permanent.
Toe Serious £9,010 to £12,900 Cases in this bracket are for serious great toe injuries or multiple fractures to two or more toes.
Toe Moderate Up to £9,010 This bracket is for fractures that are relatively straightforward or the exacerbation of a pre-existing condition that is degenerative.
Wrist Significant £22,990 to £36,770 Injuries in this bracket include ones that cause significant permanent disability.
Wrist Less Severe £11,820 to £22,990 Injuries in this bracket cause less severe injuries that still cause a degree of stiffness and persisting pain.

Start Your No Win No Fee Pavement Accident Claim

You may be wondering what the benefits of using a No Win No Fee solicitor are when claiming for an accident in a public place. The benefits of using this method to claim include:

  • There are no solicitors fees to pay before the claim can begin.
  • If the case is won the solicitor will take a percentage of the compensation for the service they have provided.
  • Should the case lose there is nothing to pay the solicitor for their work.

Our advisors offer free legal advice so, if you have any questions about seeking pedestrian injury compensation, call our team today. They can tell you if you’re eligible to claim. Additionally, personal injury solicitors on our panel deal with all cases taken on, on a No Win No Fee basis.

You may find it more financially beneficial to hire a solicitor through this method. However, by contacting us, you don’t have any obligation to use our services. As such, contact us for free using the details below.

Learn More

Please use the links below for more advice on personal injury claims:

The Compensation Recovery Unit can indicate the number of successful public liability claims that occur each year.

Look to the NHS for medical guidance because you’ve suffered a broken bone.

They also provide a psychological therapies service which you can read more about on their website.

Have you injured yourself on a public footpath? Then read this guide we have produced.

If you’ve experienced an injury on a public road, refer to this page about claiming compensation.

You may also be able to claim if you’ve suffered an injury in a school. Learn more by reading this article.

Contact our advisors about making pavement accident claims at a time that works for you.