We acted for a client who sustained a fracture to her shoulder after tripping on a defective paving slab at her council-owned property.
The accident occurred when our client caught her toe on a hazardous gap between a paving slab and a garden step, causing her to fall to her injury. Not only did she require surgery for her shoulder, but the accident also had a psychological impact as a result of her injuries and impact on her ability to enjoy life.
The defect had been reported years earlier, after our client’s daughter had also tripped. The Council negligently failed to carry out adequate repairs. The gap remained a significant hazard, exacerbated by poor workmanship and proximity to the gate within our client’s garden, which heightened the risk of tripping. The Council had attended our client’s property on several occasions for other maintenance work and negligently failed to identify the gap as a tripping hazard.
How we helped our client
The Council denied liability pre-litigation. We raised a Court action on our client’s behalf and ingathered compelling evidence that the Council had breached its duty of care by failing to carry out repair works to an adequate standard and, separately, by failing to identify a hazard when attending the property. To support our arguments on liability, we obtained expert reports from a Building Surveyor and A Consultant in Construction & Maintenance.
To quantify the value of our client’s claim, we obtained medical evidence from orthopaedic surgeons which detailed our client’s shoulder fracture injury, surgery and ongoing restrictions. We also obtained a report from a psychiatrist, which detailed the impact on our client’s mental health due to her injuries.
Settlement
Initially, the Council offered £10,000 to settle the claim. By thoroughly presenting the expert evidence and with robust negotiation, we successfully achieved an improved settlement of £15,000 without the need for a Court hearing in a case where liability continued to be denied. This reflected appropriate and fair compensation for our client’s physical and psychological injuries, and the impact these had upon her ability to work and carry out daily living tasks.
