First of all let me say that this was not recent but it stands as far as I know.

A few years ago I fell rather badly in the street due to a large dip and a hump in the tarnac on the pavement.

I did damage to my arms, legs and ankles which stopped me walking for a time. Ruined some of the things I was wearing and damaged my other half's Stetson, not a cheap item and to date I have not found one to replace it. No he's not a cowboy, he just like the hat

I phoned the council to tell them what had happened and a rather rude person on the phone said "Well what do you expect me to do about it?" I pointed out that they had to maitain the pavements in a fit state so that people could use them safely. She went on about people looking where they were walking etc.

I pointed out that it was around 9:30pm the street lights were blocked by trees and the pavement was in darkness.

Anyway to cut a long story short, it got to court and the presiding judge asked the bloke from the council if the road was safe. Oh yes there's no problem. The judge said he would visit the site and see for himself.

Two weeks later we were back in court. Judgement for the council no case to answer quote from the judge "We can't let them claim for this it would open the floodgates to everyone who wanted to claim.", "I can't see anything wrong with the pavement". Why ? The council had sent out a road repair team the week before the judge was due to visit and repaired the pavement. And to add insult to injury they cut back the trees so there was light on the pavement, or would have been if he had gone there at night!

I would not have gone down the court route if the person at the council had said I'm sorry, I'll get the pavement repaired. I was spitting slabs of tarmac when she went off the phone.

The photos that my legal people used were dismissed as not showing the dip and I know the bloke from the council lied to the court when he said that the pavement had not been repaired. Even my barrister said that it had clearly been filled in a smoothed out.

The most tell part was the judge's comment "We can't let them claim for this it would open the floodgates to claims "

It's over and done with now but if you are going down thise route, make sure you have really good photos with levels and how high the hump is, then there are widths, depths and loads of photos.

Even make a point of going to the site and take a picture from a few angles once a month if you are going to court. Because you will need them for evidence. If you can catch them on video repairing the damage before it gets to court it will help your case. I just hope you don't get a judge that cant see the truth when it's in front of him.

Just remember the judges' commet.

Local Authority tripping accidents make me shudder. If they can prove a half decent record of repair, even it is only every 6 or 12 months then claiming is going to be difficult. It is a statutory defence and councils everywhere in England will use it unfortunately much to the detriment of people who genuinely injury themselves on neglected or damaged pavements.

It's the same with claiming against cleaning companies if you slip in a shopping centre or something, if you slipped on a chip and they'd just swept the floor 5 minutes before, or they can prove that they have a regular and reasonable cleaning plan then claiming will be tricky.

Sorry to hear of your bad luck with this case, thanks for sharing it, hopefully it will help others.

Teddybear xx