Advice from legal blokes needed
Discussion
Last year I had an encounter with a pothole, Cost me a bit of work, and I claimed against county. Reply came back that it was rejected and any action would be defended under a section 58 defence as it's a C road and inspection is only every six months. But on Google streetmaps the pothole is shown as a large one, and the day I reported it, the pothole was repaired instantly. The repair area is 1.5x1.5metres . Any chance of some firm from the "no win,no fee" lot taking it on? To LA it's an insignificant amount, but to me it's almost a weeks pension payout. I've got previous evidence of County not repairing potholes till County councillor gets involved, with County councillor being involved.
[quote=Who me ?]Last year I had an encounter with a pothole, Cost me a bit of work, and I claimed against county. Reply came back that it was rejected and any action would be defended under a section 58 defence as it's a C road and inspection is only every six months. But on Google streetmaps the pothole is shown as a large one, and the day I reported it, the pothole was repaired instantly. The repair area is 1.5x1.5metres . Any chance of some firm from the "no win,no fee" lot taking it on? To LA it's an insignificant amount, but to me it's almost a weeks pension payout. I've got previous evidence of County not repairing potholes till County councillor gets involved, with County councillor being involved.
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I agree with Twig - you're going to need to do this one yourself I feel.
You need to start by asking them for disclosure of documents if you do progress it. Ask for:
1. Inspection documents for the 12 months pre and post-incident;
2. Repair records;
3. Details of any complaints made about that pothole (and in the surrounding area) in the 6 months pre-incident;
4. Confirmation of how they class the roads (and why this is a class "C");
5. Details of any other incidents involving that pot hole.
If they don't disclose that information to you you may have to resort to the Courts to do a money claim online.
Good luck!
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I agree with Twig - you're going to need to do this one yourself I feel.
You need to start by asking them for disclosure of documents if you do progress it. Ask for:
1. Inspection documents for the 12 months pre and post-incident;
2. Repair records;
3. Details of any complaints made about that pothole (and in the surrounding area) in the 6 months pre-incident;
4. Confirmation of how they class the roads (and why this is a class "C");
5. Details of any other incidents involving that pot hole.
If they don't disclose that information to you you may have to resort to the Courts to do a money claim online.
Good luck!
Nezquick said:
I agree with Twig - you're going to need to do this one yourself I feel.
You need to start by asking them for disclosure of documents if you do progress it. Ask for:
1. Inspection documents for the 12 months pre and post-incident;
2. Repair records;
3. Details of any complaints made about that pothole (and in the surrounding area) in the 6 months pre-incident;
4. Confirmation of how they class the roads (and why this is a class "C");
5. Details of any other incidents involving that pot hole.
If they don't disclose that information to you you may have to resort to the Courts to do a money claim online.
Good luck!
Are they likely to volunteer this or will it need to be done via a FOIA request?You need to start by asking them for disclosure of documents if you do progress it. Ask for:
1. Inspection documents for the 12 months pre and post-incident;
2. Repair records;
3. Details of any complaints made about that pothole (and in the surrounding area) in the 6 months pre-incident;
4. Confirmation of how they class the roads (and why this is a class "C");
5. Details of any other incidents involving that pot hole.
If they don't disclose that information to you you may have to resort to the Courts to do a money claim online.
Good luck!
Section 58 is an absolute crock (have bumped into it myself).
Get the inspection records (FOA request) and the complaint records for the road and make sure it had been inspected in the previous 6 months.
If it has, dont waste your time as the court will simply side with the council.
You can only really win if you can show:
1) The road inspections have been missed.
2) The pothole was reported, and failed to be fixed in a reasonable time.
3) You can demonstrate the pothole has been there for more than 6 months despite inspections and of a depth greater than their repair limits (basically impossible unless you know someone else who has measured it previously).
In my case a local resident had been monitoring the pothole I hit and was driving past in the opposite direction while I was inspecting the offending crater and had date stamped photos showing the size and depth, which resulted in a hefty payout from the council.
Get the inspection records (FOA request) and the complaint records for the road and make sure it had been inspected in the previous 6 months.
If it has, dont waste your time as the court will simply side with the council.
You can only really win if you can show:
1) The road inspections have been missed.
2) The pothole was reported, and failed to be fixed in a reasonable time.
3) You can demonstrate the pothole has been there for more than 6 months despite inspections and of a depth greater than their repair limits (basically impossible unless you know someone else who has measured it previously).
In my case a local resident had been monitoring the pothole I hit and was driving past in the opposite direction while I was inspecting the offending crater and had date stamped photos showing the size and depth, which resulted in a hefty payout from the council.
[quote=Who me ?]Last year I had an encounter with a pothole, Cost me a bit of work, and I claimed against county. Reply came back that it was rejected and any action would be defended under a section 58 defence as it's a C road and inspection is only every six months. But on Google streetmaps the pothole is shown as a large one, and the day I reported it, the pothole was repaired instantly. The repair area is 1.5x1.5metres . Any chance of some firm from the "no win,no fee" lot taking it on? To LA it's an insignificant amount, but to me it's almost a weeks pension payout. I've got previous evidence of County not repairing potholes till County councillor gets involved, with County councillor being involved.
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not an expert but I'd be looking at the google streetmap photos to see if they were taken over 6 months ago, that would prove the pothole was older than 6 months so has not been repaired upon inspection or not inspected.
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not an expert but I'd be looking at the google streetmap photos to see if they were taken over 6 months ago, that would prove the pothole was older than 6 months so has not been repaired upon inspection or not inspected.
[quote=Who me ?]kindai- I was relying on the fact that the pothole was repaired on the spot, so was seen as a failure on LA to repair.
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While your average person would agree that is fair and he council should do a better job, the bar for getting a judgement as such is much higher.
If for example, this was the first time they had been informed of the pot hole since doing the last inspection when it wasnt present or was below the repair thresholds, then you would lose the case.
If when they send the records out you can see 3 people had reported it recently and they hadnt sent anyone to inspect it, then you may have a chance of winning.
The odds, while unfair, are stacked against you in this case. You have to prove they've been negligent, and its annoyingly difficult to do so as most councils scrape the limits of inspection dates just to keep themselves "just" protected from claims.
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While your average person would agree that is fair and he council should do a better job, the bar for getting a judgement as such is much higher.
If for example, this was the first time they had been informed of the pot hole since doing the last inspection when it wasnt present or was below the repair thresholds, then you would lose the case.
If when they send the records out you can see 3 people had reported it recently and they hadnt sent anyone to inspect it, then you may have a chance of winning.
The odds, while unfair, are stacked against you in this case. You have to prove they've been negligent, and its annoyingly difficult to do so as most councils scrape the limits of inspection dates just to keep themselves "just" protected from claims.
andburg said:
not an expert but I'd be looking at the google streetmap photos to see if they were taken over 6 months ago, that would prove the pothole was older than 6 months so has not been repaired upon inspection or not inspected.
Unfortunately the only street map that shows that pothole is dated a month or two before the day I hit it. But it shows a pothole that I'd suspect exceeds the "fix it today " limits( meaning that it had been there for some time). But without measurements that would be hard to prove. But our lot have a history of failure to repair. I got county councillor involved over one near me which had been reported, marked and left that long that the paint had almost gone. Not surprisingly when they repaired this one, a few others (which I'd reported previously) got repaired as well. Then there's the issue of speed humps, where the markings have worn off . Gassing Station | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff