Woman Receives Compensation In Personal Injury Claim

A woman has received compensation of more than £20,000 in a personal injury claim after she fell and broke a bone in her wrist, after tripping on a pavement.

The claimant, who is a "very fit and active elderly lady", had been walking along her local high street, which had a wide pavement that was built with square modern paving slabs. As she made her way along the high street, she caught her toe and a raised slab and fell to the floor.

She naturally put her hands out to break her fall and as a result fractured the scaphoid bone in her wrist. This injury is very common following this sort of accident as the bone takes the full weight of the body as you fall.

The claimant was then taken to hospital and her arm was put in plaster. She was asked to revisit the fracture clinic after 6 weeks and also told to rest at home.

Compensation claim

The claimant's husband made a call to a firm regarding a possible compensation claim. He did not know who would be to blame for the raised slab, but felt that it was necessary to make an enquiry because of the pain that his wife had experienced.

The claimant then spoke with a public liability solicitor to review the case and an agent was sent out to the scene of the accident, to take photos of the defective pavement. This provided a fuller understanding of whether the raised slab met the general legal criteria that usually applies in these circumstances.

The crucial factor concerning injuries that are caused by pavement slabs tends to be that the defected slab must either be raised or indented by more than one inch. In this case the defect was at least 2 inches in depth and so the claimant was able to go on with the case.

The other important issues in determining liability against the responsible party - in this case on the local authority or council - relate to the maintenance and inspection records that must be kept. Where defects are spotted they must be repaired. If a council can show that they had inspected the area in question on a regular basis and that the defect must therefore have developed only recently, then a claim may be difficult to prove.

Council takes the blame

In this case though, the council could not show any evidence of adequate maintenance records and their insurers admitted liability of 66 per cent. Contributory negligence was argued against the claimant in that she failed to see the defect in front of her. After a detailed argument, this allegation was withdrawn and we managed to secure a 100 per cent liability offer from the insurer.

At the time if the case, the claimant had not made a full recovery from her injury. The bones in her wrist did not knit together too well and she has now been left with a permanent weakness of grip and experiences general loss of strength in her arm. She has not been able to do the household chores as before and cannot hold a heavy shopping bag properly.

Because of the continuing symptoms, her claim for pain and suffering was agreed at £7,000. In addition, she received an award of £15,000 for care and services not just for the period already elapsed but for the future as well. Her symptoms were not going to improve and so it was right that she was compensated for her continuing disability and the effect that the incident has had on her quality of life.