Slips, Trips and Falls

Often accidents of this nature will result in claims against the local authority under Section 41 of the Highways Act.

Local authorities often use a Defence known as Section 58 of the Highways Act through which they will attempt to prove that they have done all they can to ensure an accident does not occur following their means of inspection.

It is important therefore to take photographs of the precise area where the accident occurred, taking close ups showing the depth of the defect as well as photographs from 4 separate angles denoting the area in which the accident took place. The sooner these photographs are taken the better because once the accident is reported the local authority has a habit of repairing the defect immediately thereafter so that if photographs are not taken before that time the evidence and thereby the cause of your accident will have gone.

Sometimes the local authorities are not the Defendant and the owner or occupier of the land upon which the accident occurred is but it is equally important to take photographs as specified above.