fall in the street resulting in a fractured foot and broken bone

[juicymel]

hi all, not been on in a while but id like some advise please. this morning, I fell on the pavement whilst taking my child to school. it was on a slight uneven slope and my ankle went over and I fell to the floor. the pain became unbearable around 2 hours later so I got a relative to take me to the a and e where I was xrayed and told that its fractured and ive broke a bit off the end of one of the bones. ive been put in a big boot type thing (which they said is replacing plaster) and told ive got to go back to the fracture clinic on the 9th of may. im a general labourer and my job involves a lot of walking and have been advised to keep it booted and rested until the next appointment. I cant go to work while this is on as I have to wear steel toe cap boots and the management wont allow any breach of this rule, and I cannot actually walk!!! what can I do about loss of earnings during this period??? any advise is appreciated and thanks in advance.

[CleverClogs]

Re: fall in the street resulting in a fractured foot and broken bone

SSP?
ESA?
Sue the council?

[juicymel]

Re: fall in the street resulting in a fractured foot and broken bone

thanks for the reply, im entitled to ssp after 3 days as far as I know.??? any tips on how to sue the council???

[Sapphire]

Re: fall in the street resulting in a fractured foot and broken bone

I had exactly the same accident and the Beckham boot too, I went to a no win no fee solicitor in town because I was advised that suing the council is very hard, what you will have to do is supply photo's of where the accident happened, you will need to prove how deep the hole (in my case) or the slope in you're case is, plus you will have to contact people who reside in that area to get them to confirm in writing that the council had not been to that particular place to check it for repairs in the last if I remember rightly 6 months, my solicitor wrote to the people, they refused to reply, in the end I gave up.
Sorry but that's just my experience.
I do know of people that have carried on with claiming and its gone on for years.

[enquirer]

Re: fall in the street resulting in a fractured foot and broken bone

You will have to show negligence on the part of the Council. Simply slipping or tripping will not be enough. If the pavement was, say, inadequately maintained and you can show that this is so, then you may have a case.

Don't be tempted to go back to work. Doing so might invalidate any claim and may lay you open to trouble from your employer if something goes wrong in the future.

[juicymel]

Re: fall in the street resulting in a fractured foot and broken bone

hi all. update on my fall. I followed the councils complaints procedure and logged my case against them. I ended up being off work for a month and 2 days.ive come home today to a letter saying they wont admit liability. what can I do from here?? they said I should seek legal advise but I don't know where to start. should I use one of the companys that are on every 2nd advert on the tv?? and if I should, any recomendations??? thank u in advance.

[Celestine]

Re: fall in the street resulting in a fractured foot and broken bone

Be careful with all those advertised No Win No Fee companies. I'd recommend someone like Irwin Mitchell who have expertise dealing with councils. I sought advice from them last year when my 2 year old broke his leg in a leisure centre door.

I used to work for a council and had responsibility for this area. To prove negligence, you may have to demonstrate that the council were aware of the issue and did not remedy. So a pot hole that was reported but not repaired would be a perfect example. The councils maintenance and fault reporting records should capture this.

It may be that this was quite simply an unlucky accident and no one is officially to blame, so don't get your hopes up too high.

X

[juicymel]

Re: fall in the street resulting in a fractured foot and broken bone

thank you for your reply. Irwin Mitchell?? do they operate a no win no fee basis??

[Celestine]

Re: fall in the street resulting in a fractured foot and broken bone

Yes they do but only if they think you have a decent claim.

[juicymel]

Re: fall in the street resulting in a fractured foot and broken bone

thank you. ill look them up online and see what they say. thank you for your help.

[CleverClogs]

Re: fall in the street resulting in a fractured foot and broken bone

It may be that this was quite simply an unlucky accident and no one is officially to blame

And if she'd slipped on a squishy dog turd, would the council have any liability if they'd not erected signs telling dog owners to pick up their pets' calling cards?