Circumstances of the accident
We acted on behalf of a client who was on holiday in Scotland. He dislocated his ankle after falling on a country trail. The country trail was maintained by the Council. There was a fence on the trail which had a crossing point with a “stile”. The stile was broken. A Council employee removed the stile but did not put in place adequate remedial works to ensure that the fence could be crossed safely. It had been left in a state where someone traversing it would require them to place their feet on timber cross members on both sides of the fence. This significantly increased the risk of a person falling when negotiating the fence.
The Council denied liability for the accident. They suggested that the temporary repair they had put in place meant that the fence could be negotiated sufficiently safely. Alternatively, they suggested that our client was at fault due to him failing to take care with placing his feet when crossing the fence.
How we helped our client
We raised a Court action against the Council based on their failure to ensure that the fence could be safely traversed. We argued that by failing to carry out adequate remedial works, the fence in the state it was left presented a significant risk of injury to anybody crossing it.
We obtained a report from a health & safety expert. This concluded that removing the stile significantly increased the risk of someone falling while crossing the fence.
We obtained medical evidence from a consultant orthopaedic surgeon which addressed the ankle dislocation sustained by our client. This report detailed the diagnosis, recommended treatment, and confirmed that our client’s continued symptoms could be linked to the injury caused by the accident.
We sought damages for the loss of enjoyment of our client’s holiday and the costs he incurred for the cancelled accommodation and mobility aids he needed.
Settlement
We were able to achieve over £10,000 in settlement for all our client’s head of claim. This was an excellent outcome and resulted from our thorough investigations into both liability and the value of the claim.
