Claiming for an injury due to a pothole – what you might need to know.

When bringing a claim for injury, you would need to prove an injury occurred in the first instance, and that it was related to the accident you had with the pothole.

Evidence would include anything that showed you received treatment directly related to the accident that was cause by the pothole (hospital discharge notes, doctors notes, ambulance records etc.).

When assessing the value of a claim for injuries multiple elements will be taken into consideration; severity of the injuries, what type of injuries were sustained, any time off work to recover from the injuries and the impact that they may have on your ability to work in the present and the future.

In order to bring a claim for damage to your property alongside your injuries, you will need to provide details on your losses to support your claim, such as receipts and invoices. If the damage has been repaired, you would need to be able to provide evidence of this and the costs of the repairs.

Should your bike have been rendered unusable, or you were unable to repair it, a report detailing the extent of the damage and if it would be economical to repair the bike could potentially be useful. If this is not possible, you may have to provide the value of the bike, (subject to deductions, in relation to the age of the bike etc.) which would be considered when assessing the value of the damages that may be awarded.)

If your injury was sustained on a public road, there are two main parties who may be determined to be liable.

Highway Authorities have a duty to maintain highways at public expense, under section 41 of the Highways Act of 1980. Sometimes an injury may have occurred on a road under the responsibility of National Highways though, which includes specific roads such as dual carriageways and motorways.

Should you bring a claim your solicitor will work to determine which specific party is liable.

Under section 58 of the Highways Act, either of these parties may be found liable if they:

• kept the road under a standard of maintenance appropriate for a highway of that character and used by such traffic;
• kept the road in a state of repair in which a reasonable person would have expected to find the highway;
• knew, or could reasonably have been expected to know, that the condition of the part of the highway to which the action relates was likely to cause danger to users of the highway; or
• could reasonably have been expected to repair that part of the highway before the cause of action arose, what warning notices of its condition had been displayed.

If the accident was partly your fault it is likely that this would reduce the amount of compensation you would receive, with your actions being taken into account when considering the conditions surrounding the accident. This is what’s known as contributory negligence.

Find out more about contributory negligence >

Cyclists will usually be successful if the local authority can’t prove that they took reasonable steps to make the relevant part of the road safe.

As per the law detailed above under liability, these parties are likely to be found liable if they:

• kept the road under a standard of maintenance appropriate for a highway of that character and used by such traffic;
• kept the road in a state of repair in which a reasonable person would have expected to find the highway;
• knew, or could reasonably have been expected to know, that the condition of the part of the highway to which the action relates was likely to cause danger to users of the highway; or
• could reasonably have been expected to repair that part of the highway before the cause of action arose, what warning notices of its condition had been displayed.

Unfortunately, potholes and injuries arising from them are all too common on our roads. Here we hope to have given you some insight into the legal options you have should you find yourself injured following an accident involving a pothole.