Preservation of Evidence
There are some things you can do immediately to help your claim for personal injury compensation in a pothole case.

You can obtain the names and addresses of witnesses who saw the accident and the pothole. You should take photographs of the pothole with references to its exact location and place a ruler or tape measure next to the pothole before taking the photo.

You should also keep the shoes you were wearing at the time together with any clothing that was damaged.

Have you suffered an injury?
In order to make a personal injury claim for a trip on a council pavement, naturally you must have suffered a personal injury. If you have not been injured, you would not be entitled to make a pavement trip compensation claim. You cannot claim for a ‘near miss’ or for what ‘could of happened’.

Accident time limitation
The pavement trip accident must have happened within the past three years in order to make a compensation claim. If you were under the age of 18 when the pavement accident happened, the three year period starts on the date you turned 18 years old. If the three year limitation period has passed, you would not be able to make a pavement trip compensation claim.

More than an inch?
When making a compensation claim against the council for a pavement trip, the defect that has caused the accident must be at least 1inch. For example, if you have tripped due to a raised paving slab, the raised area must at least 1inch above the normal level of the pavement. If you have tripped due to a pot hole on the pavement, the pot hole must be at least 1 inch deep.

Although a defect which is less than 1inch can cause accidents which result in significant injuries, it is very unlikely you would be able to make a successful pavement trip compensation claim. Cases have been considered by judges but have been unsuccessful, with one judge stating that  “a pavement is not to be judged by the standards of a bowling green”.