Council clamps down on personal injury payouts

Every Local Authority in England & Wales has a range of statutory duties to ensure public safety in a number of ways. The most common types of claims against such Authorities are in relation to accidents on the roads and pavements within the Borough or County, specifically made as a result of obligations on the Local Authority under the Highways Act 1980.

All local authorities are under a duty to maintain roads and pavements which are public and the most common forms of claim are for tripping and slipping accidents as a result of uneven surfaces or due to weather conditions such as ice and snow. The Local Authority has a statutory duty to show that reasonable steps were taken to avoid such hazards.

As a result of the above, many claims are made against Local authorities each year and in line with concerns about fraud in personal injury claims having been on the rise generally, many Local authorities are now far more actively seeking to defend claims and to deal vigorously with any suspected fraud.

As an example, Caerphilly Council is reported to have refused suspected dodgy claims valued nearly £18 million in the last 6 years. This Council’s more active defence has apparently reduced the number of claims down from 1,600 in 2005 to 350 a year now and they have prosecuted 5 people for contempt of court.

Of particular interest is that apparently the Council suspect that as many as 60% of all claims are fraud and an example of this cited is a claim for 2 injuries at the same time ! One an alleged trip on a pavement and the second a fall from a bus over half a mile away.