Nice Trip

[SIRandyraven]

Wow ....I did not know I could file for compensation for tripping up a kerb.
The number of times I have tripped up a kerb on the way back from the pub on a dark night.
I could even get legal aid :-)

I might give up my job and go on benefits.
Free housing - No council tax - legal aid and live on the proceeds of tripping up kerbs.

[Barmaid]

Link?

You won't get legal aid. At least not from today.......

[Barmaid]

(In fact you haven't been able to get legal aid for PI for years).

[SIRandyraven]

oh ...there goes my plan ...guess I will have to carry on working :-(

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2302375/Police-chief-attacks-officers-decision-sue-garage-owner-999-injuries-saying-actions-represent-majority-staff.html

[sunny-dave]

I think SirAndy is referring to "The curious incident of the porky policewoman in the night time" ...

[SIRandyraven]

Lesson is ....
Prior to calling 999 and requesting a police visit (crime or anything) ....check your house insurance is up to date and you have public liability insurance.
In case the copper trips up on your door mat.

[Barmaid]

Idiot woman. OK I've only seen the Daily Wail reports but still, what an idiot. How she can prove negligence or a dangerous state of the property is beyond me.

[boxtops]

Her boss has just been on the radio news, saying he's very disappointed in the WPC for taking this forward.

OH fell over in the road last year - not to late for him to claim, if this one should win :-)

[Barmaid]

Why didn't the silly cow have a torch? Honestly. I accept that people who are injured should be compensated, but surely a police officer accepts a certain amount of risk?

[boxtops]

Doesn't anyone, BM (or perhaps I know they don't, in this litiginous era)? If I fall up the kerb I can't blame anyone but myself. The garage owner in this case said the kerbs are the same all round his property, and a light only 12 feet away.

[Barmaid]

It makes me quite cross Boxy. A kerb is hardly a dangerous structure, fgs. Mind you, this could be once of those cases that gets sent out to Counsel, at which point Counsel says "Don't be so stupid".

[boxtops]

Yep - I'd like this one to be instantly thrown out by the garage owner's PL insurers, on the basis of "no negligence proven"!

[sunny-dave]

Do I detect the dead hand of the Ambulance Chasing Solicitor in all this though?

Right up there with merchant bankers in my "first against the wall come the revolution" list I think ...

[boxtops]

No win, no pay..... but I'd have thought that a policewoman in the course of her duty would have to be backed up by the appropriate people back at base in order to make a claim? I know when I worked in the brewery, all insurance claims against the employer (or anyone else) were always managed by the union, they didn't do it off their own bat.

[RATTER15]

This reminds me of the guy that sued a publican (and won) after he was so pi$$ed he fell off his bar stool and split his head open, apparently it was the barman's fault for serving him too much booze.

Crazy world we live in!!

[RATTER15]

Boxy i'm sure anybody can make a claim for injury whether or not they have the backing of her employers etc.

[Barmaid]

Yes, anyone can make a claim for PI with or without the backing of their employer. whether they are successful or not is an entirely different matter.

[FredPuli43]

This was a non-starter regardless of how visible the kerb was. An occupier is entitled to assume that someone entering in the course of their employment accepts risks incidental to that employment; that's why the firemen can't claim if part of my building collapses when they attend, nor the roofer complain if the roof's tiles fall on him.

This policewoman had a torch with her. It's part of her standard equipment. If the light was insufficient, she should have used it. The occupier says that the kerb was lit by a street light a few yards away and by the lights of the forecourt.

No win, no fee, strikes again.

[Barmaid]

Well as of yesterday Fred, those types of claims will start to disappear (after the Court has cleared the backlog of claims that were all issued in the last week of March, to beat the 1 April deadlines!).