Open manhole outside Mr A’s house

Mr A and his wife rent their home Rykneld Homes and have to call the company/North East Derbyshire Council if they have any problems or issues.

Manhole left open looking for blocked drain

On this occasion there was a blocked drain that was causing issues within the house and so Mrs A contacted the company.  An emergency plumber arrived at around 8pm and asked Mrs A if she knew where the manholes were.  She didn’t.  She asked her husband and neither did he.  The plumber went out, with a light on a long extension lead, and started to look around.

Shortly afterwards, Mr A, aged 61 at the time, went out into the garden for a cigarette and almost immediately fell down an open manhole.  It was dark, being September, and there were no lights around the manhole and no warning signs.  He got himself out of the manhole and sat on the wall to try to recover.  The plumber left, saying something along the lines of ‘I hope your man is OK’; indicating he knew about the accident.

Mr A was shocked, shaken and in pain and had difficulty with his breathing.  His wife called paramedics who attended and suggested that he went to hospital, but he didn’t want the fuss and decided to take pain killers and see how it went.  An ex-miner, Mr A suffered emphysema, chronic obstructive airway disease (COAD) and some other issues.  His wife, who had suffered a mild heart attack earlier in the year, was his carer.  The couple were somewhat fragile.

The following day, still in pain, Mr A visited his GP, who referred him to A & E where he was x-rayed and told he had broken ribs, but there was no treatment.  He was told to rest and take pain killers.  Paramedics attended the following day and administered morphine.  He also attended A & E again and was give further morphine vials.

Fragile couple take legal advice after complaint to council

Jonathan West

Mrs A complained to the council, who said that someone would speak to the plumber to get his version of events.  A council representative called to see the couple but Mrs A was too upset to speak to him.  The couple decided to take legal advice and contacted Graysons.  Jonathan took up the case.

Jonathan pursued P. K. Electrical Ltd – the landlord’s maintenance company.  The company denied liability and so Jonathan issued legal proceedings and a court date was set for 17 March 2016.  The company, however, decided to settle out of court and Jonathan secured £1,750 for Mr A.

All landlords have a duty to maintain their property so that it is safe for users – this includes when they carry out maintenance work.  If they don’t and you have an accident as a result of their negligence, you may be able to claim personal injury compensation.  If this has happened to you, contact our injury and accident experts now for a no obligation discussion about your matter.

No legal help if Government imposes changes

In its autumn statement last year, the Government announced proposed changes to claiming personal injury compensation this year. The planned changes are to:

• Raise the small claims limit for personal injury claims from £1,000 to £5,000, which means that claims of less than £5,000 will be transferred to the small claims court and solicitor fees will not be recoverable – leaving some injured people with no legal help or support, and
• Remove the right to compensation for ‘minor’ soft tissue injuries (includes whiplash)

If these changes go ahead as planned, Graysons’ experts would not have been able to help Mr A as his claim was for less than £5000 and he would have had to make the claim, with no legal knowledge or expertise, himself, in the Small Claims Court.

We think that these changes are unfair and will restrict people’s right to proper redress if they have an accident or injury that is not their fault.

If you feel that the government’s proposed changes are unfair and that victims of accidents and injury should be able to claim compensation and obtain legal advice, and you would like to voice your opinion, please sign the petition.

Graysons will continue to help victims of personal injury claims wherever possible so please do contact our specialist team now if you need help.

You can find out more about claiming compensation on our personal injury web pages.