LEGAL Q&A

This information is provided by Stephen

Hattersley, of WildWood Legal, a firm of solicitors specialising in claims for injured scooterists. Stephen, a qualified solicitor for 25 years, has been riding scooters for more than 30 years, and has acted for injured riders across the UK. He knows the tricks and pitfalls that insurers use and pulls no punches in his dealings with them. He rides to work every day and understands the challenges you face out there.

Q: I slid off my scooter on a cold morning recently and injured myself. It is a known blackspot and the police told me they had asked the council to grit the area but they hadn’t done so. Can I make a claim for my injuries?

A: Scooter versus ice usually only has one winner. Plenty of it about too on these cold mornings. The extent of a council’s duty to grit areas has been a litigation hot topic for a while. There was a case very recently which was helpful to claimants. There had been two accidents one evening on an icy bend. The police then asked the council to grit the area but they refused as it was not their policy to do

so. The claimant then had an accident at the same spot.

The court found that the council was two-thirds responsible for failing to grit the area so the claimant recovered compensation. These cases do very much turn on their own particular facts so this case does not give a precedent of a guaranteed win. It remains a complicated area. As ever, make sure you speak to a specialist solicitor if you think you might have a claim.

If you need advice on a scooter-related legal question, email stephen@wildwoodlegal.co.uk the best Q & A will be published in Scootering magazine in confidence.