Potholes

Sadly, coming off on a pothole does not mean the county council (which is usually the council responsible for the roads) will automatically be liable. The first thing you would have to show is that there was a defect in the road and that it was sufficiently bad that it was likely to be a danger to road users.

We all know that these days many roads are in a disgraceful condition, especially compared to, say 25 years ago. However, shallow erosion, small pits, holes, scarified surface and similar "everyday" deterioration is unlikely to qualify as something likely to be a danger. The law says such hazards are something we all have to accept in using the roads.

Even if the defect is bad enough to qualify as a danger, the council then has a defence under the Highways Act and will not be liable if it can show that it had a reasonable system of inspection and repair in place and that it was operating it properly.

What is reasonable varies depending on the type of road, the extent and nature of traffic it has, its layout and location, and so on. Unclassified country roads will not be given inspection and repair as often as main town roads or A roads and that would be reasonable.

The dice are very much loaded in favour of the council in pothole cases, simply because they have a finite amount of money to spend on roads; the law has been devised so that councils are not liable to be bankrupted by every single accident that can be blamed on less than perfect road surface.

However, just because a council has a policy in place does not mean it is a reasonable one, or that it has been properly followed. I have had several successful claims in this type of case because we were able to show that the council had not followed its own road inspection system, or had missed something which ought not to have been missed.

The best advice I can give is (a) be aware of the state of the roads you use regularly and ride accordingly; and (b) if you are unlucky enough to take a spill because of a defect in the road surface, (i) make sure you take some decent photos of it as soon as possible; (ii) get names and addresses of anyone who saw the accident; (iii) seek free initial advice from a solicitor as soon as you can.