Coventry City Council – How To Sue For Compensation

In this article, we examine the concept of a claim against Coventry City Council.

Perhaps you have been injured in an accident in public that was not your fault, and the premises it happened on was controlled by the council. Alternatively, you may have suffered due to a council data breach or a housing disrepair incident caused by the council. If this sounds familiar, we may be able to help.

Our advisors are on hand to offer free legal advice, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. To find out more, get in touch by:

claim against Coventry City Council

Select a Section

  1. A Guide To Making Personal Injury Claims Against The Council
  2. Making Claims For A Data Breach Against The Local Council
  3. Could I Make Housing Disrepair Claims Against The Local Council?
  4. Can I Make A No Win No Fee Claim Against Coventry City Council?
  5. What Timeframe Must I Claim Within?
  6. Get Advice On A Potential Claim Against Coventry City Council
  7. More Resources On Making A Claim Against Coventry City Council

A Guide To Making Personal Injury Claims Against The Council

Personal injuries could happen anywhere and affect different parts of the body. You could, for example, sustain a broken hip, a broken rib, or a broken cheekbone. This may be the result of a slip and trip injury.

If the local council controls a certain space, they have what is recognised in law as a duty of care to look after everyone on the premises. This is highlighted in the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957.

For public spaces, this means making sure potholes, cracks, or protrusions in the pavement are fixed so members of the public do not get injured. This must be done in a reasonable timeframe after the council has been made aware of the hazard.

You may have also been injured due to faulty public equipment, such as a slide or swings at a local park. Alternatively, you may have even suffered cuts due to barbed wire that the local council has installed but not maintained properly and is now harmful to visitors.

As such, your local council has a duty of care, and if this duty is not met, this is considered a breach. If a breach in their duty of care leads to you getting injured, you may be eligible for a compensation claim.

If you have been injured in a public space and it wasn’t your fault, speak to our advisors today. They can provide free legal advice that could help you.

Potential Personal Injury Compensation Payouts

We have provided a table below detailing how much compensation you may be able to get based on figures from the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). Solicitors use the JCG when valuing injuries because it lists injury severities with corresponding potential compensation amounts.

While the below compensation table might be a useful start, you may not see your injuries listed. As such, we recommend speaking to one of our advisors for a more accurate figure.

InjurySeverityNature of incidentPossible compensation
Injury to the Brain(b) Moderately severe brain damage

Would involve the injured person becoming severely disabled and needing care and assistance. Disabilities can be physical or mental. Payout would depend on factors such as age and severity of brain damage.£205,580 - £264,650
Injury to the Eye(d) Total Loss of One EyeAward here depends on cosmetic damage to the eye — this can command more compensation.£51,460 - £61,690
Injury to the Chest(D) AsthmaWould involve a more severe case of asthma that prevents victims from sleeping properly.£40,410 - £61,710
Injury to the Digestive System(a) Damage Resulting from Traumatic InjuryInvolves a high level of pain after severe damage.£40,370 - £58,100
Injury to the Neck(a) (ii) SevereCan involve severe injuries to discs and the cervical spine where a large degree of movement is lost in the neck.£61,710 - £122,860
Injury to the Shoulder(a) SevereCan involve injury to the brachial plexus, leading to severe disability.£18,020 - £45,070
Injury to the Arm(c) Less Severe Arm InjuryCan involve significant injury and disability but also expected to recover significantly too.£18,020 - £36,770
Injury to the Hand(e) Serious Hand InjuryCan involve cases where fingers have been amputated but poorly rejoined as well as a severe decrease in grip.£27,220 - £58,100
Injury to the Leg(c) (i) Less Serious Leg InjuriesCan involve fractures to the leg. Victim may be left with a limp but will be expected to make a reasonable recovery. £16,860 - £26,050
Injury to the Knee(b) (i) ModerateCan involve injury to the cartilage as well as dislocation. Can also include injuries that progressively worsen.£13,920 - £24,580

This guide examining the concept of a claim against Coventry City Council aims to help you. However, if you have any questions, why not reach out?

Making Claims For A Data Breach Against The Local Council

You may have heard cases in the news recently about data breaches. A data breach is when personal information, such as home addresses, bank account details, or email addresses are incorrectly handled by a group you have previously trusted with your information.

This can mean they have accidentally or unlawfully destroyed, lost, disclosed, accessed or changed your personal data. This is detailed in the Data Protection Act 2018.

To be able to claim, the act of a data breach itself is not enough. You must be able to show that your personal data being breached has caused you physical, emotional, or mental injury. Alternatively, you may have suffered financial loss due to the data breach. You could claim for both financial loss and mental harm or either.

For a claim, a solicitor (if you choose to appoint one) will need to prove that the data breach was an act of positive wrongful conduct by the party that was supposed to protect your personal information. This means that the breach was caused by something the council did or failed to do.

This could include directly disclosing the data due to not providing adequate staff training in data protection, but can also include not ensuring there is suitable anti-virus software to properly protect information.

If a local council has done everything reasonably possible to mitigate a data breach but it happens anyway, they may not be found liable.

Data Breach Examples

The following acts could lead to a data breach:

  • Not using blind carbon copy (BCC) on mass emails where recipients don’t have a lawful reason to view each other’s email addresses
  • Not taking out or redacting personal information from emails or other sources that people not involved don’t have a lawful reason to see
  • Verbally sharing personal data with others who aren’t authorised to hear it
  • Sending personal information to an incorrect address, despite having the correct address on file

According to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) data security incident trends report, in Q2 2021/22, 32 reported breaches involved emailing data to the wrong person in local government. 4 incidents involved a failure to use BCC.

Data breaches may be more common than you think. If you have evidence of a valid data breach claim against Coventry City Council, speak to our advisors.

Could I Make Housing Disrepair Claims Against The Local Council?

Every landlord has an obligation to make reasonable repairs to a property they rent out. This is part of ensuring that the house is in livable condition for tenants. This is underlined in the Housing Act 1988. Local councils are no exception and have a duty of care to provide repairs and maintenance before an injury may be caused.

Please note that to make a housing disrepair claim using the services of our panel of solicitors, the disrepair must have directly been responsible for an injury.

Below is a list of repairs that your local council may be required to carry out if needed:

  • Repairs to the exterior and structure of the house
  • Any repairs that relate to utilities (electricity, water, gas, etc.)
  • Repairs fixing damp, but not condensation

These types of claims depend on several factors. For example:

  • Repairs should cost £1,000 or more.
  • You must have reported the damage to the landlord.
  • You must have been waiting a reasonable amount of time for the repairs to happen.
  • They must have also made no reasonable effort to repair the issue.

If you have proof of a justifiable housing disrepair claim against Coventry City Council, talk to one of our advisors today.

Can I Make A No Win No Fee Claim Against Coventry City Council?

If you’re able to claim, you could consider being represented by a solicitor under a No Win No Fee agreement. This is a good option if you are worried about legal fees as you pay no solicitor fees to start, and no solicitor fees during the claims process.

If you are unsuccessful in your claim, you will not be asked to pay your solicitor’s fee. However, in the case of a win, you will pay a success fee out of your compensation, legally capped to a small percentage.

To find out more about No Win No Fee and to see if it could be advantageous, why not speak to our advisors for no-obligation, free legal advice today?

What Timeframe Must I Claim Within?

If you’re interested in starting any claim against your local council, there will be a time limit to be aware of.

For personal injury claims, under the Limitation Act 1980, there is generally a time bar of three years. This starts from the time you sustain an injury, but can also be from the date you were aware of an injury being caused by negligence. This usually applies in cases where a claimant has sustained a work-related illness such as mesothelioma.

However, if you are below the age of 18, the time limit only starts when you turn 18. However, you could claim before this if a litigation friend is able to represent you.

You could also use the help of a litigation friend if you lack the capacity to start a claim by yourself. However, if you gain the mental capacity to claim, you’d have three years from the date of recovery.

In relation to data breach claims, you will have a time limit of one year if it is against your local council. This changes to six years if it is any entity other than a public body.

For cases of housing disrepair, the time bar is six years from the date of your injury.

If you would like to clarify how much time you have left to claim, speak to our advisors today.

Get Advice On A Potential Claim Against Coventry City Council

This article about what a claim against Coventry City Council might look like aims to help you. However, if you have any unanswered questions, speak to our advisors today. Not only can they provide free legal advice, 24 hours a day, they can also connect you to a solicitor from our panel who may offer vital help with your claim.

Your call to our advisors today is a no-obligation conversation, so why not speak to them? You can do so by:

More Resources On Making A Claim Against Coventry City Council

Personal data breaches – Information Commissioner’s Office

Compensation after an accident or injury – UK Government

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) – UK Government

Guides On How To Sue The Local Council

Thank you for reading this article about what evidence and justifications you might need to claim against Coventry City Council.

Article by MCC

Edited by VIC