St Helens Borough Council – How To Sue For Compensation

In this article, we will examine the concept of a data breach claim against St Helens Borough Council. If you’ve been harmed in an accident and it could be proved to be a local council’s fault, you could potentially start a claim.

claim against St Helens Borough Council

Honest claims can be made against councils for personal injury, data breaches or a housing disrepair issue. This guide will further explore each of these issues.

Read on for more information about compensation claims. You can also get in touch with us today for personalised advice from our team of advisors. What’s more, we could connect you with an expert solicitor from our panel if you have evidence of a valid claim.

Select a Section

  1. Personal Injury Compensation Claims Against The Council
  2. Local Council Data Breach Claims
  3. Claiming Against A Council For Housing Disrepair
  4. Can I Make A No Win No Fee Claim Against St Helens Borough Council?
  5. The Time Necessary To File A Claim
  6. Get Advice On A Potential Claim Against St Helens Borough Council
  7. More Resources On Making A Claim Against St Helens Borough Council

Personal Injury Compensation Claims Against The Council

Making a personal injury claim against a local council may seem daunting, especially if you’re looking to claim alone. However, you could use the services of a solicitor to help you.

To make a successful claim, it’s important to collect relevant evidence. Your solicitor can also help you figure out the best evidence types for your specific case. Desirable evidence types could include CCTV footage of the accident or photographs of your injuries.

You will also be invited to a medical appointment as part of the claims process. This is so your solicitor can get a better idea of how your injuries have affected you and how they may continue to affect you in the future. It can also act as evidence that the other party’s negligence caused your injuries. The results of this assessment will be key in valuing your claim.

Local councils are in control of many public spaces in their jurisdiction, meaning the duty of care they owe is outlined in the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957. This means that the duty of care they owe extends to anyone visiting those spaces. They are therefore obligated to take all reasonably practicable steps to keep these visitors safe from harm.

For example, you could suffer from a slip, trip or fall accident in a public park controlled by the local council. If a playground had a defect such as a pothole, this could potentially lead to a broken ankle or foot. If the council was aware of the defect and had not acted on it within due time, you could potentially claim compensation for your injuries.

 Potential Personal Injury Compensation Payouts

The table in this section displays compensation amounts for a variety of injuries. These figures are taken from the Judicial College Guidelines, which compiles compensation amounts from previous case studies to help legal professionals value injuries.

Compensation for injuries is known as general damages. These injuries can be psychological and physical.

InjurySeverityAmount
ClavicleFracture of clavicle£4,830 to £11,490
AnkleSevere£29,380 to £46,980
HandTotal or effective loss of both hands£132,040 to £189,110
WristCausing significant permanent disability£22,990 to £36,770
ShoulderSerious£11,980 to £18,020
ToeSerious£9,010 to £12,900
BackModerate (ii)£11,730 to £26,050
FootModerate£12,900 to £23,460
NeckMinor (ii)£2,300 to £4,080
ArmSevere£90,250 to £122,860

Special damages could also be included as part of your compensation award. Special damages cover any financial losses you have incurred or could possibly incur in the future due to your injuries. You could claim for:

  • Travel expenses (such as travelling to and from the hospital)
  • Medical treatments not covered by the NHS
  • Home adjustments if your injury has resulted in disability
  • Loss of income caused by taking time off to recover, for example

Evidence is required in order to claim special damages. This could include receipts for travel or invoices for home adjustments.

This guide explores what a justifiable claim against St Helens Borough Council could be. However, if you’d like to speak to our advisors about anything raised, why not get in touch?

Local Council Data Breach Claims

To figure out if you could make a data breach claim, we must first look at what a data breach could mean.

According to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), a data breach should be defined as a deliberate or accidental breach of data security that leads to the possible loss, destruction, change, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, personal data. How personal data should be protected can be found in the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UKGDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

When thinking about making a data breach claim, you first need to consider what kind of material or non-material harm the data breach caused you. Material damages is a type of compensation that covers the financial loss you suffer due to the data breach. Non-material damages compensate you for psychological damage caused by the data breach.

The breach also needs to have been caused by positive wrongful conduct, meaning it could have been easily avoided had the organisation entrusted with the personal data taken proper precautions.

For example, suppose a data breach occurred due to personal data being emailed to a person who didn’t have a lawful reason to access it. If the employee who sent the email hadn’t been trained in data protection, this might have been the reason for the breach.

There are also data security incident trends about reported data breach incidents for different sectors on the ICO website. From these, we can see that the local government sector reported 2,431 data incidents to the ICO in the second quarter of 2021/22. Out of all the sectors listed, the local government sector had the 4th highest reported incident amount.

If you have evidence of a valid claim against St Helens Borough Council, you could get in touch with us today.

Claiming Against A Council For Housing Disrepair

If you live in council housing and it has been left in disrepair by the council, it could have a seriously detrimental effect on your quality of life. Many housing disrepair issues could potentially lead to personal injury or illness. If this applies to you, this section could help.

Under the Defective Premises Act 1972, landlords owe you a duty of care to protect you from personal injury and damage to your property that’s caused by housing defects. Visitors and anyone else living in the home should also be protected.

Certain landlords should prevent such harm by repairing and maintaining the home where appropriate.

For example, if your house had a serious mould problem that the landlord was ignoring, and you already had asthma, this issue could potentially exacerbate your symptoms. If it does and you can prove negligence, you could make a housing disrepair claim.

Can I Make A No Win No Fee Claim Against St Helens Borough Council?

If you’ve already suffered financially because of an accident, funding the services of a solicitor for a claim can seem difficult. However, one of the solicitors on our panel could offer you their services on a No Win No Fee basis. This means you will not be asked to pay any upfront or ongoing solicitor fees. If your claim is unsuccessful, you won’t need to pay any solicitor fees at all.

Only if your case is successful will your solicitor deduct a success fee from your compensation amount. What’s more, they’d only do this after the compensation comes through. Your solicitor will discuss their fee with you before taking on your case, so you will always know what you’re getting into. The success fee is also legally capped, which means you will likely keep most of the compensation you’re awarded.

Our panel offer their services on a No Win No Fee basis for all accepted claims.

The Time Necessary To File A Claim

Claims have to be made within a certain period of time to be considered valid. This differs according to what type of claim you’re looking to make.

For personal injury claims, you are generally required to make your claim within 3 years of the accident. Alternatively, you could claim from the date of knowledge. This is the date you gained knowledge that negligence at least contributed to the injuries. However, there are a few exceptions to consider.

  • Minors – A litigation friend (an eligible adult with the claimant’s best interests at heart) can start a claim on their behalf up until they turn 18. Once the claimant is 18, they then have 3 years to start a claim for themselves if nobody’s already done so on their behalf.
  • Diminished mental capacity – A litigation friend can start a claim at any time on behalf of someone who lacks the mental capacity to. If the claimant can be considered to have fully recovered at some point, they then have the usual 3 years from the date of recovery.

For data breach claims, the time limit can be 1 year to make a claim against a public body. For example, this could be a local council. Alternatively, to claim against a non-public body, the time limit can be 6 years.

Similarly, you have 6 years from the date of the injury to make a housing disrepair claim.

To find out more about how time limitations apply to you, get in touch with us today.

Get Advice On A Potential Claim Against St Helens Borough Council

This guide aims to help you understand the concept of a valid claim against St Helens Borough Council. However, if you have any unanswered questions, why not get in touch?

If you have evidence of a valid claim, our advisors could even connect you to a solicitor from our panel to help you.

You can contact us by:

More Resources On Making A Claim Against St Helens Borough Council

We hope you found this guide helpful. See below for more relevant links.

Shelter – A charity aiming to help people struggling with housing issues.

Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents –  A charity that aims to reduce the rate of accidental injuries with advice and guidance.

Health and Safety Executive – The about page for the HSE, Britain’s regulator for accidents at work.

Guides On How To Sue The Local Council

Thank you for reading our guide on making a claim against St Helens Borough Council. 

Article by MOR

Edited by VIC