WA Personal Injury - Case Against Local Council?

[OLily]

I was on a short trip to Adelaide last year and tripped over the tram track whilst crossing North Terrace on a late evening. There was street light where I got off the taxi but was quite dark from the middle of the road to the opposite side. I sustained fracture to my left patella with 3mm separation. The fracture has since healed but still in pain.

Do I have a personal injury case against the local council for failing to provide adequate lighting on a busy road and what is the procedure?

 

[Tracy B]

Probably not. Statutory sections have made it difficult to sue government agencies (such as your local council) for negligence. You will need to show that the council owed a special standard of care that included providing adequate lighting to roads in similar areas as the one you tripped in, that the council's actual lighting was insufficient to meeting this level of standard of care. This would be difficult to argue in your case since it would be unreasonable to expect the council to provide light every corner of it's council area. Also, you say "quite dark", you will need to explain exactly how dark it was, was it so dark that you could not see the tram tracks? Was the tram tracks damaged in some way so they were more of a tripping hazard than usual? Would the general public not have realised there were tram tracks there?

Speak with a personal injury lawyer about the merits of your case. Much of it depends on the facts (such as the exact place where you tripped, the lighting at that time of night, traffic etc).

Note though, if you wanted to sue, you have 3 years from the date of the accident to start your claim in court.