Spoke to the lawyer this morning - he needs more information before he is prepared to take on a case
Basically even though the steps are in clear breach of todays building regulations they may not have been at the time of construction so I need to find out when they were built and when the parking area was resurfaced as the breach would have to have been made under the prevailing regulations at that time
I also need to get hold of a copy of the risk assessment carried out under the Disability Discrimination Act to see if anyone mentioned the uneven risers at that time.
Finally, I need to see if any complaints or accident reports have been filed with regard to the steps since they were constructed. It may help our case if we can show that the Council were aware of the problem previously.The fact that people use the building on a regular basis but have never fallen makes a sucessful claim more difficult
The lawyer also says that it may be difficult to prove RSD is as a direct consequence of the ankle injury but I have hospital records stating that is was in Alisons case - the basic problem in our case is could anyone have envisaged a sprain would lead to RSD, but as we had no idea the illness existed until this happened I have no idea how we can either prove or disprove this
I have told the lawyer this is not about money - Alison's medical bills are covered and hopefully she will improve in time - No amount of money could change the situation anyway !!!
This is more about prevention and awareness and making my employers rectify the problem in order that no-one else has to go through the same problems as us
I am going to chase up the dates of the work and look in our accident book on Monday morning and pass the information on to the lawyer to see what he thinks, though he feels that the case would tend to fall under the Occupiers Liability Act as they may have breached their "duty of care"
By the way - the steps were all 150mm high except for the bottom which was 80mm - so quite a difference !!!
Andrea