It's an April fools thing, surely!
I think it is a jolly good idea that a member of the public must ensure that the Police are safe to do their job. I think she deserves a 100 grand and not the 50 she is suing for.
Just like if a police officer comes into your home, it then becomes their place of work so the laws apply. On the garage forecourt it was poorly lit, with no notices of 6 inch high kerbs in a dark environment. No problem here from me with regards to her compensation claim. :thumbup:
Let's not lose sight of the fact that this individual KNEW it was dark and KNEW she was in an area not set up for 'customers' to use. Therefore she should have taken extra care of her OWN safety. She didn't - she fell. Tough.
Exploring dark corners of outside places is part of her job. Why did she not get the torch from her car? I'm pretty sure a torch would be a standard part of the police equipment. She chose not to supply herself with appropriate safety equipment. Tough.
I really can;'t see any claim standing up in court, But the police have got better things to spend their time and money on. I assume she is hoping for a nice out of court settlement and preferably an easy way out of her job with a nice little handout. If I was her boss I'd be spending a bit of time exploring her financial background.
Very interesting exchange here... and no one slagging the others off... feels almost grown up!
I think Foxlady makes a useful point as does Rogue Trader which goes to the heart of this issue.
If the garage owner has done his risk assessments - as he would be required to do to safe guard you or I if we went to his garage - he will not have a claim to answer...... if however the premises were "defective" and would have presented a hazard to you, or me or Rogue or Trev or anyone else on his premises as a customer of his business then he is probably going to be found to have breached the duty of care he owed to all members of the public ...and that will include a police officer attending in the course of his / her duty.
The point is that the duty of care owed to the police by the garage owner is not a higher duty of care than the one he owes to the general public ...BUT it is not a lower one either!
You will also notice a number of street lights in the area and I can personally testify to there being enough light for a rather drunken me to wander through the area several times at silly o clock in the morning in recent weeks!
If Trev is right that there is enough light to identify the "hazard" (and a court agrees) then this silly case is going to be thrown out and she will not receive compensation... the problem is that public liability insurers generally lack the back bone to fight ill concieved claims....in reality the probability is that her lawyer will claim a sum - say £35,000 and the insurers will decided to settle at say £15,000 rather than risk losing in court ...
the result is that the officer who makes a spurious claim is rewarded for her bare faced cheek ... and everyone else pays just a little bit more when they come to renew their insurance!
I hope that in this case the insurers fight the claim and have it thrown out ... but i wouldn't be too confident that they will !
Jack
..then the case will fail ... unless the insuers chicken out and choose to pay up rather than fight!
A somewhat belated reply, but never mind. The PC involved in this case has her law suit claiming she didn't want to be labelled a money grabber.
Too late love, way too late.
i live in thetford now and use this garage. It's friendly and welcoming and how this stupid officer can abuse her position is beyond me. She's done it before and sued for an accident at work and had a payout so perhaps she's ripping us off because she can!
If i ever need to use the police perhaps i shall insist on them doing a risk assessment before they visit.