If you have been unfortunate enough to have suffered an injury on the ice during the cold snap, you could be able to make a no win no fee claim. The vast majority of these types of accidents usually fall down to the responsibility of the local authority or council. There is a lot of debate about how far a council should go where gritting and salting is concerned, and is has to be accepted that despite best efforts no council would be able to grit/salt every pavement, public area or highway during a bad cold weather spell. You have to bear this in mind when wanting to make this type of claim because sometimes it isn’t feasible.

The law on this matter is very varied as are the opinions of different solicitors; as a result a lot of the claims fail because they don’t meet vital criteria. You could claim liability under the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1980; under this act the occupiers of offices, shops, car parks and similar places have a much higher obligation to take reasonable precautions to ensure the safety of its visitors.

There are Highway Authorities that have the mistaken belief they cannot be held accountable for personal injury claims for failing to de-ice their roads, they are wrong. The occupants of the premises are required to take account of the weather forecasts and to also have salt in stock for icy conditions, they have to clear a safe path through snow, and also put up warning notices or alternatively shut the premises if they cannot make it safe. It isn’t a defence to say that the members of the public were invited to use the premises but ran their own risk of skidding on snow/ice. A defendant cannot make a defence by claiming that the cost of a remedy is too high because when this is taking into consideration with the cost of compensation claims, the remedy will be considered reasonable under the circumstances. Judges could find negligence in some of these circumstances; if there is no system for spreading salt/grit; or if there is a system in place for spreading salt/grit, the spreading of it doesn’t follow the system that is in place or the system itself isn’t adequate. An example of this would be if there had been no consideration of a weather forecast or no salt/grit in stock, also if other occupiers have themselves gritted but the defendant hasn’t, if there is no equipment or tools available to clear ice and snow or for spreading grit/salt; and if the Highways Authority has failed to comply with the "Code of Good Practice" or its own local practice standards.

These cases will undergo the usual tests of seeing if reasonable actions have been taken to remove any dangers caused by ice or snow, and this is a good indicator if a claimant has a potential case for compensation.