Police officer sues garage owner because she tripped over a kerb

Words just can't explain how ashamed I am now...

BBC News

... modern common sense.

You know, if you call the police, you better be sure you are not putting them at risk... ask the thieve to not to shoot or harm the officer in any way, or you could be held responsible for that too.

That is very troubling. Bad, bad, bad.

Thetford!!! lived there for 6 years.

hehe ST Mildenhall or Lakenheath?

I guess a defence would be that a landscape feature was so unexpected in that part of Norfolk, that warning signs should have been in place

Standing at the counter of a 7Eleven once unbeknownst to me my shoe lace got wrapped on the magazine wrack at the foot of the counter. I stepped away with a bag of soda only to fall flat on my side. Cherries on my arm and legs. They just stood there and looked at me. But you know what, I got up and walked away. They didn't owe me anything(although an "are you okay" would have been polite) and I wasn't mad at them or anyone. It just is what it is. Life. Sometimes its goofy. Get off your butt and try again.

Read this yesterday and thought it might pop up here sooner or later. Yesterday's article didn't include the photo of the offending kerb so I assumed it was loose or defective in some other way. Given that the owner of any public property has a duty to make sure it's safe, suing in those circumstances would be almost understandable (the fact the it's an on-duty police officer is irrelevant) even though a lot of people wouldn't. However, since there's apparently nothing wrong with the kerb in question, she'll hopefully be told do do one, and her ambulance-chasing lawyers can foot the bill.

Comes with the job.
Can't figure people out.
It's why I live in the forest......

Should have had her Health & Safety rep do a risk assessment before she went there.

She is bringing the police force into disrepute and ridicule, heaven forbid that she found an actual criminal on the property.

Makes you wonder how she manages to cross the road at night, the offending kerb looks to be in fine repair, undamaged and is part of the system used to contain the water in the wash bay.

Since when did Britain turn into the US regarding frivolous litigation?

She shouldn't be in the police force if she needs a white stick.

Video of the offending kerb:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-21987343

Life is so dangerous I don't know how police officers cope these days.

RedToo.

This happened as soon as they allowed lawyers to chase wambulances.

Mailman

But then there are the squirrels...

She should have her gray matter checked, nevermind a risk assessment.

I can't believe people will stoop to this level.

Next thing you know they will require "stepping over the kerb without hurting yourself" competencies that are assessed yearly.

There is no hope for the human race.

I thought from photos of the site that the offending curb was in a vehicular access area ~ and was a freestanding curbing around the jetwash area... ie it was only as deep as it was high and square edged. This *is* fairly uncommon if I 'read' the photo correctly... but it wasn't in a pedestrian access area...

If this is the worst that she gets to face in the line of duty she has got off rather lightly IMO... I have my doubts about her levels of fitness and ability to tackle a fleeing or resisting suspect.

Can't see how she thought this was appropriate ~ and I think she will struggle on her return to work - I can see more court cases complaining of harassment and 'mental torture' in her future, unless she opts for a change of career or permanent retirement.

She should have immediately tazed the curb/kerb into submission...

My Dad was stationed at Lakenheath at the time

with the amount of people that sue for their dumb mistakes and win in the last 15 years...

I read a statistic somewhere (still trying to find it) that over 70% of the world's lawyers practice law in the US. Hmmm..I wonder why?

Cos they aren't good enough to do it properly?

There is a lot of horsesh*te (for the last 10 years) written about the fictitiously rampant, all consuming "UK compensation culture", yet scant evidence that one of this kind exists or even threatens to exist. What does exist is the erroneous perception of such, despite evidence to the contrary. This is due to the phenomena of media amplification, by which anomalous exceptions almost mystically become by dishonest implication an alleged 'norm', when they are in fact nothing of the sort. A good example of this is the recent thread positing the question 'are English emergency services really this bad?'; although the individual incident was appalling, the obvious answer to anyone with an ounce of common sense and ability to think critically would be an unequivocal no. I couldn't even be arsed to reply and explain (and prove) why. Back OT, as much as I'd love to join the "blame US Cultural Imperialism for every single thing bad in the world" movement, and in particular compensation, its a bit more complicated than that. Mainly political but we won't go there.

Papers like the Daily Wail are masters of the dark arts of Moral Panic; their raison d'etre is the creation of Folk Devils and Great Satans and in Mail World (and others) the sky is perpetually falling. The very obvious motive for this distortion is primarily monetary, it helps them to sell their toilet roll erm, 'newspapers' and also reinforces an Ideological worldview amongst the more gullible that IMO has little basis in reality.

In 2004 a study was commissioned which revealed that the UK was in fact the second stingiest country in Europe (second only to Denmark) in terms of Tort compensation payments, the UK’s expenditure (at 0.6% of GDP) as lower than that of ten other industrialised nations, including Canada (0.8%), Australia (1.1%), Germany (1.3%)and the USA (1.9%): only Denmark spent less. Nearly 10 years on, there has been very little change. Though claims for motoring incidents and medical negligence have indeed increased, claims for accidents in general have actually fallen. Generally speaking, in the UK spurious claims are not successful (and rightly so).

http://shura.shu.ac.uk/691/1/fulltext.pdf

In 2010 for example, the then Leader of the Opposition David Cameron appointed Lord Young of Graffham, (who also served in the Thatcher administration), to review health and safety laws. He concluded that,

"behind the myth, the truth behind health and safety hysteria, the problem of the compensation culture prevalent in society today is one of perception rather than reality".

Here is Master of the Rolls Lord Dyson on the populist myth.

http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/compensation-culture-media-created-myth-dyson


I think the false perception of this is exacerbated by the deluge of sh*te on TV channels like ITV etc (which I don't actually watch barring when the footys on, or the odd history show exception) like "Have you hit your thumb with a hammer by accident" etc; to which I always immediately reply 'well you should have been more careful then you daft b*stard, now get over it and do one" . This is most peoples natural reaction, but joking aside this pejorative connotation can also serve to unfairly villify those who do have a genuine and rightful claim, (particularly those with severe disability's) due to the negligence and sometimes just plain old criminality of others. These fly by night TV compensation cowboys (most of whom will disappear like 'General Accident' and others in recent past) are only allowed to ply their trade because the market conditions for their existence have been created by Governments through legislation.

It is disgusting however when you see 'did your doctor do you harm?' adverts in hospitals (which no doubt is a big reason for the increase in claims); in some cases they may well have done, but it should be self evident that the vast majority of doctors and Nurses don't wish to harm anyone.....and this is definitely influenced by US-type advertising . Horrible, really. This is obviously not the fault of the average American however, most of whom I know are equally disgusted by this rubbish.

In the U.S. - well, Michigan at least, you give up your right to a 'private law suit', anything occurring on duty, when you join the Police/Fire Department. The 'City' may sue someone, but not you, the individual.

Not sure about the rest of the country, but I would 'assume' it is the same.
Or it 'was' the same.

Cause I've never heard of that anywhere in this country, but I could be wrong.
Unless the person 'resigns' from the department, 'first'.
As you won't be employed by them, after the suit is filed.

Such cases don't help the equal rights movements in any way...

No, but it's part of the job.
They tell you beforehand, before you sign on the dotted line.
If we sign our rights away.....they're gone.
Something to think about, 'before' you sign.
Not afterwards.

Then again, if you really wish to pursue a lawsuit, you can.
But you will have violated your employment agreement, and be fired.
Seems a balance that is right....to me.
You can't have police running around suing people, it'd be a short career.
I can think back of at least one incident a year, where if I'd sued,
it could have made my Detroit pension look like a poverty level income.
You could retire within a year, set for life.

Oh, $2,100 a month, it is just about a poverty level income.....lol.

I have just been listening to a topical news programme on the Beeb discussing this. The majority of phone-ins, tweets etc. were from police (serving and retired) personnel condeming this woman's actions and bring the force's reputation into disrepute.
Many have said that she was negligent in her actions as she did not use her issued torch.

She probably hadn't had the training required to operate the torch.

Training is required? I mean, even cavemen from tens of thousands of years ago knew how to use one.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-22000760

It seems the rest of the police force is pretty disgusted with this. I wonder if she will find herself landed with a crappy desk job 'out of consideration for her evidently severe injuries'.

I think she'll win, and every gas station will start painting curbs with neon paint..... "Warning: CURB HERE" signs with arrows.

Ya cause if they painted 'kerb' I'd not know what the heck it is, trip over it and then sue

I thought you Canucks spelled everything like the Brits do?

Sounds like the name of the guy in charge of painting them.
Curbs painted by Kerb!



The Jedi Master

It's all part of the Kerbals plan to take over the world ... one stone at a time