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Jo C.
Jo C., Barrister
Category: Law
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Experience:  Over 5 years in practice
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My son had his leg broken by a member of staff at a public

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My son had his leg broken by a member of staff at a public house incident. The police were called but made no report, he was left lying for 4 hours in the rain before an ambulance was called. The public house house have denied culpability and said they sacked the member of staff. The Police were called and made no report. The local licensing authority are investigating however as they have just been informed they say there is difficulty viewing the CCTV footage. Who do we sue.
Jo C.
Hi.
Thank you for your question. My name is ***** ***** I will try to help with this.
Why did the police not act?
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Customer: replied 3 years ago.

I don't know, my son was very traumatised by the whole event which took place on the 21/22nd. November and is only now able to talk about it. All enquiries to the Police have met with a blank wall.
It is quite probative that the police didn't charge anybody.
What was their reason? They must have told him something.
Has he refused a statement? Or do you just not know?
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Customer: replied 3 years ago.

He was neither in a position to understand or hear what they were saying.

He would not have been in position to make a statement even if he had been asked.

What I dont understand is why the Police did not even log the incident.
There could be a number of reasons but they are not to his benefit.
One is that they didn't believe anything unlawful had taken place. That is a real problem. The only positive factor is that he wasn't arrested so it is not likely that the staff were saying that he was the aggressor and they acted in self defence.
In terms of who to sue, he can sue the attacker. It is not a good idea unless he is confident that he can prove this bearing in mind the police didn't even arrest. You don't want to end up paying the other side's costs.
He could also sue the public house. They employed him at that time and he was acting in the course of his employment. They are probably the more attractive defendant because they can pay the award but do consider the costs issue.
There are no win no fee firms but they will only act if the claim is a strong one and it is a high sum. You don't get punitive damages in the UK. He would be entitled to something for pain and suffering but not a lot. The real claim lies in actual financial loss like lost earnings. We don't pay medical bills in the UK so that falls away.
Sorry if that is bad news.
Can I clarify anything for you?
Jo
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Customer: replied 3 years ago.

So what you are really saying is that:

1. He needs to report the matter to the Police in order to establish why the Police took no action.

What we do know is that he was left outside for 4 hours and had a leg broken in two places it didn't happen by magic

What action should we be taking

1 No. That would not establish that. It was reported at the time because they attended. The fact that they didn't act tends to suggest they didn't believe anything unlawful happened. It is a different standard of proof in the civil course, of course, but they don't need much evidence for an arrest either.
2 The fact of the injury must have happened in some way. That doesn't prove an assault and it doesn't prove it was unlawful even if there was.
I suppose you could demand an explanation from the police. It is rather suprising they didn't offer something. They will only say 'insufficient evidence' but it is worth finding that out before you sue rather than after.
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