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Personal injury or damage to property

You can make a claim for compensation if you have tripped, fallen or hit a pothole on a road or pavement and injured yourself or your property.


We are currently dealing with a large volume of work across the department following recent weather events, which will impact on how quickly we can investigate your claim. We will endeavour to deal with your claim as quickly as possible however there may be a delay. 

If you are chasing up progress on a claim you have already made by filling in a form on our website, it will have been received by the team. The team are extremely busy with claims, given the current level of demand being experienced. I'm afraid we cannot tell you the progress of your claim. This is to enable us to focus on investigating claims and responding to claimants.  

Please accept our apologies but rest assured that we will in time get to your case.

You'll need to provide personal information and documentation to enable us to investigate and process your claim.

The information you provide to us will be processed in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). Details of the information we hold about you and how we process it are set out in our insurance claims privacy notice.

Before you make a claim

You can submit a claim using the online form. You'll need an email address to complete the form. If you do not have an email address or cannot complete the form yourself you may ask a friend, relative or other representative to complete it on your behalf.

If the claim is for personal injury and you're the claimant and are under 18 years of age (a minor) you must nominate a parent or other representative to make this claim on your behalf

If the claim is for damage, you'll be asked to provide evidence and documentation for the date of the claim including:

  • a copy of valid insurance certificate
  • a copy of a MOT certificate (where relevant)
  • photographs of any damage, the location and defects on the road, pavement or public footpath
  • copies of 2 independent estimates or the invoice / receipts if the repairs have already been carried out

To help your claim

You should keep the damaged parts and items until your claim has been settled as these may need to be inspected.

You must keep all original receipts or estimates in relation to the claim, as the originals may be needed to complete your claim.

If you wish to keep of a copy of the information you've given please make sure that you save or print the information before you submit the form.

Claims for compensation

Claims will be handled at first by our staff at County Hall, Matlock. Your claim can only be processed once all the relevant information and documentation has been received.

Once all relevant documentation has been received, an initial investigation will be undertaken. This can take a while depending on the complexity of the claim and demands on the service which can be affected dramatically by weather conditions.

If it's found that we're responsible for the site of your accident, then it may be necessary to forward your claim to our external claims handlers for consideration. This will depend on the amount involved and whether any injuries were suffered. If this is the case with your claim then we'll inform you.

In the event of damage to a vehicle, the responsibility for authorising repairs is with you as the owner. In exceptional circumstances it may be necessary for an insurance assessor to view the vehicle before repairs are carried out. If it's felt necessary for the insurance assessor to view the vehicle, then you'll be advised of this shortly after we've received your claim and all necessary supporting documentation.

There may be a number of instances where it would initially appear that we're responsible for the location where your accident occurred but this is not always the case. A few examples are listed for your information:

  1. Where the accident occurred outside highway limits and the site is the responsibility of the adjoining property owner.
  2. At the site of roadworks being carried out by one of the Statutory Undertakers (for example gas, electricity company, water company, British Telecommunications) and for a minimum period of 2 years following completion of the works.
  3. Trunk roads (for example, various lengths of the A38, A50, A5111, A52, A628) and the M1 Motorway are maintained by Highways England.
  4. A claim as a result of street cleansing works which are the responsibility of all the districts and boroughs.
  5. As a result of one of the district councils carrying out environmental maintenance (for example grass cutting or gulley emptying) on a county maintained road. District councils carry out environmental maintenance on our behalf on the majority of roads within Derbyshire.
  6. On a private road.
  7. Where a private individual has opened the road for whatever purposes, for example private sewer connection.
  8. Outside the county boundary or within the Derby City Council boundary.

If you still wish to make a claim please complete our form.

Make an insurance claim

If you're unable to complete the form then you may ask a representative to complete the form for you.

If you do not wish to claim you can still report the defect or fault on a road or footway. This is the easiest way to report a fault.