A slightly odd topic to round the year off with, but let’s consider a slippery patch of negligence.  John Redwood worries on his blog about the liability of those who have attempted to clear ice from pavements and driveways becoming liable for any personal injury that follows the clearing, whereas if the ice had been left no liability arises.

Here is my take on the idea, prefaced by saying I am quite still feeling quite ‘festive’, so would happily acknowledge a better response – please use the comments to correct me.

First up, I’d suggest the last idea is false in certain circumstances.  Schools, hospitals and other public services do have a duty of care to maintain safe access and these organisations should be working to clear ice on their premises.  I’d say the same rule applies to shopping centres and the large supermarket car park that I skied across the other day.

As for the pavement outside your house, which I think is Mr Redwood’s concern; I do see the legal argument for liability.  If this space is full of ice, like the whole street, this is an unavoidable natural event and so there is no-one with a duty of care.  If a dedicated householder sets out to clear the pavement, then they create an intervening event, presumably accepting a duty of care as they do so.  On the second day, our householder is feeling less dedicated, and does not clear the fresh ice.  Mrs Miggins, who has taken care all along the road on the obvious ice, sees the clear patch outside the house in question and gallops across, slipping on the unseen sheet-ice formed by the clearing.  In this case, presumably we have met the test of the duty of care (clearing the ice on day one), failing to meet this duty (not bothering on day two) and an injury results (Mrs Miggins breaking her hip and being off work for 3 months) our diligent householder would have to pay compensation to the careless Mrs Miggins.

Surely the answer is (like many things in life) either do it properly, or don’t do it at all!

A very happy 2010 to all, I think it going to be a very interesting year!