These claims are subject to the Civil Liability Act 2003 and Personal Injuries Proceedings Act 2002.
Local authorities are not liable for every deficiency in the roads under their control of which they may have no knowledge. They will be liable if they fail to exercise reasonable care in the design and maintenance of their roads. They may also be liable for defects of which they had been aware or which they ought to have become aware.
Factors which will be taken into account when assessing whether a council has acted reasonably include the magnitude of the risk, the potential of an injury, the expense in rectifying the fault, budgetary constraints and the difficulty and inconvenience of taking steps to remove the danger.
When they carry out work they are liable if it is not carried out to normal and usual standards. Therefore if a council inadequately repairs a pothole or inadequately constructs a road in the first place making it likely potholes will form, it will be liable for any injury proven to be the result of the inadequacies.
A road authority has only to have completed the works complained of to the standard appropriate at the time those works were completed.
Road users are themselves required to take care for their own safety and if they fail to see and avoid an obstacle which ought to have been obvious to them, they may be considered to be responsible for their own injuries at least in part.
The discussion applicable to design/construction and surveillance/maintenance which applies to public areas is also relevant here.
A public authority is liable if it fails to take reasonable care to prevent injury by a lack of adequate maintenance, or by failing to warn of dangers of which it ought to be aware. Local councils have been held liable for the nuisance created by its failure to clear a drain and for the personal injury resulting from its omission to warn the public of the dangerous condition into which a public structure had fallen.
Where there is a concealed danger or an unusual danger of which the council should have known an injured member of the public may succeed. Examples include failure to warn of the risks of submerged logs at swimming holes where courts have found that the duty of care extends to entrants for a failure to take reasonable care.
Councils are liable for injuries caused on their premises and in parks etc to the extent that they fail to take reasonable care. This includes failing to design, construct or reasonably maintain playground equipment.
You may not succeed in your claim or the extent of your damages may be reduced if you have failed to have taken reasonable care for your own safety, for example if an obvious risk is ignored.