Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about a claim for personal injury. It would be reasonable for her to pursue a claim of negligence through the courts.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains she suffered injury because of the Council’s negligence on a public highway.
2. Mrs X says the Council’s insurance company did not handle her claim in a timely manner, and it failed to respond to her complaint.
3. Mrs X says the matter has caused significant frustration and a negative financial impact.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
5. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
6. We will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by the complainant.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. Mrs X suffered injuries in January 2026. She complained to the Ombudsman in August 2026 because the Council’s insurer had not yet made a liability decision.
10. Mrs X said she complained to the Council about the delays, but it failed to respond.
11. Negligence claims and interpreting the law around civil liability are generally best decided by a court where the Council does not accept insurance liability. Only a court can decide whether the problem should have been dealt with by the Council before it caused injury to a person, or if it is liable to pay damages for a person’s loss.  
12. It would be reasonable for Mrs X to take this matter to court. Only the courts can decide whether her injuries were caused by the Council’s negligence and whether it should pay damages or compensation.
13. As we will not investigate the substantive matters of the complaint, we will not investigate the Council’s handling of the complaint because it is not proportionate to do so.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it would be reasonable for her to take the matter to court.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman