A PARENT tried to sue Derby City Council after a conker fell on their daughter's head in the school playground.

The case was one of scores of spurious claims which are costing council tax-payers more than £40,000 a year to defend.

Lawyers working for the authority are having to deal with about 150 cases annually – yet only a handful are ever proven and compensation payments made.

Some of the more outrageous claims include one from a man who jumped over a foot-high wall late at night only to discover that there was a six-foot drop on the other side. Shoppers have also sued for slipping on cabbage leaves and grapes in the city's markets and a dog walker took legal action when the pet stepped on glass while off the lead.

The most bizarre case of all involved the school pupil's family who claimed for personal injury after the girl was hit by the falling conker – an action that was attacked by a leading city councillor as "frivolous".

Sean Marshall, cabinet member in charge of resources, said: "I lived in America for seven years and it has a massive blame-claim culture over there and now I see it coming over here and some of the claims are absolutely ridiculous.

"People may think it comes out of the insurance companies' pockets but somebody pays for it in higher premiums, and for the council that person is the taxpayer of Derby.

"If there is a genuine claim for something that's happened, fair enough, but when we start looking at frivolous things like a conker falling then common sense has gone out of the window."

The council has handed over responsibility for processing claims to lawyers at Zurich Municipal.

It has to pay the company a flat rate of £40,000 a year to do this, but points out the number of claims has fallen since the five-year contract with Zurich was signed three years ago.

In 2008-9 – the latest period for which figures are available – the firm processed 133 claims and paid out in six cases, a total of £2,311.

The pay-out was £25,000 in 2007-9, with claims at 147.

In 2004-5 there were 150 claims, with 34 settled and payments totalling £176,000 made.

The Zurich contract covers the cost of instructing a solicitor where necessary, appointing specialist claims inspectors and carrying out checks where claims are considered possibly fraudulent.

A spokesman for the council said: "We believe this cost – which is part of a five-year contract we are in the middle of – offers excellent value for money."

Council leader Harvey Jennings said he still found it frustrating that the council had to spend money on fighting spurious claims.

"It is unfortunate the authority has to defend itself against frivolous claims for compensation," he said.

"The money it costs to defend these claims should be spent delivering the services that the community requires and needs."

Solicitors say the impression of a claim culture is misleading, however.

Tom Jones, a partner at Thompsons Solicitors in Derby – experts in personal injury claims – said: "There is a perception that everyone is suing for everything but our experience is it doesn't happen like that.

"There are, of course, some people who come with cases and we have to look at a case and ask whether that would succeed and ultimately if our view is a judge would kick it out, there is no point in proceeding."