united-kingdom england-and-wales
What does &quot;possible&quot; mean in this compensation context?
<p>This <a href="https://bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-49256251" rel="nofollow noreferrer">article</a> is titled "Paddington station: Commuter gets £27k for 'possible pigeon poo slip'". Later in the article is say the compensation was payed out after "possibly slipping". Finally, it references a "possible lacerated finger" as a cause for compensation payout.</p>

<p>What does possible/possibly mean in this context? Is it that cause was possibly the fault of the party making the payout or that it was possible that the slip happened, or some other meaning?</p>

<p>From the news article alone, one cannot tell just what is meant by "possible" here. My guess is that the passenger claimed that the event happened, the railway has not conceded that it did, but would rather settle than pay the costs of defending the case, and take the risk of a large verdict, and the risk of negative publicity. So "possibly" would mean "not proved in court". </p>
