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Paul Sankey provides guidance on the appropriate test for breach of duty after negligence in diagnosis ‘The judge reached the right answer to the straightforward question “did the professional exercise reasonable care and skill?”, but had to use a route through Bolam and Bolitho to get there.’ The test of what amounts to breach of …
Continue reading "Pure diagnosis cases: The test of breach of duty"
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Limitation; credibility; prejudice ‘This is an important judgment in relation to evidential prejudice under s33(3)(b) Limitation Act 1980. Defendants in stale claims frequently submit that they have suffered prejudice due to the degradation or loss of critical evidence.’ Under s33 Limitation Act 1980 (LA 1980), the court may disapply the limitation period in a personal …
Continue reading "Case report: London Borough of Haringey v FZO [2020] EWCA Civ 180"
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Matthew Ford and Sarah Prager talk through the latest on COVID-19, its effect on travel and when compensation may be payable ‘As time goes on and more is known about the transmission of the virus, so too the obligations on travel providers increase in line with their increasing constructive knowledge.’ COVID-19 is a new virus …
Continue reading "Travel claims: COVID-19: the facts"
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Simon Readhead QC considers the difficulties caused by historic claims ‘Although the key factual witness had some recollection of the events under scrutiny, her evidence was necessarily an exercise in reconstruction from memory, contemporaneous records and what she believed she would have done and thought.’ Issues relating to memory and witness evidence continue to trouble …
Continue reading "Witnesses: The problems of evidence many years after the event"
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Bethan Davies reports on a case which reaffirms that proving a measure to be unreasonable is an onerous duty on defendants ‘At first instance the judge should have asked whether the measure would have been “grossly disproportionate”, rather than merely asking on the balance whether the measure would have been proportionate.’ The first instance judgment …
Continue reading "Reasonable practicability: Too much to ask?"
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Ryan Bright highlights the implications of a recent Court of Appeal decision ‘The claimant had sought to overturn DJ James’s order by relying on his own failure to comply with the procedural requirements.’ If a personal injury claimant is protected by qualified one-way costs shifting (QOCS) in first instance proceedings, can that claimant also rely …
Continue reading "Costs orders: Does QOCS cover appeals?"
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James Bentley examines a case where fixed costs did not apply when a cyclist was injured due to a defective road ‘Someone who is injured as a result of driving into a defect in the road denotes an accident that “arises out of” the use of the vehicle. There was a clear nexus between the …
Continue reading "Pre-action protocols: Falling in between the portals"
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Lydia Barnett explores the causes of high costs and considers the improvements which are necessary ‘If the NHS and PALS worked more closely with patients and were open and candid about the nature of any mistakes at the outset, then this would reduce claims and the cost to the NHS.’ It has been widely reported …
Continue reading "NHS litigation fees: Reducing costs in clinical negligence cases"
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Jamie Hill reviews the latest Judicial College Guidelines ‘Between May 2017 and June 2019 there has been a continued period of inflation. Accordingly, nearly all the brackets have been increased by a factor of circa 7% to take account of RPI over the same period.’ On 26 November 2019 the fifteen edition of the Judicial …
Continue reading "Practice: Read all about it"
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Christine Bunting and Tom Hall reflect on changes to the day-to-day running of deputyships and revisit the key reasons for ensuring that costs are carefully calculated ‘The OPG now requires professional deputies to estimate the amount of their activity within the course of a deputyship year, as well as the associated costs.’ In the July/August …
Continue reading "Deputyships: What’s passed, what’s current and what’s ahead?"
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