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Case Law: New grounds

Stephanie Prior reviews recent changes in personal injury and clinical negligence litigation ‘Montgomery is a move away from the test of a reasonable doctor and that of a reasonable patient.’ It has been an exciting period in the litigation world over the last year or so. This article will touch upon some of those changes …
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Advocate’s Advice: Keeping it simple

Bill Braithwaite QC highlights a judgment with clear findings on causation and material contribution ‘A claim will fail if the most that can be said is that the claimant’s injury is likely to have been caused by one or more of a number of disparate factors, one of which was attributable to a wrongful act …
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Tortious Liability: An ‘ordinary unwell man’?

The threshold for liability in negligence of a mentally or physically impaired tortfeasor has recently been clarified in the Court of Appeal decision in Terry Dunnage v (1) Randall (2) UK Insurance Limited [2015]. David Roderick reports ‘The medical evidence had clearly established that V’s actions had not been intended, deliberate, wilful, malicious or reckless.’The …
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Cost Changes: Highways, occupiers and defective premises claims

Andrew Mckie looks at the implications of the proposed changes to the small claims tracks and preparing for the 2017 SCT changes ‘There will undoubtedly become a new battle ground as to whether cases should be allocated to the fast track or small claims track.’ In the Autumn of 2015, the Treasury said the words …
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Fundamental Dishonesty: A forecast for fraud – and a chance of meatballs

In part one of this two-part article Martin Littler discusses the arguments and findings in Carol Ravenscroft v Ikea Limited ‘Had the claimant lost the case, the claimant may have lost more than the damages; the claimant was concerned at the loss of her own employment; had a finding of fraud or fundamental dishonesty been …
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Missed Diagnosis: The mechanics of injury

George Ampat explains that sacroiliac joint dysfunction and low back pain can be a frequently overlooked consequence of road traffic accidents ‘Given the problems […] with regard to diagnosis it is important to instruct the right expert who has the relevant experience to confirm the diagnosis. The most important aspect of diagnosing sacroiliac joint dysfunction …
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Interim Payments: Room for rent

Deidre Goodwin analyses Eeles applications and the case for reviewing Roberts v Johnstone ‘The leit motif running through reported Eeles and trial decisions is that Roberts v Johnstone [1989] is an imperfect solution.’Has the time come to reconsider the validity of the apparently immutable Roberts v Johnstone [1989] principle in order to provide a fairer …
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Costs: Assignment of conditional fee agreements

Paul Jones examines the complications caused when a recent claim was passed to new solicitors ‘In conducting its analysis of the competing positions, the court started from the well-recognised principle that only the benefit of a contract can be assigned, not the burden, but that there were certain limited exceptions where it was permissible.’With all …
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Book Review: Occupying the pitfalls of Jackson

Jonathan Dingle FRSA analyses Occupiers, Highways, and Defective Premises Claims: a Practical Guide Post-Jackson Occupiers, Highways and Defective Premises Claims: A Practical Guide Post-Jackson Author: Andrew Mckie Published by Law Brief Publishing 2015 Price: £49.99 Passing the time of day in St John’s Chambers, I spied the excellent Timothy Grice and was instantly reminded of …
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Case Report: Craig Rollinson v Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council [2015] EWHC 3330 (QB)

Section 41 Highways Act 1980; duty of repair; breach of duty; contributory negligence ‘Although it was not determinative of the appeal, His Lordship also found that the trial judge had been wrong in not making of contributory negligence.’The recent High Court appellate decision in the case of Craig Rollinson v Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council [2015] …
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