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Toby Kempster advises how to approach an apportionment of liability ‘Driving a motor car imposes a high level of responsibility (and therefore potential culpability if mishandled) upon the driver as a result of the potential danger the car presents.’ Predicting how liability will be apportioned (if at all) in a road traffic accident often appears …
Continue reading "Road Traffic Accidents: Just and equitable = flexibility"
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Paul Jones examines the shift in costs recovery and potential problems ‘The Ombudsman had been entitled to reach the conclusion that a reduced sum should be payable in all the circumstances of the case.’ The Jackson reforms have seen a partial shift in responsibility for solicitor’s fees from culpable defendants to claimants. Success fees are …
Continue reading "Costs: Costs issues and the Legal Ombudsman"
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Julian Matthews considers the extent to which the court may draw inferences of negligence from the occurrence of commonly arising risks of surgery that a patient has consented to run The challenge facing all medical practitioners is that the human body is infinitely variable. Despite the astonishing advances in medical technology, this is the primary …
Continue reading "Clinical Negligence: Recognised breach of duty?"
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Julie Mackenzie looks at evidential issues in the niche area of equine related injury claims ‘It may be that the court has to consider carefully the use of experts in horse cases and that some more scientific analysis of a horse’s behaviour may be necessary.’Horse riding and ownership is a growth area; 3.5 million people …
Continue reading "Equine Accidents: Tally ho"
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Highways Act 1980; duty to maintain; section 58 defence ‘The trial judge was saying no more than that this area of road had significant and serious dangers that were visible, and that these should have triggered investigations, which would have led to the relevant defect being discovered and repaired.’ On 19 April 2009 the claimant …
Continue reading "Case Report: Simson v London Borough of Islington [2013] EWHC 2527 (QB)"
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Sandra De Souza reviews recent case law and insurers’ willingness to reopen cases where fraud is suspected ‘Clients should be informed at an early stage that if they are caught performing an action that is inconsistent with their witness evidence, their claim will be affected and, in the worst case, they will be found guilty …
Continue reading "Surveillance: Someone is watching you"
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Paul Jones considers the need to take care drafting consent orders but highlights the courts’ reluctance to allow parties to side-step the rules ‘It was within the court’s power, when assessing costs on the standard basis, to have regard to the costs that would have been payable had the claimant complied with the RTA protocol.’ …
Continue reading "Costs: Fixed or standard basis costs; two sides of the same coin"
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Fixed costs; fast track; exceptions ‘This case illustrates that the courts will take a robust approach to illegitimate attempts to escape the restrictions of fixed costs regimes.’ This case provides a salutary indication of the courts’ approach to what is likely to be an increasingly prevalent issue, namely claimants seeking to exit a fixed costs …
Continue reading "Case Report: Qaiyum v Ocado Ltd (Unreported 20 August 2013)"
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Deirdre Goodwin looks at the costs consequences of a refusal to mitigate six years after Halsey ‘PGF shows that the courts are unprepared to tolerate parties unreasonably failing to consider ADR, and there will be cost consequences for not responding to an offer to mediate.’ The case of PGF II SA v OMFS Company 1 …
Continue reading "Mediation: An invitation to be ignored at your peril"
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Bill Braithwaite QC discusses the basic requirements ‘The lawyer must make an initial assessment whether it is, or may be, appropriate to consider whether their client may not have mental capacity; they do not have to come to a firm or concluded view.’ Ihave a strong impression that the assessment of mental capacity in catastrophic …
Continue reading "Advocate’s Advice: The assessment of mental capacity following traumatic brain injury"
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