August 2025 Contents
 Welcome to the August 2025 issue of PI Brief Update Law Journal. Click the relevant links below to read the articles. CPD Note that there are no new monthly CPD quizzes since the SRA and the BSB have both updated their CPD schemes to eliminate this requirement. Reading PIBULJ articles can still help to meet your CPD needs. For further details see our CPD Information page.
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| Personal Injury Articles | |
 DHV v Motor Insurers' Bureau [2025] EWHC 2038 (KB) - Philip Matthews, Temple Garden Chambers On 1 August 2025, Mr Justice Dias delivered judgment in a dispute between DHV, a protected party, and the Motor Insurers' Bureau (MIB) over the payment of penalty interest under Spanish law. The issue arose from a serious road traffic accident in Mallorca in July 2017, in which DHV, a British national, sustained catastrophic injuries after being struck by an uninsured vehicle while crossing a road. Under reciprocal arrangements between the UK and Spain, the MIB stood in the position of Spain's... |
 A Cautionary Read: Poor Pleadings, Non-compliance and the Automatic Disapplication of QOCS - George Pressdee, Temple Garden Chambers Read v North Middlesex Hospital Trust [2025] EWHC 1603 (KB). On 5 August 2025, Master Thornett handed down judgment in Read v North Middlesex Hospital Trust [2025] EWHC 1603 (KB), a clinical negligence claim arising from two A&E attendances in late 2016. The decision addresses the strict pleading requirements for such claims and the scope of automatic QOCS disapplication under CPR r44.15. The issues for the High Court to determine were: 1. Whether the Claimant had complied with... |
 Silence Speaks Volumes: Inferences from a Missing Witness - Michael Brooks Reid, Temple Garden Chambers HQA (by her husband and litigation friend, HQK) v Newcastle-upon-Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust [2025] EWHC 2121 (KB). The Claimant, who was born with congenital heart issues, was 25 when she underwent elective open-heart surgery requiring a re-do sternotomy [cutting through the sternum which had been cut through previously]. In the course of the re-do sternotomy, the lead surgeon, Mr N, unintentionally cut the wall of the Claimant's aorta, causing catastrophic haemorrhaging. It took around 24 minutes... |
 QOCS in mixed claims: Sex, lies and a £100,000 costs bill - Michael Brooks Reid, Temple Garden Chambers In Samrai and Ors v Rajunder Kalia [2024] EWHC 3143 (KB), seven claimants brought claims against the defendant, a religious leader, alleging to have been financially and sexually exploited by him. Four of the claims included claims for both personal injury ('PI') and non-PI losses (i.e. 'mixed claims'). Each of the claims was either dismissed or struck out. The Defendant's costs bill had run to some £2 million and the matter came back to the Judge ([2025] EWHC 1449 (KB)) to deal with... |
| Clinical Negligence Medicine by Dr Mark Burgin | |
 Optimisation for Lawyers - Dr Mark Burgin Dr Mark Burgin is a low cost general expert with an interest in improving legal systems so cases are resolved more efficiently in speed, quality and cost. Legal cases are complex and there are many pressures on the lawyer. The lawyer must make choices in the case but it is often unclear which are the right choices. Learning to keep all the balls in the air at the same time can feel like an art. But is there a better way of understanding how to find the optimal approaches?... |
 Terminal Illness: Rights of the Dying - Dr Mark Burgin Dr Mark Burgin considers the ethics of whether those with terminal illness should have greater freedom to make decisions in hospitals. The courts are increasingly being used to prevent dying patients from leaving hospital. The reasons given are often that the person who is dying does not have capacity. In other cases this argument does not apply and it is difficult to understand the reasoning. When contrasted with cases where treatments are withdrawn to allow people to die this approach appears to be paradoxical... |
![Appeal judge rules that credit hire company has no costs liability following a finding of fundamental dishonesty in personal injury case: RSA v. Fastrack Solutions Limited [2023] 4 WLUK 92 - David Bowden, Erimus Chambers](/content/images/resized/images/stories/carkeys_72_72.jpg)
