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June 2025 Contents
 Welcome to the June 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 | |
 R (Ayinde) v London Borough of Haringey and Al-Haroun v Qatar National Bank QPSC and Another [2025] EWHC 1383 (Admin) - Andrew Ratomski, Temple Garden Chambers The Divisional Court's judgment in these joined contempt cases following a Hamid hearing heard on 23 May 2025 has received wide-spread attention in both the legal press and national media. I want to highlight the unequivocal guidance that the Divisional Court has given as to the use of artificial intelligence by legal professionals and the salutary reminder of the regulatory responsibilities surrounding the use of emerging technologies. |
 JD Wetherspoon Plc v Burger & Risk Solutions BG Ltd [2025] EWHC 1259 (KB) - Philip Matthews, Temple Garden Chambers The Claimant sustained a serious hip injury after being forcefully restrained by two door supervisors outside a JD Wetherspoon (JDW) pub in August 2018. The supervisors were employed by Risk Solutions BG Ltd., which was contracted by JDW to provide security services. The Claimant initially sued both JDW and Risk Solutions for personal injury. However, Risk Solutions failed to participate in the proceedings, and so the case proceeded against JDW alone... |
 Mark Edwards & Ors v 2 Sisters Food Group Limited [2025] EWHC 1312 (KB) - Philip Matthews, Temple Garden Chambers The case concerns an appeal by four former employees of 2 Sisters Food Group Ltd, who alleged that they contracted Covid-19 due to workplace safety failures in June 2020. The Respondent employer sought and obtained summary judgment in its favour, arguing the Claimants had no realistic prospects of success. At the initial hearing, the County Court Judge (HHJ Owens) ruled that the Claimants would not be able to establish a causal link between... |
 David Richardson & Ors v Slater & Gordon UK Limited [2025] EWHC 1220 (SCCO) - Andrew Ratomski, Temple Garden Chambers This judgment concerned a group of 224 claims against solicitors, the Defendant, from which ten test claimants were identified. Senior Costs Judge Rowley was asked to determine nine preliminary issues in respect of conditional fee agreements entered into with the Defendant and the information provided orally and in writing when those agreements were entered into... |
| Clinical Negligence Medicine by Dr Mark Burgin | |
 Criminal Case Review - Dr Mark Burgin Dr Mark Burgin considers how a criminal case should be reviewed to fairly consider if there is material evidence that has not been considered. Any criminal justice system will inevitably put some innocent people in prison. This is not a society problem as long as there is a prompt system of Criminal Case Review to identify those wrongly imprisoned and fairly reconsider their cases. The greater the delay and less efficient the system of Criminal Case Review the more injustice will occur... |
 Safe Use of AI in Legal Proceedings - Dr Mark Burgin Dr Mark Burgin uses Gemini LLM to consider a recent paper considering AI and the UK Judiciary from the point of view of a medical expert with wide experience in AI. Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the legal field has been generally welcomed but Judges have raised concerns. There are a number of reports of lawyers having been caught out citing non existent cases. This suggests that AI use in law is already widespread and largely unregulated either by legal firms or through formal guidance. The judges in this paper have a unique viewpoint and their work is a key step to safe AI use... |
May 2025 Contents
 Welcome to the May 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 | |
 Claimant fruit picker's employer found negligent but not the third party driver who drove into collision with him - Andrew Ratomski, Temple Garden Chambers Radoslav Pashamov v (1) Leon Taylor and (2) Edward Vinson Limited [2025] EWHC 1035 (KB). Simon Tinkler sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge recently handed down judgment on liability in a claim for personal injury brought against a third party driver and the Claimant's employer. Both the accident circumstances and the treatment of primary liability and contributory negligence were relatively novel... |
 Doroudvash v Zurich Insurance Plc [2025] EWCC 10 - Philip Matthews, Temple Garden Chambers In Doroudvash, the Court determined a claimant's application to join an additional defendant into an action after the expiry of the primary limitation period. Two police constables - PC Sehmi and PC Doroudvash - were responding to an emergency call. PC Sehmi was driving; PC Doroudvash was his passenger. The police car was travelling at 87mph in a 30mph zone when it came into collision with a third-party vehicle driven by a Mr Tarnowski. Both he and PC Doroudvash sustained personal injury. PC Sehlmi was... |
 Glaister & Anor, R (on the application of) v Assistant Coroner for North Wales [2025] EWHC 1018 (Admin) - Philip Matthews, Temple Garden Chambers In Glaister, the Court had sent out a draft judgment in a judicial review case relating to a coroner's decision. Specifically, this was circulated in the form of a 'confidential embargoed draft judgment' (CEDJ). However, it became clear that journalists had knowledge of the decision and also a copy of the draft judgment itself. The Court enquired as to how this came about, and found that this was due to the actions of someone in the marketing department of one of the solicitors firms involved, namely... |
 Costs budgeting can be retrospective: BDW Trading Limited v Ardmore Construction Limited [2025] EWHC 1063 (TCC) - Andrew Ratomski, Temple Garden Chambers Andrew Mitchell KC sitting as a Deputy Judge of the High Court was required to decide whether the court had the power to make a costs management order retrospectively and to consider the reasonableness of budgets filed almost a year prior at a Costs and Case Management Conference ('CCMC') held in June 2024. A number of issues were determined at the first CCMC but it appears that remaining disagreement as to costs issues was not brought to the attention of the judge at that hearing and neither were... |
| Clinical Negligence Medicine by Dr Mark Burgin | |
 Why Medical Diagnosis Is a Dead End for AI Doctors - Dr Mark Burgin Dr Mark Burgin explains how generative AI models will change the way that medical information is used to help patients. The biomedical (medical) model has been dominant for 2000 years. The way that medical students are trained still follows the basic structures of Hippocrates. Diagnoses are linked with scientific explanations which predict the effectiveness of treatment. The prediction or prognosis has allowed doctors to offer timely interventions... |
 How Consent Can Fail - Dr Mark Burgin Dr Mark Burgin explains the common reasons why the consent process goes wrong and offers a surprising solution. Consent flows from a meeting of minds between the patient and doctor. In a busy health system where only what is measured has value there is a risk that minds may not meet. Traditional communication has increasingly been replaced with modern check lists. Note-taking has become data input and the human touch fades... |
April 2025 Contents
 Welcome to the April 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 | |
 Multi Track allocation remains decisive to the disapplication of the Fixed Costs rules - Andrew Ratomski, Temple Garden Chambers This claim arose from unremarkable circumstances: a claim for personal injury consisting of what at first appeared to whiplash injuries arising from a road traffic accident on 9 March 2018. The issue which the High Court grappled with, on appeal from the County Court at Southend, was whether the Claimant who had accepted a valid Part 36 offer was entitled only to fixed costs or costs on the standard basis up to the point of expiry of the relevant Part 36 offer?... |
 Wagatha Costie - Philip Matthews, Temple Garden Chambers The judgment in Rebekah Vardy v Coleen Rooney [2025] EWHC 851 (KB) arose from an appeal concerning the costs associated with the highly publicised defamation proceedings between Rebekah Vardy (Claimant / Appellant) and Coleen Rooney (Defendant / Respondent). The Claimant's original claim was unsuccessful, resulting in an order for her to pay 90% of the Defendant's costs on an indemnity basis. The appeal focused on whether the trial judge, Steyn J, erred in declining to find that the Defendant or her solicitors acted improperly or unreasonably as per CPR 44.11(1)(b).... |
 Nigel Mather & Ors v Lakbir Basran & Ors [2025] EWHC 438 (Ch) HHJ - Philip Matthews, Temple Garden Chambers In Mather v Basran, the High Court addressed several issues surrounding an adjournment request made by the Defendant, Mr Rattan, on medical grounds during a trial involving allegations of fraudulent misrepresentation. The trial commenced on February 10, 2025, and Mr. Rattan, who was appearing as a litigant in person, reported suffering from Bell's Palsy, a condition that caused facial weakness... |
 The 'Relevant Period' in a Part 36 offers means what you think it does - Andrew Ratomski, Temple Garden Chambers This case is an illuminating decision on the construction of alleged defects in a party's Part 36 offer in relation to timing. The underlying claim concerned a claim by a litigation funder, the Claimant, for a breach of confidence against the First and Fourth Defendants. The Claimant was awarded damages in the sum of a little over £2 million after an eight day trial. A number of consequential issues then arose including the validity of the Claimant's Part 36 offer and were it were found valid, whether the judge should award the usual Part 36 consequences... |
| Clinical Negligence Medicine by Dr Mark Burgin | |
 What Every Claimant Should Know - Dr Mark Burgin Dr Mark Burgin explains the very high standards that are now expected of a claimant following the case Boyd v Hughes [2025] EWHC 435 (KB). 1. Provide Full and Accurate Disclosure: It is a high standard to expect a layperson to ensure "every detail" is correct but claimants should make a genuine effort to be truthful and complete... |
 Disability or Diagnosis? - Dr Mark Burgin Dr Mark Burgin considers the implications of a recent case where the judge found that the precise diagnosis was less important than the disability. Finegan v McDonald [2025] NIKB 14 is a Road Traffic Accident case where the psychiatric experts were in disagreement. Both indicated that there were mental health problems that were moderately severe but disagreed with the diagnosis. One expert stated that there was PTSD the other stated that there was an adjustment reaction... |
March 2025 Contents
 Welcome to the March 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 | |
 Jinking horses, Animals Act claims and dishonest exaggeration - Andrew Ratomski, Temple Garden Chambers Hazel Boyd v Debbie Hughes [2025] EWHC 435 (KB). Liability, quantum and fundamental dishonesty were in dispute in this claim for personal injury. The Claimant was employed by the Defendant as a rider and stable hand, and fell from a cantering horse sustaining a serious injury to her right arm. The Defendant was a racehorse breeder and trainer based in Tonyrefail in Wales with 35 horses. Unusually the claim was brought under section 2(2) of the Animals Act 1971 ('the 1971 Act') with no claim in negligence and so the issue was one of strict liability under... |
 Child Sexual Abuse Litigation Reforms - Philip Matthews, Temple Garden Chambers The UK Government has announced its intention to implement a number of key recommendations from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA). There is no draft legislation as of yet, however the Government's Responses to Consultation sets out the direction of travel. Most significantly, the first Consultation Response proposes to remove the usual three-year limitation period for filing personal injury claims in the context of... |
 Morris v Williams [2025] EWHC 218 (KB) - Philip Matthews, Temple Garden Chambers In Morris v Williams [2025] EWHC 218 (KB), District Judge Dodsworth considered whether a letter from the Claimant's former solicitor, which contained proposals to settle allegations of fundamental dishonesty, could be adduced as evidence. The Claimant was involved in a road traffic accident in July 2018, when he was injured while riding a motorcycle hit by the Defendant's vehicle. Liability was admitted, but the Defendant contended that the Claimant had exaggerated his injuries and acted dishonestly in presenting... |
 BB and others v Moutaz Al Khayyat and others [2025] EWHC 443 (KB) - Andrew Ratomski, Temple Garden Chambers This decision in long-running litigation between Syrian dissidents and the Doha Bank ('the Bank') and others concerning financial support to conflict groups raised an important point of principle concerning the QOCS regime. By this stage, a group of the claimants in the action had discontinued ('the discontinued Claimants') whereas another group had continued although those claims were later struck out ('the continuing Claimants'). At a costs hearing on consequentials to Soole J's dismissal of an application from the discontinuing Claimants that the presumptive costs rules of 38.6 be disapplied, a live issue emerged as to the Bank's entitlement to an... |
| Clinical Negligence Medicine by Dr Mark Burgin | |
 Where do delusions come from? - Dr Mark Burgin Dr Mark Burgin explains how to recognise that a client may require a disability report to comply with SRA codes of conduct and the Equality Act 2010. Delusions are false beliefs that are firmly held despite evidence to the contrary. They can be a symptom of several mental health conditions, including schizophrenia, delusional disorder and bipolar disorder. However, many people hold delusional type beliefs without mental illness. Understanding where these beliefs come from may help explain why... |
 Why is Primary Care 100 times more Effective than Hospitals? - Dr Mark Burgin Dr Mark Burgin challenges assumptions and explains why prevention is better than cure and health anxiety is creating an ill health industry. The mathematics is simple enough , one in ten patient contacts is with hospitals each day and they use 9 out of 10 of the pounds put into the health service. GPs see ten times more patients for a tenth of the budget. Times ten by ten and you reach one hundred in the cost per consultation difference between GPs and consultants. |
February 2025 Contents
 Welcome to the February 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 | |
 Aviva Insurance Limited v Atiquillar Nadeem and Masoud Sidiqi [2024] EWHC 3445 (KB) - Andrew Ratomski, Temple Garden Chambers The judgment from HHJ Tindal sitting as a judge of the High Court in these recent contempt proceedings traverses significant ground on findings of fundamental dishonesty under section 57 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015. I do not seek to summarise every aspect of the decision but I do wish to highlight the aspects that point to potential future areas of controversy in a rapidly developing area of personal injury practice. The first defendant had brought a claim for personal injury arising from a road traffic accident on 14 April 2018 for which liability had been admitted and having claimed to have been... |
 Woodcock v Chief Constable of Northamptonshire Police; HD, PD, CJ, PJ and OB v Chief Constable of Wiltshire Police [2025] EWCA Civ 13 - Philip Matthews, Temple Garden Chambers This judgment involved two separate appeals concerning police liability for failing to prevent harm caused by third parties. The appeals were heard together as they raised similar legal issues. Ms Woodcock was attacked and seriously injury by her ex-partner, despite prior reports to the police about his threats and his breaches of bail conditions. She brought an action against the police in negligence, claiming that they failed to protect her, specifically by not warning her of his presence prior to the attack. The claim was initially dismissed at first instance, but on appeal Ritchie J found that the police... |
 Birley v Heritage Independent Living Ltd [2025] EWCA Civ 44 - Philip Matthews, Temple Garden Chambers This appeal concerns costs and the interaction between qualified one-way costs shifting (QOCS) in personal injury claims and cost recovery rules in information law claims. Ms Taylor sued Heritage Independent Living Ltd (Heritage), alleging that in 2018, Heritage unlawfully disclosed her criminal convictions to a friend, violating the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, and her rights to privacy and confidentiality. She also claimed the disclosure caused psychiatric injury. Ms Taylor initiated proceedings in August 2021, but... |
 Omanovic v Shamaazi Ltd & Ismael Abdela Mohammed [2025] EWHC 110 (KB) - Andrew Ratomski, Temple Garden Chambers An important point of civil procedure recently arose in this claim for breach of contract and tortious conspiracy which can often arise in multi-party personal injury litigation, especially where allegations of fraud or unlawful means conspiracy are made against several parties, namely the admissibility of settlement terms when comprising a claim against some but not all claimants or defendants. The decision is also useful when assessing the merits of making or accepting settlement offers that... |
| Clinical Negligence Medicine by Dr Mark Burgin | |
 The Problem with Poor Quality Professionals - Dr Mark Burgin Dr Mark Burgin asks if allied health professionals such as PAs are the solution to falling standards or the sign that doctors have no place in the future of medicine. Professionals can provide poor quality service for a number of reasons. Many professionals are unwell, burned out and have low motivation. Another problem is that because professions are broad the professional may have a knowledge gap. Missing important steps such as recording the consultation can lead to missed diagnoses... |
 Metabolic Syndrome Controversies - Dr Mark Burgin Dr Mark Burgin discusses why one of the most common and serious medical conditions is rarely diagnosed and prevention and treatment remains limited. Metabolic syndrome impacts over 25% of the population and yet is largely unknown. Although everyone is familiar with the consequences of the condition (high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes) few sufferers are told of their diagnosis. Doctors have largely avoided using this diagnosis and are reluctant to discuss the condition... |
![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)
