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June 2020 Contents
 Welcome to the June 2020 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 | |
 High Court denies relief from sanctions - Louise Jackson, Browne Jacobson In the recent case of Magee v Willmott the Defendant successfully appealed a lower court decision to allow the Claimant relief from sanctions to rely upon expert evidence served after the deadline had passed for exchange and not to strike out part of the Claimant's case which was unsupported by the Claimant's breach expert and where no case on causation had been pleaded... |
 Case Summary: H v H - Helen Reynolds of Spencers Solicitors Limited The Claimant brought an action against the Defendant following a road traffic accident in which her father sustained fatal injuries. She brought the claim on behalf of the dependents of the deceased and for the benefit of the estate, as Executrix of the estate of the deceased... |
 Brain injury rehabilitation driven to crisis-point by perfect Covid-19 storm Brain injury rehabilitation has been driven to crisis point by a perfect Covid-19 storm - destroying NHS capacity and devastating third sector funding, according to a new report. Brain injury charity Calvert Reconnections and barristers Exchange Chambers polled 161 of the UK's most senior brain injury solicitors... |
 Summary of Recent Cases, June 2020 Here is a summary of the recent notable court cases over the past month... |
 Will Brexit affect PI Paralegals? - Amanda Hamilton, National Association of Licenced Paralegals Brexit will undoubtedly have a knock-on effect for many different professions. I have friends and acquaintances who are involved in architectural design, architectural photography and construction and who have indicated that their business is already suffering... |
 PI Practitioner, June 2020 Each issue a particular topic is highlighted, citing some of the useful cases and other materials in that area. This month: DMR (by her litigation friend, LEW) v IX & ORS [2020] EWCA Civ 377... |
| Clinical Negligence Medicine by Dr Mark Burgin | |
 Experts in the Asylum Process - Dr Mark Burgin Dr Mark Burgin BM BCh (oxon) MRCGP discusses how experts use evidence in an asylum case in their reports to assist the tribunal... |
 Human Factors (HF) and QIPP: Part of the Solution or Problem? - Dr Mark Burgin Dr Mark Burgin BM BCh (oxon) MRCGP discusses how management theories are being applied to medical practice without monitoring, focusing on current favourites... |
| Medico-Legal Articles, Edited by Dr Hugh Koch | |
 Legal Mind Case and Commentary No 30: The Joint Report and Agendas - Koch HCH, Sutton E, Fernandez-Ford L and Jansen F, (June 2020) This is the thirtieth in a series of Case reports and Commentaries from Professor Koch and colleagues. A clinical negligence case concerning adverse events during surgery raised issues of how expert evidence was provided and the elements which were not helpful to clarifying issues for the judge... |
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May 2020 Contents
 Welcome to the May 2020 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 | |
 Tort of deceit and recovering exemplary damages - Morgan Davies, Horwich Farrelly Morgan Davies, Fraud Partner at Horwich Farrelly, looks at the case of Advantage Insurance Company Ltd v Junior Elliot, an examples of successfully defending a claim for the tort of deceit and recovering exemplary damages... |
 Electronic signatures and the importance of knowing your expert - Simon Ross, Exchange Chambers On 3rd March 2020, Robert Buckland, the incumbent Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, confirmed that electronic signatures are permissible and legally valid if used in commercial and consumer documents. This declaration followed a Law Commission report, published in September last year, that looked at the electronic execution of documents, including deeds... |
 The effect COVID-19 is having on UK media trends and attracting claims - Andy Cullwick, First4Lawyers You won’t be surprised to hear that media consumption has changed in light of the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, we’re all having to respond and focusing our operations and marketing efforts where they are best placed... |
Summary of Recent Cases, May 2020 Here is a summary of the recent notable court cases over the past month... |
| PI Practitioner, May 2020 Each issue a particular topic is highlighted, citing some of the useful cases and other materials in that area. This month: Bonsor v Bio Collectors Ltd [2020] EWHC 918 (QB)... |
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| Medico-Legal Articles, Edited by Dr Hugh Koch | |
 Legal Mind Case and Commentary No 29: Risks of Unbalanced and Misleading Expert Evidence - Koch HCH, Medley A and Pelser C, May 2020 This is the twenty-ninth in a series of Case reports and Commentaries from Professor Koch and colleagues... |
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| Clinical Negligence Medicine by Dr Mark Burgin | |
 You are breathing my air; New insights on respiratory pathogens - Dr Mark Burgin Dr. Mark Burgin BM BCh (oxon) MRCGP discusses whether continuing to tolerate high levels of deaths from respiratory infections will be acceptable in a post COVID world... |
 Legal Implications of Palliative Care Decisions in Covid-19 - Dr Mark Burgin Dr. Mark Burgin BM BCh (oxon) MRCGP raises concerns about the approaches taken by health care systems in dealing with those too frail to benefit from admission... |
 Losing the Battle against Burnout - Dr Mark Burgin Dr. Mark Burgin BM BCh (oxon) MRCGP explains how an understanding of the mechanism of burnout can help personal injury and employment law solicitors... |
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April 2020 Contents
 Welcome to the April 2020 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 | |
 FREE CHAPTER from 'A Practical Guide to the Pre-Action RTA Claims Protocol for Personal Injury Lawyers' by Antonia Ford The aim of this book is to provide a practical guide to all stages of the RTA Protocol to assist in the handling of pre-litigation claims and inform Practitioners of the potential impact that pre-litigation decisions may have on future litigation.... |
 Credit Hire and Fundamental Dishonesty - Aidan Ellis, Temple Garden Chambers For many years, the claimants in credit hire cases were habitually described by Judges as honest witnesses, perhaps confused about the detail of the contractual arrangements but always trying their best to assist the court. However, the growing judicial awareness of the problem of fraudulent claims in soft tissue injury cases and the increasing reliance on section 57 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 means that... |
 Andrea Brown v Comissioner of Police of the Metropolis & Others [2019] EWCA Civ 1724: The Court of Appeal addressed the application of QOCS in 'mixed' claims - Ian Meikle, Civitas Law AB had brought actions relating to allegedly wrongful use of personal data, claiming damages for personal injury, for breach of the Data Protection Act 1998 (“DPA”) and the Human Rights Act 1998 ('HRA') and for breach of contract, misfeasance in public office and the misuse of private information. Her claim was therefore 'mixed' (i.e. included claims for personal and injury and otherwise) for the purposes of CPR 44.13-44.16... |
 Do not stand on ceremony, else time will become the Claimant’s enemy: Durkan -v- Schmidt - James Devenny, Horwich Farrelly This case relates to an accident that occurred in 2011; the Claimant conducted the claim through the portal process, which at that point had an upper limit of £10,000. Very little progress was made and eventually, proceedings were issued under the Part 8B procedure, and the Claimant applied for a stay of proceedings... |
 Case Summary: D v S - Karen Cawood, Spencers Solicitors Limited On the 11th April 2015 the Claimant was driving his motor vehicle along the road between Filey and York. As he proceeded correctly along the road, a motor vehicle being driven by the Defendant and approaching from the opposite direction, crossed over into the Claimant’s path and collided with the Claimant’s vehicle causing it to spin and roll onto its roof. The Defendant was trying to change his radio and this is why he was on the wrong side of the road... |
Summary of Recent Cases, April 2020 Here is a summary of the recent notable court cases over the past month... |
| PI Practitioner, April 2020 Each issue a particular topic is highlighted, citing some of the useful cases and other materials in that area. This month we provide resources and updates in relation to courts and hearings during Covid-19... |
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| Medico-Legal Articles, Edited by Dr Hugh Koch | |
 Experts' Joint Statements: Key Medico-Legal Issues - Koch, HCH, Davies M & Laraway A Background: Christopher Sharp QC (St. John’s Chambers, Bristol) reviewed a series of recent cases which involved the preparation of Joint Statements. This excellent review raised a number of issues which are discussed here (Sharp C (2019) Part 35 and the Expert’s Joint Statement)... |
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| Clinical Negligence Medicine by Dr Mark Burgin | |
 Intolerable Regulation or Necessary Progress: has MedCo lost its way? - Dr Mark Burgin Dr Mark Burgin considers why MedCo’s brand has become tarnished and how reducing costs, improving representation and recruitment could repair the damage... |
 Evidence of Large-Scale Neglect for Child Mental Health - Dr Mark Burgin Dr Mark Burgin BM BCh (oxon) MRCGP considers the legal implications of a recent study by Stem4 reported in GP online based on a poll of 1000 GPs... |
March 2020 Contents
Welcome to the March 2020 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 | |
Personal injury solicitors urged to combat 'desperate' tactics of firms targeting success fee refunds in RTA claims...
Personal injury solicitors are being urged to combat the "desperate" tactics of firms targeting success fee refunds in RTA claims - by a Costs Lawyer specialising in the sector... |
Supreme Court refuses MIB permission to appeal in landmark case establishing liability for accidents on private land
On 13.2.20 the Supreme Court (Lord Reed (President), Lady Arden and Lord Hamblen JJSC) refused the MIB's application for permission to appeal against a finding that it was directly liable under EU law for injuries sustained by a pedestrian who was struck by an uninsured vehicle on private land. At the same time, it concluded... |
Becoming more virus-resilient: tips on dealing with the COVID-19 coronavirus situation - Professor Hugh Koch
Key risk factors are clearly proximity to infected individuals but our own personal resilience can enhance our protection to becoming unwell... but what does this mean?... |
Chaos surrounds launch of the consumer claims portal - Andrew Kay, Director of Operations, FIRST4LAWYERS
Just weeks to go until implementation of the Civil Liability Act (CLA) and the launch of the new consumer claims portal, or is it? For several months now the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has been firm in its stance that the reforms will be implemented on 6 April. However, that stance seemed to be wavering at the recent Association of British Insurers (ABI) conference... |
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Summary of Recent Cases, March 2020
Here is a summary of the recent notable court cases over the past month... |
PI Practitioner, March 2020
Each issue a particular topic is highlighted, citing some of the useful cases and other materials in that area. This month we consider the court's discretion in off setting interim costs orders in the context of Qualified One-way Costs Shifting ('QOCS')... |
| Medico-Legal Articles, Edited by Dr Hugh Koch | |
Legal Mind Case and Commentary No 27: PTSD in Road Traffic Accident: A review of key medico-legal issues - Koch HCH, Jansen F, Crowther-Green H & Francis A
This is the twenty-seventh in a series of Case reports and Commentaries from Professor Koch and colleagues... | |
| Clinical Negligence Medicine by Dr Mark Burgin | |
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Covid 19: How Should the Law React? - Dr Mark Burgin
Dr. Mark Burgin BM BCh (oxon) MRCGP discusses reasonable adjustments to legal processes to allow compliance with Government Policy and Health and Safety... |
Short Notes on Migrated Contraceptive Devices - Dr Mark Burgin
Dr. Mark Burgin BM BCh (oxon) MRCGP considers the elements that should be included in a primer for clinical negligence cases involving migrated contraceptive devices... |
| Book Reviews | |
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Book Reviews: Assessing and Treating Post Traumatic Stress - Professor Hugh Koch
Two publications are 'hot off the press' which bring lawyers and clinicians up to date with the latest guidance and research in how to formulate/assess a case of PTSD and how, then, to treat this using a cognitive behavioural approach. A timely duo for a review publication in PIBULJ to accompany another article outlining evidential issues in a recent case of trauma... | |
February 2020 Contents
 Welcome to the February 2020 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, February 2020 | |
 Is there Sense in Common Sense? Manchester Shipping Ltd v (1) Balfour Shipping Ltd, (2) Nikolay Nikolayevich Sochin [2020] EWHC 164 (Comm) - Daniel Tresigne, Advocate, DWF Advocacy Ltd This ruling arose from an application for relief from sanctions for a failure to file and serve a costs budget on time. Both Defendants (represented by the same Solicitors) served their costs budget some 13 days late, and 8 days before the first Costs and Case Management Conference... |
 The difficulties of contracting out of fixed costs - Andrew Roy, 12 King's Bench Walk Ho v Adelekun [2019] EWCA Civ 1988; [2019] Costs LR 1963 concerned the application of the fixed costs regime for ex-Protocol cases at Section IIIA of CPR Part 45, following acceptance of an ostensible Part 36 offer for damages and costs to be assessed. The Court of Appeal allowed the defendant's second appeal and held that fixed costs applied notwithstanding that the defendant's offer letter was poorly drafted. It also provided guidance on how such defendants could in future avoid such disputes... |
 Supreme Court refuses MIB permission to appeal in landmark case establishing liability for accidents on private land On 13.2.20 the Supreme Court (Lord Reed (President), Lady Arden and Lord Hamblen JJSC) refused the MIB's application for permission to appeal against a finding that it was directly liable under EU law for injuries sustained by a pedestrian who was struck by an uninsured vehicle on private land. At the same time, it concluded that it was not... |
 Surveillance Evidence: Trump Card or Joker? Grant v Newport City Council [2018] EWHC 3813 Ch - Vinesh Mistry, Barrister, DWF Advocacy Ltd Grant v Newport City Council [2018] EWHC 3813 Ch ("Grant") is a fairly typical multi-track 'slip and trip'. Over the course of litigation, the defendant covertly monitored the claimant. The defendant initially obtained footage of the claimant walking, and further surveillance then demonstrated her working. This was all contrary to the claimant's pleaded case. Approximately 4 weeks before trial, the defendant disclosed the surveillance evidence to the claimant and applied for permission to rely on the same and to amend its Defence to aver fraud... |
| Brain injury solicitors report greater cooperation from insurers - Bill Braithwaite QC, Exchange Chambers New research by barristers Exchange Chambers and brain injury rehabilitation charity, Calvert Reconnections, has examined the effectiveness of the brain injury claims and rehabilitation process through 164 in-depth interviews with claimant brain injury partners at law firms throughout the country... |
 Does, and should, Legal Professional Privilege apply to PI Paralegal Lawyers? - Amanda Hamilton & Jane Robson, NALP I was asked an interesting question this week: Are Paralegals covered by Legal Professional Privilege? Those PI paralegals who work for solicitors and barristers are covered under their employer's umbrella, but what about those who work as independent legal advisers? Where do they fall?... |
| Summary of Recent Cases, February 2020 Here is a summary of the recent notable court cases over the past month... |
PI Practitioner, February 2020 Each issue a particular topic is highlighted, citing some of the useful cases and other materials in that area. This month's practitioner update considers two recent health and safety appeals before Martin Spencer J... |
| Medico-Legal Articles, Edited by Dr Hugh Koch | |
 Legal Mind Case and Commentary No 26: Psychological harm following sexual abuse. Procedural aspects of psychological assessment - Koch HCH, Milner P and McFadyen K Analysis of psychological harm in a complex case. Issues emerging from this analysis involved credibility, diagnosis, causation and quantum assessment... |
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| Clinical Negligence Medicine by Dr Mark Burgin | |
 How does mould damage health? - Dr Mark Burgin Dr. Mark Burgin BM BCh (oxon) MRCGP summarises the practical issues that face experts and solicitors in public liability cases on mould exposure... |
 Understanding GPs: Struggling to Cope - Dr Mark Burgin Dr. Mark Burgin BM BCh (oxon) MRCGP explains in the third of a series how the Triple Aim and ignorance of biopsychosocial progress is harming patients and the NHS... |
![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)
