PIBULJ
Access to Justice Must Be Preserved - Dr Victoria Handley, Director of Handley Law Limited
24/06/13. Lord Neuberger President of the Supreme Court this week gave a strong warning that the cuts being made to legal aid and to the cost of litigation are likely to have a knock-on effect to the cost of the courts. Finally judges are speaking up to defend the rule of law. It's a welcome voice in these Post-Jackson days.
In 2011 there were 1.1 million working people suffering from a work-related illness. Over 27 million working days were lost due to work-related illness and workplace injury. Sadly there were 173 workers killed at work. On the roads, 1,901 were killed, 23,122 were seriously injured and 178,927 were slightly injured. Even more worrying are the recent reports about the NHS death rates. Between 1997 and 2010, there were...
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Editorial: The Scope and Interpretation of Part 18 - Aidan Ellis, Temple Garden Chambers
23/06/13. Part 18 is one of the shortest Parts of the Civil Procedure Rules. Rule 18(1) simply provides that at any time the Court may order a party to “clarify” or “give additional information” in relation to “any matter which is in dispute in the proceedings”. It is nevertheless a significant provision. Insurers routinely rely on it to try to draw Claimants into inconsistencies. The difficulty for both parties is that Part 18 itself offers little guidance about what is...
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Compensation Culture Prompts Move to Accreditation for Medical Expert Witnesses - Mark Solon, Bond Solon
22/06/13. Should claimants continue to have the whip hand? The Government’s recent consultation paper, Reducing the number and cost of whiplash claims stresses the need for better medical evidence. In response, Cardiff University Law School has launched its Medico-Legal Foundation Certificate for expert witnesses in association with Bond Solon Training.
There is as yet no compulsory requirement for medical experts to have accreditation, but at least one expert agency now requires it and the rising tide of medical claims is likely to prompt a retaliatory move towards it.
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Pesonal Injury Trusts and Tax Planning - Alan Robinson, Cross Keys Associates
21/06/13. Originally a personal injury trust was simply a method of sheltering compensation paid to someone as a result of personal injury. For someone receiving means tested benefits, this would mean that the compensation did not form part of their capital for benefit purposes, and they would therefore not be caught by the maximum capital rules. If they were (or were likely to become) resident in residential care, the capital rules which limit the amount payable by the local authority towards their charges would also be avoided by this method.
However, following the coming into force of the Finance Act 2006, certain types of personal injury trusts also have tax implications. It may therefore be the case that the personal injury trust can be employed as a method of tax planning, especially if it is desired to provide protection for the dependants of the injured person...
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Privatising the Courts: Things Can Only Get Better? - Thomas Crockett, 1 Chancery Lane
20/06/13. “Err... sorry but, we have your skeleton argument, but the Judge says he doesn’t have any other documents from the Defendant. It seems half the court file has been lost”. This was the lament from a very long-suffering court usher to the author just recently ahead of a Fast Track trial. It is not an unfamiliar complaint in most barristers' experiences. Indeed, it is so familiar that many counsel take an entire copy of a trial bundle to court, in the expectation that something has gone awry with the papers. Even the district and circuit benches appear resigned to what are at times, ludicrous, failures in the administration of the court. Suffice to say, no castigation was meted out by the trial judge, who made do with...
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![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)
