PIBULJ
Bent: An Insurer Perspective - Gary Herring, Keoghs solicitors
06/12/11. The facts of the case are now reasonably well known. Darren Bent, an England footballer, hired an Aston Martin DB 9 from Accident Exchange as a replacement for his Mercedes Benz CLS 63 AMG Coupé which was damaged in an accident where he was not at fault in February 2007. He hired an Aston Martin DB9 from Accident Exchange for 94 days at the daily rate of £573.28 plus VAT, and brought a claim for the total of £63,406.90.
Case background
The trial was initially heard before HHJ Yelton at Southend County Court on 10 July 2009. Judge Yelton concluded that it was reasonable for Mr Bent to hire an Aston Martin DB9, and that the hire period was reasonable in the circumstances of the case.
On the issue of rate, despite having been referred to evidence of the spot rate for similar vehicles in 2009, the Judge held that the credit rate was recoverable in full. This was on the basis that that none of the evidence before him showed rates for a vehicle of the same type as the claimant’s vehicle or the vehicle at the time of the original hire. Accordingly judgment was granted in...
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Developments in Personal Injury Fraud Cases - Adam Gadd, Pump Court Chambers
05/12/11. This year has seen a number of decisions of the appellate courts regarding fraudulent, or allegedly fraudulent claims in personal injury cases. Typically, these have tended to arise around staged or invented road traffic accidents but there have been decisions that do not quite fit that mould.
This article will attempt to give a brief summary of those decisions.
The first case of note is Zurich Insurance Co plc v Hayward [2011] EWCA Civ 641. This was an action by the insurance company alleging that settlement of an earlier personal injury action had been obtained by fraud. That action had been struck out and the insurance company subsequently appealed. The original action had been compromised by...
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Whiten v St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust [2011] EWHC 2066 (QB): Part 1 - William Latimer-Sayer, Cloisters
02/12/11. It is rare for large quantum claims to fight to trial. These days the vast majority of cases settle at roundtable settlement meetings or by way of Part 36 offers being made. The costs risks are often too high to justify battling it out at trial, which is why it is of such interest when a case does fight all the way. A recent example of such a case is Whiten v St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust [2011] EWHC 2066 (QB). Swift J had a mammoth task of assessing damages because most heads of loss were left in issue and her judgment ran to 120 pages plus appendices. The final award was £6.645 m. Whilst it is not possible to explore all aspects of this judgment in this brief article I pick out a few points below which might be helpful in respect of other cases. Further points will be addressed in a subsequent article.
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November 2011 Summary
NEWSLETTER
Industry NewsSummary of Recent Cases - Substantive Law
Summary of Recent Cases - Costs
Summary of Recent Cases - Civil Procedure
PI Practitioner
LAW JOURNAL
Editorial: What’s the Fuss About Litigants in Person? - Aidan Ellis, Temple Garden ChambersPersonal Injury Articles
The Dangers of Organised Sport - Tim Kevan, Editorial
The Court of Appeal has made some useful comments as to the standard of care expected of a rugby club organizing a training session which may well have wider application to other sports and events.
The Increasing Rights of Policy Holders Under BTE Legal Expense Insurance Contracts - Ann Macey, 12 King's Bench Walk 14.11.11. There have been more developments to the law concerning the rights of policyholders to appoint their representatives under BTE legal expense insurance contracts.
In Webster Dixon & ors v Equity Syndicate & ors [2011] EWHC 2661 Burton J held that 1) it was contrary to European and domestic law for an insurer to refuse a clients’ request for a non-panel solicitor on the basis that the solicitor charged more than the insurers rates for non-panel solicitors, and 2) that in appropriate cases the policy holder also had the right to change lawyers.
Acceleration of Symptoms Approach Revisited - Editorial
Lawyers may be missing a trick by not investigating the percentage chances of injuries occurring in the future following a recent case in the Court of Appeal. It is commonplace for a personal injury dispute to boil down to one between the two medical experts with one suggesting that the accident merely accelerated an injury by say two years and the other expert either denying that the injury would have happened at all but for the accident or alternatively that the figure for acceleration is perhaps say, five or ten years. Just such a dispute arose in the case of Smithurst v Sealant Construction Services Ltd [2011] EWCA Civ 1277.
Credit Hire Articles
Credit Hire: The Cost of Bent Metal - Jason Prosser, Credit Hire Advocacy Services
On 24th November 2011 the Court of Appeal handed down a single judgment, [2011] EWCA Civ 1384, in two cases, Pattni v First Leicester Buses and Bent v Highways and Utilities Construction, of considerable interest to those involved in credit hire litigation.
Local Authority Liability, Edited by Daniel Tobin, 12 King’s Bench Walk
Cherwell District Council v. Naveed Anwar [2011] EWHC 2943 (Admin) - Daniel Tobin, 12 King’s Bench Walk
This case involves consideration of a local authority’s licensing guidelines, the extent to which an applicant’s personal circumstances might be relevant to an assessment of whether he was a fit and proper person to hold a licence as a hackney and private hire driver, and whether those personal circumstances might justify a departure from the guidelines.
PI Travel Law, Edited by Katherine Deal, 3 Hare Court
No “pick and mix” between English and foreign law in fatal accident claims - Dan Clarke, 3 Hare Court
In Cox v Ergo Versicherung AG [2011] EWHC 2806 (QB) the High Court (Sir Christopher Holland) has handed down an important decision on the scope of application of the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 in claims involving accidents overseas.
Medico-Legal Articles, Edited by Dr Hugh Koch
Work place stress or anger: was it a trauma or just a grievance? - Hugh Koch, Patrick Kennedy and Rhiain Morris
Providing medico-legal evidence in workplace ‘stress’ cases presents experts with the challenge of reliably assessing the claimants’ experience of ‘stress’ and differentiating between psychological and social ‘symptoms’ which may meet the criteria for a recognised psychological disorder, and experiences of anger, hostility and resentment which are more consistent with a ‘grievance’ than a ‘psychiatric injury’.
Bed Wetting: A sign of Trauma - Dr Kim Whitaker & Dr Gerrard Burrell-Hodgson
Wetting the bed is a common problem, particularly amongst pre-schoolers and young school aged children. It is a milestone that most children have achieved by the age of two and a half, but for some children this can occur much later in life with 25% of four year olds wetting the bed and 1% of children still wetting the bed at the age of fifteen. There seems to be family factors at work, with bed wetting being more common in the children of parents who wet the bed when they were young. The diagnostic term for wetting the bed is Enuresis and is defined in DSM-IV as...
Charon QC
Charon QC, November 2011
Old Square barrister saves a life on his way to court
BabyBarista
BabyBarista, November 2011
Poppycock and moonshine
Cherwell District Council v. Naveed Anwar [2011] EWHC 2943 (Admin) - Daniel Tobin, 12 King’s Bench Walk
28/11/11. This case involves consideration of a local authority’s licensing guidelines, the extent to which an applicant’s personal circumstances might be relevant to an assessment of whether he was a fit and proper person to hold a licence as a hackney and private hire driver, and whether those personal circumstances might justify a departure from the guidelines.
Factual Background
The Respondent was licensed as a hackney and private hire driver in 2003. In October 2008 he assaulted his wife and in March 2009 pleaded guilty to an offence arising from that assault. He was sentenced to a community order with a 15 month supervision requirement and ordered to pay £300 in costs.
The Respondent did not disclose his conviction to the licensing authority immediately, although it was a condition that he do so. He only disclosed the conviction when he applied in June 2009 to renew his licences.
The Appellant licensing authority informed the
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More Articles...
- Credit Hire: The Cost of Bent Metal - Jason Prosser, Credit Hire Advocacy Services
- Editorial: What’s the Fuss About Litigants in Person? - Aidan Ellis, Temple Garden Chambers
- No “pick and mix” between English and foreign law in fatal accident claims - Dan Clarke, 3 Hare Court
- November 2011 - PI Practitioner
![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)
