PIBULJ
29 July 2009 Summary
NEWSLETTER
Industry NewsSummary of Recent Cases - Substantive Law
Summary of Recent Cases - Costs
Civil Procedure
LAW JOURNAL
EditorialPersonal Injury Articles
Mitigation: Offers of a Free Vehicle. - Aidan Ellis, 1 Temple Gardens
This is the first in a series of articles addressing recent credit hire decisions. It concerns the Court of Appeal decision in Copley v Lawn, which considered (1) whether it was a failure to mitigate for a Claimant to reject a Defendant’s offer of a free replacement vehicle and (2) if it was, what is the appropriate measure of damages.
CPR 45 Part II Predictative costs: What to do if... - Amy Berry, 3 Pump Court
You have not reached agreement as to who is to pay predictive costs...
Working Out Work Equipment - Lisa Sullivan, Cloisters
The House of Lords considered the question of what was “work equipment” in the case of Spencer-Franks v Kellogg Brown & Root last year. Having decided what can be “work equipment” the question of what work equipment employers are liable for came before the House of Lords in the case of Smith v Northamptonshire County Council [2009] UKHL 27 in February this year with the decision coming out in May.
Interim and Periodical Payments: Guidance from the Court of Appeal - Mark Hill QC, Pump Court Chambers
How should the Court quantify the appropriate level of an interim payment when the ultimate award will probably comprise an element taking the form of periodical payments? Might a case management decision have the effect of fettering the discretion of the trial judge? This was the conceptual issue faced by the Court of Appeal in the recent case of Eeles v Cobham Hire Services Limited (2009) EWCA Civ 204.
PI Travel Law, Edited by Katherine Deal, 3 Hare Court
Aviation Accidents - Does a Crash Always Mean Negligence? - Andrew Young, 3 Hare Court
For UK citizens who are involved in an air incident which leads to death or personal injury, any claim against the carrier is likely to be covered by the strict liability provisions of the Montreal Convention (subject to the right of the carrier to limit its liability to 100,000 SDR on proof that loss was not caused by negligence on the part of the carrier) or the similar no fault provisions of EU Regulation 889/2002 on Air Carrier Liability...
Medico-Legal Articles, Edited by Dr Hugh Koch
It helps to be happy at work! - Dr Hugh Koch
An article in the Psychologist (November, 2007 p655) cites a study of employees in 49 different countries that indicated that happier, more experienced individuals tended to show greater commitment to the organisations they work for...
Mediation & ADR Articles, Edited by Tim Wallis, Trust Mediation Ltd
Understanding Mediator Services in Personal Injury Litigation - Philip Hesketh, Hesketh Mediation
Few people outside the legal world have any idea what mediation involves and within the profession the assumption is that I just mediate – meaning act as a neutral facilitator at settlement negotiation meetings. Some mediators offer a much wider range of services and this article examines one, which is of interest to personal injury litigators and their clients.
Charon QC
Charon QC, July 2009
Good time to be a lawyer?
29 February 2008 - Industry News
BBC
Compensation for hiring care-workers should be linked to earnings rather than to the RPI...
Times
MoD offers to compensate Porton Down veterans and apologise...
Guardian
Proposal to increase PI limitation period in Scotland to five years...
Scottish Law Commission
Ministry of Justice publishes Claims Management Regulation bulletin...
Ministry of Justice
Bank charges test case drags on...
Director of Finance Online
28 August 2009 - Industry News
Personal Finance Planning
Jackson costs consultation ends…
E-Disclosure Information Project
Ministry of Justice publishes Claims Management Regulation Annual Review and Impact of Regulation Assessment…
Claims Regulation
Pleural plaques decision put off until October…
Evening Chronicle
Miners warned about unscrupulous claims handlers…
Northern Echo
FSA extends stay on bank charges cases…
This is Money
19 October 2006 - PI Practitioner
FORESEEABILITY OF DAMAGE – VICARIOUS LIABILITY FOR BULLYING
Clark v. Chief Constable of Essex [2006] EWHC 2290
If a claim for psychiatric injury is based on the vicarious liability of a defendant for its employees’ actions in deliberately bullying the claimant – but without intending to cause him psychiatric injury – then the claim can only succeed if the injury should have been foreseeable. What was foreseeable depended on the facts of each individual case.
WITHDRAWL OF PRE-ACTION ADMISSIONS
Stoke on Trent City Council v. Walley [2006] EWCA Civ 1137
When a defendant has admitted liability pre-accident, the admission can be withdrawn without the permission of the court – CPR 14 only applied to admissions made in the course of proceedings. The correct approach for a claimant faced with an attempt to resile from a pre-action admission was to apply to strike out the whole or part of the defence, under CPR 3.4.
This requires the claimant to show that the defence was an abuse of the process of the court, or that it was likely to obstruct the just disposal of the case. For the first to succeed, the claimant must normally show bad faith on the defendant’s part. For the second to succeed, the claimant must normally show that he would suffer some prejudice that would affect the fairness of the trial. Without bad faith or prejudice to the claimant, a pre-action admission can be withdrawn.
29 February 2008 - PI Practitioner
Ellis v. Bristol City Council [2007] EWCA Civ 685
In the Workplace (Health, Safety & Welfare) Regulations 1992, the combined effect of r. 12(1) and 12(2) was that the floor of a workplace must not be slippery. The slipperiness had to be considered in the context of the use to which the floor was put, including temporary circumstances which arose with sufficient regularity. The court had to consider the frequency of any intermittently hazardous conditions, the chance of injury and the severity of that injury.
In this case, the floor of the claimant’s workplace was frequently contaminated by urine. The surface was slippery when wet, and injury was reasonably foreseeable. The defendant was in breach of r. 12(1) and 12(2), although the claimant, having been warned of the hazard, was guilty of contributory negligence to the extent of one-third.
![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)
