PI Brief Update

Blame and Claim

Today I had the pleasure of appearing in front of the notorious JudgeLooseCannon.  He’s a gruff northerner who never shies away from showing his disdain for the petty-fogging ways of the southerners who surround him in his surrogate home on the south east of England.  He’s also well know for spouting off on any old subject which happens to have taken his fancy that morning whilst reading the newspaper over breakfast.  Much of the time, he gets away with it because his comments are so irrelevant to the case in hand as not to affect the judgment one way or the other.  However, as I alluded to last week, many’s the judgment of JudgeLooseCannon which has been handed around the robing, not least because he takes great pleasure in sending the parties away for an hour at the end of the submissions and typing up a written judgment “for the avoidance of any doubt.”

Today I was representing an insurance company defending a claim against someone who had tripped over a hole in the pavement which was about an inch thick and certainly enough to prove liability.  Here’s just an extract from the judgment:

“I will no doubt be appealed for saying so, but nevertheless, I intend to put forward my real reason for dismissing this claim. It is simply that I am sick and tired of seeing queues of people trundling through this county court bringing claims for what was basically an unfortunate accident.  Something which when I was younger would have merited sympathy, perhaps a sweet cup of tea and beyond that a shrug of the shoulders. Just one of those things. I regret to say that nothing seems to be just one of those things any longer. It’s all blame and claim and, you’ll have to forgive the rhyming, but I say shame! and shame again! It’s time people starting taking responsibility for their own actions and if no-one is prepared to stand up and say so then we can start today, in this county court.  For this reason, I therefore dismiss this claim.”

He may or may not have a point but for today, I fear that my victory may be over-turned on appeal.

BabyBarista is a fictional account of a junior barrister written by Tim Kevan. You can buy the latest BabyBarista novel, 'Law and Peace' on Amazon. The cartoons are by Alex Williams, author of The Queen's Counsel Lawyer's Omnibus.