News Category 2
Impecuniosity and Failure to Mitigate - Aidan Ellis, Temple Garden Chambers
08/04/14. The Court of Appeal has not lost its ability to surprise in credit hire cases. In Zurich Insurance Plc v Umerji [2014] EWCA Civ 357, it had to grapple with the reasonableness of a substantial credit hire claim. Its judgment contains vital practical guidance about the meaning of a debarring order in relation to impecuniosity and some significant discussion about mitigation in credit hire case more generally.
The Decision
The facts will be familiar from many credit hire cases. The Claimant’s vehicle, which was worth around £8,000, was damaged in a road traffic accident on 19 October 2010. He hired a replacement vehicle the following day. His vehicle was inspected by an engineer instructed on his behalf on 3 November 2010 and declared uneconomical to repair. The report was finally sent to the Defendant in January 2011. Having heard nothing from the Defendant, the Claimant took his vehicle out of storage and scrapped it on 22 February 2011. But the Claimant remained in hire until 2 June 2012, a period of 591 days, because he said that he could not afford to buy a replacement. The hire charges totalled £95,130.14, which the Court of Appeal described as...
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Book Review: Personal Injury Practice (Sixth Edition, Bloomsbury Professional) by Andrew Buchan, Jenny Kennedy and Eliot Woolf
Book review by Tim Kevan
Personal Injury Practice is a truly excellent and comprehensive guide for the personal injury practitioner. The first section of the book deals with case preparation and covers such matters as case management, pre-trial procedure and the gathering of both expert and non-expert evidence. This is then followed by a section whose chapters take the reader from the issuing of a claim all the way to trial. This includes guidance on pleadings, disclosure and evidence as well as the trial itself, costs and any appeals. Finally, there is a section entitled 'Special Problems' which covers the following issues: limitation, fatal accidents, claimants under a disability, disease cases, stress at work cases, liability for products and premises, motor drivers and owners and criminal injuries. This is then rounded off with some extremely useful appendices which include specimen correspondence and specimen schedules of special damages.
Yet despite the fact that it covers such a huge amount of ground and comes in at over 600 pages the quality of each particular chapter is not compromised in the slightest. The writing is clear and understandable and not only covers the detail of the law but also does so in a way which would be of real practical use to a practitioner.
But perhaps what is most impressive about this book is the scale of the updating which has been undertaken since the last edition was published back in 2008. Since then the personal injury world has undergone enormous change and a trap which books can risk falling into in such situations is trying to update simply by tacking onto the old chapters when in fact sometimes a re-write of a particular chapter would be a lot more appropriate. The latter approach is the one taken by the authors here. So not only do we see a new chapter on the Portal but also significant changes to other chapters when incorporating the various Jackson reforms as well as recent case law on issues such as funding, mediation, relief from sanctions, disclosure, costs and not forgetting the new CPR 6.7. Other new issues which are covered include the abolition of civil liability for breach of statutory duty by section 69 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 and also the 2012 Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme.
Written by high quality and experience practitioners, this book is both a useful source of reference and an incredibly helpful guide to this ever-developing and increasingly technical area of law and should be of use both to those just starting out in this field right through to those who are already experienced and knowledgeable in the area.
Tim Kevan is the co-editor of the Personal Injury Brief Update Law Journal.
Wall v Mutuelle: The Court of Appeal Explores the Limits of Applicable Law - Frances McClenaghan, 1 Chancery Lane
31/03/14. In an article last June, I discussed the High Court decision of Wall v Mutuelle De Poitiers Assurances ([2013] EWHC 53 (QB)). I noted that Sir Richard Buxton had refused permission to appeal on the papers with the following comments:
An English judge, or for that matter an English conflicts lawyer would need to be persuaded that a revolution had taken place before he countenanced the determination of procedures for the adduction of evidence by reference to any system of law other than lex fori. The judgment of Tugendhat demonstrates that no such revolution has occurred.
Rome II’s impact has indeed revolutionised the choice of law rules with respect to accidents abroad. The Court of Appeal concluded, however, that...
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Independent Facilitators - Bill Braithwaite QC, Head of Exchange Chambers
25/03/14. I start this article with a quote from two cases, one old and one recent, which emphasise the importance of selecting good experts, and using them appropriately:
“Regrettably, I was not at all impressed with some of the answers which I received from Mr *. I did not feel he was the wholly unbiased and independent witness one would expect. Some of his answers were given more or less on the hoof and were ill thought out....”
“X’s evidence is so unreliable that it should be rejected….”
They demonstrate that expert selection is crucial.
An expert’s duties have always been the same (see below), but the acid test is the performance of an expert in consulting with the client, writing a report, giving helpful advice in consultation, and appearing in court. Surely all good personal injury lawyers nowadays must consider it essential to keep a record of experts’ performances – I've been doing it for over twenty years.
Since 2005, there has been a Code of Practice for Experts, which confirms that experts must be...
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Fraud and Costs - Andrew Mckie, Clerksroom
21/03/14. Fixed Costs Portal and None Portal for Cases After 31 July 2013. A copy of the new costs Matrix for portal cases and fixed costs cases on or after 31 July 2013 is shown below. These tables are reproduced from: http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/publications/policy/moj/rta-pi-scheme.pdf
ANNEX A
MOJ PROPOSED FIXED RECOVERABLE COSTS FOR CLAIMS WITHIN THE RTA AND EL/PL PROTOCOLS...
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Read more (PIBULJ subscribers only), or click below to purchase the book.
More Articles...
- Duties to Pregnant Women and New Mothers: The Small Element of Civil Liability for Breach of Statutory Duty That Remains - Gordon Exall, Zenith Chambers
- Contractor Duty of Care: Clarification for Occupiers (Yates v National Trust) - Nicholas Thorne, Berrymans Lace Mawer LLP
- Fraud, Burdens of Proof and Pleadings - Andrew Mckie, Clerksroom
- PI Practitioner, March 2014
![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)
