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PI Brief Update

A Judgment to Remember: WM and EW v Wilkinson [2025] EWHC 2300 (KB) and the Fallibility of Memory - Georgina Presdee, Temple Garden Chambers

24/09/25. On 9 September 2025, HHJ Howells (sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge in the High Court) handed down judgment in WM v Wilkinson. The decision examines the standard of care owed by motorists driving near schools and the treatment of historic witness evidence.

Issues

The trial dealt with liability only. The principal question was whether the Defendant (D) had driven negligently – specifically, too fast in the circumstances. A secondary issue was whether, if D had driven more slowly, the collision could have been avoided or M’s injuries reduced.

Background

The First Claimant, M (aged 5), suffered life-changing injuries after colliding with the front side bumper/headlight of D’s Ford Ranger pick-up. The Second Claimant, E, M’s twin sister, claimed psychiatric injury from witnessing the accident.

The collision happened outside a primary school shortly after the end of the school day. The legal speed limit was 30mph, but there was an advisory 20mph sign and speed bumps. The Claimants alleged D was driving too fast, arguing that a careful driver would have seen M and slowed to 10–15 mph. D maintained he had been travelling at a reasonable speed and that M ran out from behind parked cars, giving him no time to react. Given M’s age...

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All information on this site was believed to be correct by the relevant authors at the time of writing. All content is for information purposes only and is not intended as legal advice. No liability is accepted by either the publisher or the author(s) for any errors or omissions (whether negligent or not) that it may contain. 

The opinions expressed in the articles are the authors' own, not those of Law Brief Publishing Ltd, and are not necessarily commensurate with general legal or medico-legal expert consensus of opinion and/or literature. Any medical content is not exhaustive but at a level for the non-medical reader to understand. 

Professional advice should always be obtained before applying any information to particular circumstances.

Excerpts from judgments and statutes are Crown copyright. Any Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of OPSI and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland under the Open Government Licence.