News Category 3
Bite Size RTA Case Law Update - Bronia Hartley, Zenith Chambers
16/07/14. Road traffic accidents are notoriously fact specific, but looking at those cases which go to trial can be helpful in terms of understanding what judges think is important. Here I look at three very different recent cases. In Jade Christian v. South East London & Kent Bus Co. the court reiterated that appellate courts have to exercise the greatest restraint before overturning findings of fact made at first instance. In Gray v. Botwright the Court of Appeal went against the general principle that drivers are entitled to assume that no traffic will be crossing against a red light. In Gupta v. Armstrong & Anor a coach driver who was carefully executing a manoeuvre and failed to see a pedestrian who was trying to flag him down to board was not found to have been...
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Service of Supplementary Witness Statements in a Post-Mitchell World - Jack Harding, 1 Chancery Lane
19/07/14. In many cases the Court orders parties simultaneously to exchange witness statements. The rationale is clear: sequential exchange may well give one party an unfair advantage in terms of the ability to tailor the content of their own statements in response to the statements served by the other side. The corollary of simultaneous exchange, however, is that one party will often seek to adduce a supplementary witness statement. It might do so as a direct response to the other side’s evidence, or, more controversially, in an attempt to re-cast its case when it becomes clear what the other’s side arguments will be. What, then, is the effect of CPR 32.5(3) and (4) in this scenario? The rules provide as follows...
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The Mesothelioma Act 2014 - Alan Joliffe, IBB Solicitors
14/07/14. The Mesothelioma Act 2014 received Royal Assent at the end of January this year. This meant that the Secretary of State was in a position to set up a payment scheme providing for “substantial” payments to “some” mesothelioma sufferers in “some” circumstances and it was expected that the first payments under the scheme would start to be made by July 2014
I have spent the majority of my time in the Law specialising in Disease Litigation. Throughout this time I can honestly say that one of the hardest things I have had to do on more occasions than I care to remember is tell a client who has been diagnosed with mesothelioma or the family of someone who has died from mesothelioma that I am unable to pursue their claim as I have been unable to trace an insurer for the employer responsible.
Having considered the wording of the Act it seems on first reading to be a great step forward. However, the scheme does raise a number of unanswered questions...
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Greater Clarity From SRA for Successor Practices Is Needed - Simon Gibson, SGI Legal
10/07/14. With law firms looking to find ways to create new revenue streams and remain on-side with LASPO, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and Professional Indemnity Insurers need to issue proper guidance on when those buying work-in-progress will be considered a successor practice, making them potentially liable for any problems in the selling firm’s past.
At present, the current guidance is extremely vague. Where there is a continuation of trade of the previous firm, a successor practice situation will not arise. However, in the event of a cessation of trade, which is common in cases where the WIP sale has been forced by financial distress, it can arise...
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Celebrating 25 years of PPOs – Richard Fraser, Frenkel Topping
07/07/14. Cathy Kelly hasn’t spoken for more than a quarter of a century. Yet despite her silence, her every breath is an eloquent argument for structured settlements. In 1989, she was catastrophically injured in a head-on car crash. In July that year, the High Court awarded her Britains first ever structured settlement, the precursor to periodical payment orders (PPOs).
The accident left her husband dead, and Cathy in what was described in court as a persistent vegetative state requiring 24-hour care.
At the time medical opinion differed widely on projections of Cathy’s life expectancy, with estimates ranging from 10 to 20 years. In the event she confounded their predictions and, 25 years on, Cathy still lives near her family in a nursing home in Bury, Lancashire.
When her case came to court, all severe injury claims were settled on a lump sum basis. My firm provided expert financial advice to the team that represented Cathy. Our calculations showed that as her ongoing care costs were so high—and there was such a lack of certainty over how long she would live— there was a substantial risk that a lump sum payment would run out long before she died.
Our response was to structure a deal built round an annuity that would pay her an income for life. The defendants were sympathetic and the case finally settled for...
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More Articles...
- Public Nuisance and Other Miscellaneous Provisions: How They Can Assist With Highways Cases - Andrew Mckie, Clerksroom
- Jackson on Jackson - Ian Miller, 1 Chancery Lane
- Can the Limitation Act Really Be Suspended? - Tim Hirst, Parklane Plowden Chambers
- Counting the Costs of Improper Cost Management - Fraser Lindsay, 7 Harrington Street Chambers
![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)
