March 2017 Contents
 Welcome to the March 2017 issue of PI Brief Update Law Journal. Click the relevant links below to read the articles. CPD Note that there are no new monthly CPD quizzes since the SRA and the BSB have both updated their CPD schemes to eliminate this requirement. Reading PIBULJ articles can still help to meet your CPD needs. For further details see our CPD Information page.
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| Personal Injury Articles | |
 FREE BOOK CHAPTER: Current Vehicles, Current Law (From 'The Law of Driverless Cars: An Introduction' by Alex Glassbrook) Chapter One from the UK's first book on the law of driverless cars - Motor vehicles are now almost always under the control of a human driver when in motion. The current exceptions are devices like cruise control and parking assist, which temporarily take control of one or more functions of the vehicle. But the driver must be able to take control of the vehicle while those functions are in use... |
 Editorial: Seeing Negatives in the Discount Rate - Aidan Ellis, Temple Garden Chambers No personal injury lawyer will be unaware that on 27 February 2017, the Lord Chancellor lowered the discount rate from 2.5% to -0.75%. It was a dramatic change and immediately had a polarising effect. Insurers denounced the reduction as 'crazy' and began calculating what cost they could pass on to consumers... |
 FREE BOOK SAMPLE: The Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992 - What is a Package? - Telephone Bookings (From 'A Practical Guide to Claims Arising From Accidents Abroad and Travel Claims' by Andrew Mckie & Ian Skeate) One of the key matters that will always need to be looked at in accident abroad claims, is whether the 1992 Regulations apply or not. This Chapter deals with bookings made by telephone and in a face to face meeting at the office of the tour operator / travel agents... |
 Late Acceptance of Part 36 Offers: Do Fixed Costs Apply? - Tom Collins, 1 Chancery Lane It's a little over a year now since the Court of Appeal gave judgment in Broadhurst v Tan, a decision which dramatically raised the stakes in fixed cost EL/PL and RTA cases where Part 36 offers are in play... |
 Late-Acceptance of Part 36 Offers: Do Fixed Costs Apply? - Tom Collins, 1 Chancery Lane It's a little over a year now since the Court of Appeal gave judgment in Broadhurst v Tan, a decision which dramatically raised the stakes in fixed cost EL/PL and RTA cases where Part 36 offers are in play. Practitioners in this area will be very familiar with the case... |
 The Eagle Has Landed! Coffee, Croissants and Counter Schedules - Simon Readhead QC, 1 Chancery Lane How much do you spend on lunch? The answer for the average Briton is £53,844 during their working lives. Across a 40 year career another £40,128 goes on other workplace costs including coffees, teas, colleagues' birthdays and work nights out... |
 Football and Historic Sexual Abuse: The Approach to Quantum - Francesca O'Niell, 1 Chancery Lane The news has been bleak and unrelenting: the scandal of historic child sexual abuse continues to fill the headlines. It seems as if no sector of society has been unaffected by this blight, but the news emanating from some (major) football clubs may be particularly difficult for the courts to deal with... |
 Long Awaited Move Towards Fixed Costs in Clinical Negligence Claims Suggests New Ways of Reducing Costs in Other Types of Lower Value Claims - Simon Denyer, DWF LLP It is right for insurers to look for likely impacts on costs issues affecting the handling of lower value injury and non-injury claims from the publication yesterday by the Department of Health of their consultation 'Introducing Fixed Recoverable Costs in Lower Value Clinical Negligence Claims'. We can see from... |
 Courts Demonstrate a Reluctance to Extend the Concept of Vicarious Liability in Two Important Decisions in the High Court and Court of Appeal - Liz Harrison, DWF LLP Following on from the Supreme Court's decision earlier this year in Mohamud v WM Morrison Supermarkets Plc, the High Court and the Court of Appeal have introduced some balance to the concept of vicarious liability. They have recognised the need to avoid... |
 Court of Appeal Holds That Defendants May Owe a Duty to Safeguard Their Employees' Reputations When Conducting Litigation - Andrew Warnock QC, 1 Chancery Lane In a remarkable decision with far reaching implications, the Court of Appeal held that the Metropolitan Police Commissioner had arguably owed and breached a duty of care to police officers when he settled a claim a brought against him, vicariously, for an assault allegedly perpetrated by those officers (see James-Bowen v Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis [2016] EWCA Civ 1217)... |
 Nice Try - Colin Vickers, DWF LLP Two claimants who made personal injury claims after a low speed road traffic collision near the Houses of Parliament had their claims dismissed and were found to be fundamentally dishonest. The defendants relied heavily on Sky Sports footage showing both claimants being coached by former international rugby union players Will Greenwood and Scott Quinnell, and playing rugby, at a time when they both claimed to be injured... |
 Compensation for Tree Root Damage: A Different Approach - Gabriel Fay, DWF LLP We are all familiar with actions in nuisance for injunctions and damages in respect of alleged tree root subsidence. In this latest article for local authorities, Gabriel Fay looks at an interesting recent case, Burge & Anor v South Gloucestershire Council, where instead of following this... |
 What Are The Wrong Times To Mediate On A Case - Justin Patten, Human Law What are the dangers of mediation and when should you not mediate? People like me who mediate like to think of the virtues of mediating, but when does mediation not work? Here are nine reasons not to mediate... |
 Summary of Recent Cases, March 2017 Here is a summary of the recent notable court cases over the past month... |
 PI Practitioner, March 2017 Each issue a particular topic is highlighted, citing some of the useful cases and other materials in that area. This month: Failure to attend trial (CPR 39.3)... |
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| An Update from North of the Border, Edited by John Wilson, Brodies LLP | |
 An Update From North of the Border: Pursuers' Offers Arrive in Scotland on 3 April 2017 - Douglas McGregor, Brodies LLP Parties litigating regularly in England & Wales will be very familiar with the ability of both claimants and defendants to seek to protect their respective positions by use of a Part 36 offer. A change in the Scottish rules of court will introduce "pursuers' offers" from 3 April. What will that mean for defenders and insurers in Scottish claims?... |
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| Medico-Legal Articles, Edited by Dr Hugh Koch | |
 Legal Mind Case and Commentary No 13: Reliability of Evidence - Dr Hugh Koch, Dr Tabatha Kon & Dr Tracey Jackson, Hugh Koch Associates Three cases are summarised below, all of which illustrate the difficulty in obtaining reliable evidence... |
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| Clinical Negligence Medicine by Dr Mark Burgin | |
 Mckenzie Friends: Improving Access to Justice in Clinical Negligence 2017 - Dr Mark Burgin Dr Mark Burgin BM BCh (oxon) MRCGP considers the expert's duty to the court when instructed by a Litigant in Person (LIP) assisted by a McKenzie friend... |
 Short Notes on Appendicitis 2017 - Dr Mark Burgin Dr. Mark Burgin BM BCh (oxon) MRCGP considers the elements that should be included in a primer for clinical negligence cases involving appendicitis... |
| Book Reviews | |
 Book Review: 'Proof of Causation in Tort Law (2015)' by Sandy Steel, Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law Review by Dr Hugh Koch, Hugh Koch Associates |
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