April 2021 Contents
 Welcome to the April 2021 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 | |
 How falling ill with COVID may be a good reason for failure to comply with an unless order: Finvest Holdings Sarl v Lovering [2021] 3 WLUK 579 - Paul Erdunast, Temple Garden Chambers Where a party contracts COVID and is therefore unable to work, that may be a good reason for the failure to comply with an order - even an unless order. Furthermore, there may be no need to obtain a medical report to prove it so long as there is a detailed account in a witness statement signed with a statement of truth... |
 Practitioner's Update: Mustard v Flower & Ors [2021] EWHC 846 (QB) - Harry Peto, Temple Garden Chambers This case arose out of a road traffic accident. One of the Defendants ('the Defendant') applied to amend its Defence to allege fundamental dishonesty ('FD') and that the Claimant consciously or subconsciously was exaggerating her injuries... |
 Costs: Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation v Mark Gregory Hardy [2021] EWHC 817 (Ch) - Harry Peto, Temple Garden Chambers The general law is that costs are in the discretion of the court, but if the court makes a costs order, the general rule is that the unsuccessful party in the proceedings pays the costs of the successful party - CPR r.44.2. The Defendant argued that the Claimant failed to succeed on all matters. The Judge held that this did not matter and that the Claimant should receive their costs on account of succeeding on the claim... |
 High Court rejects submission that the objective evidence should be taken as the primary source of reliance compared with witnesses' recollection, even in a road traffic accident from over five years ago: Barrow & Ors v Merrett & Anor [2021] EWHC 792 (QB) - Paul Erdunast, Temple Garden Chambers This case will provide a helpful guide to how a court assesses the evidence in a trial on liability in a road traffic accident where the events happened some time ago. In particular, it demonstrates that the recollection of witnesses will typically be the evidence of primary importance... |
 Noise Immission Level (NIL): Part 1, the Basics - Jim Hester, Parklane Plowden Chambers The basic requirements for a diagnosis of Noise Induced Hearing Loss consist of 2 elements: audiology which is consistent with NIHL and a history of exposure to a sufficient amount of noise. One without the other is not sufficient. The Noise Immersion Level (NIL) is a way of calculating the second part - an individual's overall noise exposure... |
 Abuse of Process: Credit hire brought outside of the MOJ portal: Poku v Abedin - Amrit Atwal, Park Square Barristers 'Your claim is an abuse of process. No, your application is!' This is an appeal in the matter of Poku v Abedin [2020] by the Claimant against a decision by DDJ Omoregie in which a claim for credit hire was struck out on the grounds that the claim was as an abuse of process... |
 Case Summary: H v P - Mary Kay, Spencers Solicitors The Claimant was aged 34 at the time of the accident. The Claimant had parked her car on the driveway outside her home and opened her door to get out of the car. There was a hole in the ground along the edge of the driveway and our client's foot was caught in the hole and she fell landing heavily on her bottom and left arm/ hand resulting in injury and psychological issues... |
 Case Summary:
B v HH - Stephanie Robinson, Spencers Solicitors The Claimant, a pedestrian at the time, entered a field to walk the public footpath with her dogs. The field had inadequate fencing around its perimeter when she was attacked by cows. The Claimant was repeatedly pushed into a stone wall by the cows, forcing her to the ground, whilst also attacking her dogs... |
| Medico-Legal Articles, Edited by Dr Hugh Koch | |
 Becoming more virus-resilient: tips on dealing with the COVID-19 coronavirus situation (updated) - Professor Hugh Koch Many are reporting that as lockdown eases, and our freedom to return bit-by-bit to pre-pandemic routines, they are feeling exhausted. We, of course, know that in 'normal times' our energy and fatigue levels fluctuate and often do so with our prevailing mood and interest in our daily life... |
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| Clinical Negligence Medicine by Dr Mark Burgin | |
 MedCo CPD training programme for experts - Dr Mark Burgin Dr. Mark Burgin BM BCh (oxon) MRCGP reviews some of MedCo's CPD offerings for 2021 to 2022 and comments on the interesting and sometimes surprising conclusions... |
 Managing High and Low Performing Experts - Dr Mark Burgin Dr Mark Burgin considers how to present data on performance in a way that improves performance of the expert at whatever level... |
