PI Brief Update

June 2011 Summary

NEWSLETTER

LAW JOURNAL

Personal Injury Articles

Did the claimant deserve it? Co-Operative Group v Pritchard [2011] EWCA Civ 329 - Shyam Kapila
It may be fair to assume that if you deliberately provoke another person to the extent that they attack you, that person should be able to plead that you contributed to any injury you claim to have suffered. The law, however, says no. This recent Court of Appeal judgment clarifies an area which has vexed the experts: as Lord Justice Aikens’ examination at [59] reveals, the text books have given contradictory answers to the problem, and have generally been tentative in making any assertions.

Inquest Law: An Update - Elizabeth-Anne Gumbel QC, Caroline Cross, Peter Skelton, 1 Crown Office Row
Two recent cases have set out in considerable detail the background authorities and the development of the law as to when an article 2 inquest is required. These two cases examined the need for an article 2 inquest in quite different situations. Between them these cases have explored very comprehensively the current scope of article 2 inquests against a complex backdrop of earlier cases...

Credit Hire Articles

McAteer v Kirkpatrick - Jason Prosser, Credit Hire Advocacy Services
One feature of the already lengthy and continuing forensic battle between credit hire companies and insurers is the small amounts of money usually involved in litigation which reaches the lofty heights of the appeal courts. In the conjoined cases most often cited as Clark v Ardington [2003] QB 36 for example, one of the amounts in dispute for hire charges incurred by one of the claimants, Dr Sen, was only £190.35. It is, of course, the vast numbers of individual credit hire claims and the aggregate effects on the profit and loss accounts of their protagonists across the length and breadth of the united kingdom that inspires such a phenomenon.

PI Travel Law, Edited by Katherine Deal, 3 Hare Court

Chasing the Local Supplier: Some Practical Considerations - Sarah Crowther, 3 Hare Court
The premise of the Package Travel etc Regulations is in part that it is easier for a tour operator to seek redress from a local supplier than it would for a consumer to pursue his claim directly. However, one of the recurring challenges for tour operator and retailer defendants in package travel claims is securing the co-operation of the local suppliers whose goods or services are alleged by the claimant to have fallen below the required standard. Very often foreign suppliers are unfamiliar with adversarial litigation and fail to appreciate the need to secure proper evidence in response to allegations and simply fail to participate, at least until it is effectively too late. Others are actively contemptuous of English tourists and respond to what they perceive to be outlandish and unjustified criticisms with startling counter-accusations such as fraud, drunkenness and malingering.

Medico-Legal Articles, Edited by Dr Hugh Koch

Vulnerability To PTSD - Dr Kim Whitaker
PTSD is classified as an anxiety disorder in DSM IV. It occurs following a traumatic event, such as a sexual assault or exposure to a road traffic accident. Direct exposure to the trauma is not essential to the development of the disorder (for example people can develop the disorder on learning about the death of a loved one).

Mediation & ADR Articles, Edited by Tim Wallis, Trust Mediation Ltd

Personal injury mediation: practical practice notes - Tim Wallis, Trust Mediation Ltd
Some "How to..." tips, some "do’s and don’ts".

Book Reviews

Guide to Child Abuse Compensation Claims by Elizabeth-Anne Gumbel QC, Justin Levinson, Malcolm Johnson, Richard Scorer
Reviewed by Aidan Ellis, Temple Garden Chambers

Charon QC

Charon QC, June 2010
This... is very worrying...