PI Brief Update

PI: One of the top six growth areas for paralegals as we come out of lockdown - Amanda Hamilton, Chief Executive, National Association of Licensed Paralegals (NALP)

29/07/21. Fortunately, we are now seeing a slow recovery from lockdown, but we have yet to see the serious after-effects, mental, physical, economical and legal, on individuals a...

Whether there is a draft defence will, in certain circumstances, be a highly relevant factor in whether there is a real prospect of success on an application to set aside default judgment: Alli-Balogun v On the Beach Limited [2021] EWHC 1702 (QB) - Paul E

19/07/21. The Claimant, an eight year old child at the time of the accident, suffered catastrophic brain injuries when she drowned in a swimming pool in Spain on the watch of a l...

Fear and anguish shortly before instantaneous death: Chouza v Martins & Ors [2021] EWHC 1669 (QB) - Paul Erdunast, Temple Garden Chambers

14/07/21. Fear and anguish shortly before instantaneous death is capable of compensation in PSLA damages in a fatal accident case – but where that period of fear and anguish was ...

Solicitors win latest PI costs battle, but the war goes on - Ged Courtney, Kain Knight Costs Lawyers

29/06/21. Despite the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic the appetite for claims by former clients against their solicitors continues and those who represent them contin...

First instance County Court decision disallows medical agency cut of costs claimed in a medical report on the fixed costs regime - Paul Erdunast, Temple Garden Chambers

17/06/21. First instance County Court decision disallows medical agency cut of costs claimed in a medical report on the fixed costs regime: Powles v Hemmings, 23 April 2021, as r...

Case Report: Breakingbury v Croad, Cardiff County Court, 19 April 2021 - Harry Peto, Temple Garden Chambers

15/06/21. The Claimant sought damages from the Defendant arising from her treatment as an NHS patient at a particular dental clinic. The Defendant was the owner of the practice a...

Noise Immission Level (NIL) Part 3: More complicated features - Jim Hester, Parklane Plowden Chambers

08/06/21. This third article in relation to the Noise Immission level (NIL) considers some of the more complicated or arguable features. The first article considered the basics o...

Fundamentally dishonest claimant committed for contempt of court in circumstances where he falsely claimed that he did not know a so-called independent witness - Paul Erdunast, Temple Garden Chambers

17/05/21. AXA Insurance UK PLC v Reid [2021] EWHC 993 (QB)

If you are advising a claimant in a case where there is an allegation of fundamental dishonesty, it is important in gene...

Costs: Ahmed and Panache Leasing Ltd v Ahmed [2021] EWHC 1021 (Ch) - Harry Peto, Temple Garden Chambers

Noise Immission Level (NIL) Part 2: NIL and the Coles Guidelines - Jim Hester, Parklane Plowden Chambers

03/05/21. This article considers how the NIL is used within the Coles guidelines.

This is the second article in this series in relation to NIL. The first article looked at the basic...

Noise Immission Level (NIL): Part 1, the Basics - Jim Hester, Parklane Plowden Chambers

26/04/21. 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 suffi...

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

21/04/21. 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, th...

Practitioner's Update: Mustard v Flower & Ors [2021] EWHC 846 (QB) - Harry Peto, Temple Garden Chambers

19/04/21. 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 th...

Case Summary: B v HH - Stephanie Robinson, Spencers Solicitors

02/04/21. Case Name : B v HH

Accident Date : 14/09/2019

Settlement Date : 21/10/2020

TOTAL GROSS SETTLEMENT : £8000.00

Background and Liability

Public Liability

The Claimant, a pedestr...

'Unconvincing and unreliable' witnesses vs dishonest ones: relevant factors and lessons to learn for litigation: Brint v Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust [2021] EWHC 290 (QB) - Paul Erdunast, Temple Garden Chambers

08/03/21. There are cases where an unconvincing and unreliable witness is not dishonest. That much is not news; it is obvious. The point of this piece is to give tips to Defendan...

Case Summary: P v C - Steven Barke, Spencers Solicitors

02/03/21. Case Name: P v C

Accident Date: 05/03/2019

Settlement Date: 22/06/2020

TOTAL GROSS SETTLEMENT: £16,000.00

Background

The claimant was involved in a road traffic accident wh...

Practitioner's Update: Kumar v Hellard [2021] EWHC 181 (Ch) - Harry Peto, Temple Garden Chambers

Update to CPR 36.5 coming in April 2021 pressure on Part 36 offerees - Paul Erdunast, Temple Garden Chambers

24/02/21. On 6 April 2021, the usual yearly amendments will be made to the CPR as per The Civil Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2021. These include a particularly interesting new rul...

Case Summary: E v I - Karen Cawood, Spencers Solicitors

15/02/21. Case Name
: 
E v I



Court Name
: County Court Money Claims Centre



Accident Date: 23/01/2018



Settlement Date: 
20/06/2020



TOTAL GROSS SETTLEMENT: £57,500.00
 
 Backgro...

Pinnegar v Kellogg and ICI - Jim Hester, Parklane Plowden Chambers

03/02/21. This case is the latest in a series where the issue as to the reliability and credibility of historic witness evidence has been raised. I have written about similar cas...

The fight against section 57 fundamental dishonesty: Ed Ford (aka Edward Leonard Batey) v Lilachall Limited - Cristina Parla, Roythornes Solicitors

30/07/21. I recently acted for a client in connection with his personal injury claim which arose as a result of a slipping accident on private property.

The facts of the case are ...

Balls v Reeve & Thurlow: limitation and causation: Asbestosis - Jim Hester, Parklane Plowden Chambers

27/07/21. In this Asbestosis case, both limitation and causation were in dispute. The Judgment appears in full at href="https://jimhester.me/library/asbestos-library/"> Balls v...

Smith v The Royal Bank of Scotland [2021] EWCA Civ 977 - Harry Peto, Temple Garden Chambers

15/07/21. The Defendant sought permission to appeal in a second appeal in relation to a PPI case. The case had been allocated to the small claims track. Permission to appeal was ...

R (The Good Law Project) v The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care [2021] EWHC 1782 (TCC) - Harry Peto, Temple Garden Chambers

13/07/21 . This was a claim for judicial review in which the Claimant sought to challenge the lawfulness of the Defendant’s decisions to award contracts for the supply of persona...

Annual audit of top 200 UK law firm websites show most aren't compliant with new Google updates - Sam Borrett, Legmark

30/06/21. Legal digital marketing agency founder, Sam Borrett, examines the data from the third annual legal sector review of law firm’s website performance and draws out some in...

The new whiplash reforms: A 7-point whip-around of key changes - Paul Erdunast, Temple Garden Chambers

18/06/21. The whiplash reforms came into force on 31 May 2021. They apply to all accidents that occurred on or after this date. They institute a wide-ranging sweep of changes tha...

Case Report: M (Children: Applications by Email) [2021] EWCA Civ 806 - Harry Peto, Temple Garden Chambers

16/06/21. While a family case, this case highlighted the importance of the rules of procedure in instances of cases that are litigated by correspondence.

If a party applies to the...

R (on the application of Wandsworth Borough Council) v Her Majesty’s Senior Coroner for Inner West London - Jim Hester, Parklane Plowden Chambers

10/06/21. This Judicial Review case was brought by the claimant council following an inquest. The Inquest had concluded that one of the council’s tenants had died as a result of ...

Procedure: First instance County Court decision suggests that low value product liability claims fall within the EL/PL protocol - Paul Erdunast, Temple Garden Chambers

14/05/21. X (a Minor) -v- MPL Home & Senza Group Ltd, 17 March 2021, as reported on Civil Litigation Brief – The RTA and EL/PL protocols provide fixed costs regimes as w...

PAL (A Child) v Davison, MacPherson & Colburn Ltd T/A Westbourne Motors and Aviva Insurance Ltd [2021] EWHC - Harry Peto, Temple Garden Chambers

12/05/21. This was an application for an interim payment made on behalf of the Claimant, a 13-year-old girl who suffered severe brain injury. She already received payments totall...

Wormald v Ahmed - Part 36 Offers and the Death of a Protected Party - Paul Stagg, 1 Chancery Lane

05/05/21. The sudden death of the claimant in a personal injury claim where there are substantial claims for future losses may cause the value of the claim to reduce radically ov...

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)

22/04/21. 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. ...

Costs: Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation v Mark Gregory Hardy [2021] EWHC 817 (Ch) - Harry Peto, Temple Garden Chambers

20/04/21. 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 proceedin...

Case Summary: H v P - Mary Kay, Spencers Solicitors

05/04/21. Case Name : H v P

Accident Date : 14/07/2014

Settlement Date : 04/09/2020

TOTAL GROSS SETTLEMENT : £100,000.00

Background

The Claimant was aged 34 at the time of the acciden...

Setting aside default judgment in the High Court requires promptness even after the application has been made - Paul Erdunast, Temple Garden Chambers

04/03/21.  The Lord Chancellor (as Successor to the Legal Services Commission) v Halberstadt-Twum (t/a Cleveland Solicitors) & Anor [2021] EWHC 413. Unlike the County Co...

Calculating 3-years - Jim Hester, Parklane Plowden Chambers

01/03/21. A narrow point that occasionally arises is how ‘3-years’ is calculated for the purposes of limitation. In accident cases or in disease cases, for example, where a diagn...

Abuse of Process: Credit hire brought outside of the MOJ portal: Poku v Abedin - Amrit Atwal, Park Square Barristers

01/03/21. 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 i...

Hacking Part 36 offers by waiting a day after the relevant period, accepting the offer, and then disputing costs: Pallett v MGN Ltd [2021] EWHC 76 (CH) - Paul Erdunast, Temple Garden Chambers

25/02/21. If Part 36 offeree has a good argument as to why it should not pay the costs of a certain period, then Part 36 seemingly has what computer experts might call a “hack” o...

Case Summary: B v T - Karen Cawood, Spencers Solicitors

16/02/21. Case Name
: 
B v T



Court Name
: 
County Court Money Claims Centre



Accident Date
: 
11/01/2017



Settlement Date: 

11/05/2020
 
 TOTAL GROSS SETTLEMENT:&n...

Traffic accident victim receives £1 million in damages - Andy Shaw, Higgs & Sons

02/02/21. A Stockport woman who suffered serious injuries in a road traffic accident has received more than £1 million in damages after a six-year legal battle.

The lady sustained...