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PI Brief Update

Contributory Negligence Discount of 96.5% in First Sheriff Court Jury Trial - Catriona Hepburn & John Wilson, Brodies LLP

28/05/17. Scotland’s County Court, the Sheriff Court, has recently seen the reintroduction of jury trials in civil cases. The 2015 legislation creating the specialised All-Scotland Sheriff Personal Injury Court (ASPIC) brought back the use of juries for the first time since 1980. The first trial implementing this new option was heard earlier this month.

The case involved a child who injured his leg in the playground. The accident and injury were admitted and damages were agreed at £15,000. However, the local authority contested liability – the claimant said the local authority was obliged to pay damages for the injuries sustained by her son. It was this issue which the jury had to consider.

Although they returned a verdict in favour of the claimant, the jury found that the child’s contributory negligence amounted to 96.5%. The claimant was accordingly awarded damages of just £525! It is not known whether or not there was a tender (Part 36 offer) in place but it certainly seems likely that there will have been an argument on costs after such an award...

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All information on this site was believed to be correct by the relevant authors at the time of writing. All content is for information purposes only and is not intended as legal advice. No liability is accepted by either the publisher or the author(s) for any errors or omissions (whether negligent or not) that it may contain. 

The opinions expressed in the articles are the authors' own, not those of Law Brief Publishing Ltd, and are not necessarily commensurate with general legal or medico-legal expert consensus of opinion and/or literature. Any medical content is not exhaustive but at a level for the non-medical reader to understand. 

Professional advice should always be obtained before applying any information to particular circumstances.

Excerpts from judgments and statutes are Crown copyright. Any Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of OPSI and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland under the Open Government Licence.