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PI Brief Update

The Law Relating to Fatal Accidents: An Introduction - Gordon Exall, Zenith Chambers

12/09/14. This article provides a brief overview of the law in relation to fatal accidents. When a person is killed a claim can be brought on behalf of his estate or on behalf of their dependants. The person or persons who bring the action are called the “claimant” or “claimants” (if more than one person brings the action). Liability in fatal accident cases depends on establishing that the deceased would have had an action in negligence in breach of duty had he not died..

The claimants in the personal injury action “stand in the shoes” of the deceased, see Gray –v- Barr [1971] 2 QB 554. It is necessary to prove that the defendant’s breach caused the death or...

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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.