PI Brief Update

Loss of Earnings: the Appropriate Loss of Earnings Multiplier for an Injured Claimant: Mitigation of Loss - Gordon Exall, Zenith Chambers & Hardwicke

05/04/16. It is always interesting to look at those cases where the judge decides on loss of earnings. In Syred -v- Powszecnny Zaklad Ubezpieczen (PZU) SA [2016] EWHC 254 (QB) (Mr Justice Soole. In particular there is an interesting riposte to an assertion that the claimant failed to mitigate his loss.

KEY POINTS

• The judge found that the claimant, if he had not been injured, would have continued to work at the same rate and increased to earning a figure equivalent to £53,000 a year gross.

• The multiplier for residual income now the claimant was injured was assessed at 12, compared to the “non-injured” multiplier of 15.85.

“The Defendants also submit he failed to mitigate his loss by taking the job with BK at a salary which was kept artificially low in order to ensure that he did not lose any of the benefits to which he was entitled. In my view this was a sensible and reasonable course to take; and reflected the professional intervention which was gradually giving him the necessary insight into his disability.”

THE CASE

The claimant was seriously injured in a road traffic accident in Poland. He brought an action in England. Polish law applied (however on the issue of quantification of loss of earnings it appears to be identical with law in England and Wales). He had been made redundant from his previous job; worked part-time for a period being paid an amount which did not affect his benefits;his contract was terminated a month before the trial. At the time of the trial he...

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