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PI Brief Update

Difficult claimant evidence and partisan experts: Steven Wilson v Ministry of Justice [2024] EWHC 2389 (KB) - Andrew Ratomski, Temple Garden Chambers

14/10/24. Date of judgment: 20 September 2024.

On 2 July 2018 Mr Wilson suffered life-threatening and life-changing injuries after being repeatedly and viciously stabbed by a fellow prisoner in the HMP Chelmsford prison kitchen. The assailant was himself serving a life sentence for murder and had killed his victim by stabbing. On 20 September 2024 and following a five-day quantum trial HHJ Melissa Clarke sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge awarded Mr Wilson damages in the sum of £5,400,000. Mr Wilson’s injuries included a spinal cord injury with ongoing disability, bladder dysfunction, less severe bowel and sexual dysfunction, significant psychiatric symptoms and PTSD. PSLA was assessed at £153,000 in the judgment.

There are a number of points for personal injury practitioners to note from this quantum judgment but I will focus in this update on how the judge handled difficult evidence from the Claimant and issues with partisan experts.

The claimant’s evidence

The Claimant gave evidence for over a day at trial and was plainly at times agitated, struggled with focus and emotional regulation (arising from his condition) but was nonetheless held by the judge to have given honest evidence to the best of his ability. The judge noted a number of caveats but gave cogent reasons for finding why inconsistencies in his account, on for example his...

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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.