News Category 3
New Book Reviews - PIBULJ.COM Editorial
29/07/16. The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) have produced a number of new books for the personal injury practitioner in the past few months, published by Jordan Publishing.
APIL Guide to MIB Claims (Uninsured and Untraced Drivers) by Andrew Ritchie QC and Jeremy Ford (Jordan Publishing, 4th Edition, March 2016, £50.00)
MIB claims can be particularly tricky for the practitioner as it can be a technical area with plenty of traps into which the unwary may fall. What's more it could arise just as much in lesser value claims as for the bigger ones and so it's something in which all practitioners should have a good grounding so that they can hopefully spot the problems before they arise.
The APIL Guide to MIB Claims (Uninsured and Untraced Drivers) by Andrew Ritchie QC and Jeremy Ford provides an excellent guide to the area which is both comprehensive and clear and would help both the specialist and also those who find that it arises for them only occasionally. What's more this new edition includes coverage of: the Uninsured Drives' Agreement 2015, the latest supplements to the Uninsured Drivers' Agreement 2003, the 6th Motor Insurance Directive, Francovich claims as well as recent case law. A reassuring book to have on the shelf as a great source of reference for road traffic lawyers.
APIL Guide to Noise Claims by Chris Fry and Theo Huckle QC (Jordan Publishing, 1st edition, March 2016, £65.00)
Noise induced hearing loss claims have come to the fore in recent years probably due both to developments in litigation as well as perhaps medical science and also possibly the various costs regimes which have been introduced into the personal injury world. Whatever the reasons, it is an area which can be quite technical both in terms of the law and all the more so in the evidence.
The APIL Guide to Noise Claims by Chris Fry and Theo Huckle QC sets out to assist practitioners in this potentially difficult area and it does so admirably. In legal terms it looks at the regulatory framework and the issues which can arise with respect to limitation. But it also covers evidential matters both in terms of lay and expert evidence and with particular reference to the expert accoustic engineering and medical evidence which might be needed. It also provides general guidance on dealing with a deafness enquiry and several precedents such as a pre-action disclosure application, a letter of claim and on to pleadings.
APIL Guide to Tripping and Slipping Cases by Charles Foster and Ben Bradley (Jordan Publishing, 2nd edition, November 2015, £65.00)
Tripping and slipping claims are a standard part of the practice of a personal injury practitioner and yet they can cover so many different areas of law from occupiers' liability to highways, landlord and tenant and health and safety at work. With such a breadth of legal issues which might arise it's probably not surprising that the law is constantly on the move.
The APIL Guide to Tripping and Slipping Cases by Charles Foster and Ben Bradley not only provides a clear and straightforward guide to these issues which can arise but it also provides an update on various developments from the last few years. In this respect, there is coverage of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 and how this changes the approach to workplace accidents. So, too, it looks at the changes to the common law when it comes to the deployment of the tort of nuisance in highway cases as well as updating on cases dealing with the section 58 statutory defence and other issues besides.
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Why Settlement of a Personal Injury Claim Does Not Bring the Application of the RTA Protocol to an End - Ben Hicks, 1 Chancery Lane
23/06/16. The recent Court of Appeal decision in Phillips v Willis [2016] EWCA Civ 401 has provided welcome clarity as to the fate of claims initially made through the RTA portal when the personal injury element has been resolved prior to litigation commencing at Stage 3, but a dispute as to low-value special damages remains live between the parties.
The matter in question arose out of a collision between the parties’ vehicles on 28th June 2013. The Claimant’s Vauxhall Astra car was written off and he suffered minor personal injuries, for which he required physiotherapy. In the absence of the Astra, he also required a car and, to this end, he hired an alternative car for just over one month.
Given the date and nature of the accident, it was inevitable that the Claimant would need to proceed under the applicable RTA Protocol (ie that dealing with accidents occurring before 31st July 2013). This was exactly what he did. Liability was rapidly admitted and by the end of Stage 2 of the process, the Defendant’s insurer had agreed his claims for general damages and treatment costs. Hire charges of £3,486 were however still in issue, with the insurer offering only £2,334...
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Don’t Overlook Foreseeability: Scott v Gavigan [2016] EWCA Civ 544, [2016] All ER (D) 35 (Jun) - Niall Maclean, 12 King’s Bench Walk
20/06/16. On a clear summer evening the Defendant was riding his motorcycle down a long straight road in south London. His speed was about the 30mph, the limit for the road. Walking towards him on the pavement on the opposite side of the road was the Claimant. The Defendant watched the Claimant walk past an informal pedestrian crossing consisting of two bollards in the middle of the road on raised islands with a gap between the islands for pedestrians to shelter whilst crossing. When the Claimant had walked about 10 metres past the crossing he suddenly ran out into the road towards the Defendant’s motorcycle. At that point, the Defendant was only 10 metres away. The Defendant tried but failed to avoid the Claimant, who was struck and received serious leg injuries.
The Trial
The trial judge dismissed the claim. He rejected the Claimant’s account and accepted the Defendant’s case that the accident was caused by the Claimant, heavily intoxicated, running diagonally towards the Defendant’s motorcycle as described above...
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Injuries Resulting in Blindness - Rose Gibson, Simpson Millar LLP
18/06/16. Having dealt with a number of cases involving loss of sight over the years, it was not until I had to visit the JC Guidelines for a case involving total sudden blindness to a teenage girl that I was acting for that it really sunk in to me how woefully inadequate damages for injuries are in the UK.
As it happened, the case hit the headlines of the newspapers, and as a result of this, I was contacted by and met an American lawyer who specialised in similar injuries in the US. We compared notes and agreed that the then £192,000 (now £224,680) for total blindness in both eyes was nothing short of shocking.
I went on a journey with this case and discovered that not only is it extremely rare to be unlucky enough to have an accident that results in blindness in both eyes, but that sudden total blindness in two eyes is almost unheard of, so I quickly realised that everyone involved in this particular case was on new territory for the most part...
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Summary of Recent Cases, June 2016
15/06/16. Here is a summary of the recent notable court cases over the past month. You can also receive these for free by registering for our PI Brief Update newsletter. Just select "Free Newsletter" from the menu at the top of this page and fill in your email address.
Summary of Recent Cases - Substantive Law
DS (By his mother and Litigation Friend FS) v Northern Lincolnshire & Goole NHS Foundation Trust [2016] EWHC 1246 (QB)
The Claimant, a child who suffered at least 39 minutes of acute and profound hypoxia immediately before birth which caused brain damage, had failed to establish that there had been a negligent delay of six to nine minutes in his delivery that materially affected his cognitive reasoning abilities. The Court found that there had been a three-minute negligent delay and that the delay had not affected his abilities, as the Claimant had suffered at least...
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More Articles...
- Loss of Earnings: Clinical Negligence and Causation - Gordon Exall, Zenith Chambers & Hardwicke
- The Serious Injury Guide - Duncan Rutter, DAC Beachcroft
- FE (By his litigation friend PE) v St George’s University Hospital NHS Trust [2016] EWCH 553 - Rachel Vickers, Outer Temple Chambers
- Over Year-Long Wait for Employment Records from HMRC is Denial of Access to Justice and Breach of ECHR - Roger Maddocks, Irwin Mitchell LLP
![Appeal judge rules that credit hire company has no costs liability following a finding of fundamental dishonesty in personal injury case: RSA v. Fastrack Solutions Limited [2023] 4 WLUK 92 - David Bowden, Erimus Chambers](/content/images/resized/images/stories/carkeys_72_72.jpg)
