News Category 3
The Right to Choose - Bill Braithwaite QC, Head of Exchange Chambers
13/09/14. I've recently spent a few very pleasant hours sitting in a client’s wonderfully adapted house, looking out over his fields, and wondering about how his future will work out. He and his wife made a conscious choice to buy a house that suited them following catastrophic injury, rather than choose the minimum which would allow them to manage, but not to enjoy.
They knew in advance that they might not recover the full value of the house they selected, but they were prepared to use their own money, from other parts of the claim.
I always explain to clients that they can choose to buy what they want, even if the insurers can't be expected to pay the full cost, provided that the client will have enough money to top up what the insurance company pays.
Bill Braithwaite QC
Head of Exchange Chambers
This article was first published at http://billbraithwaite.com/blog/
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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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"Professional" McKenzie Friends: LSB Reaction to Consumer Panel's Recommendations - Thomas Crockett, 1 Chancery Lane
07/09/14. Those of us who are professional advocates reacted largely with horror when the Legal Service Consumer Panel called in April of this year for a “culture shift” in favour of recognising the rise in and increasing use of paid McKenzie Friends in our courts by extending regulation to them. Quite why this quango exists in the first place may well be a mystery to some (as it is to the writer) but surely for them to have spent clearly much time and (of course, public) money coming to such a conclusion may well lead to some (yes, including the writer) to question its utility. The recognition of a role for paid McKenzie friends and such a “culture shift” (whatever that could possibly mean) would put such individuals on a par in the eyes of many court users with professional lawyers.
The reality in the eyes of many of those appearing before the civil courts on a daily basis (yes, you have guessed it – including the writer) is that such “professional” McKenzie friends are a complete hindrance to the just and efficient disposal of a case. Judges in certainly the County Court are well used to...
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A Judgment for What? The Effect of Default Judgments - Paul Stagg, 1 Chancery Lane
23/09/14. Where a defendant admits breach of duty but wishes to contest causation, injury and quantum, it has in the past been common practice for it to allow judgment to be entered in default of Acknowledgment of Service or of Defence and to proceed to contest the remaining issues at an assessment of damages hearing. An alternative course of action, which in the short term is more expensive, is to file a Defence making appropriate admissions and then for the claimant to seek entry of a judgment for damages to be assessed.
In Symes v St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust [2014] EWHC 2505 (QB), the claimant was referred to hospital in October 2008 by his GP with a lump on his face which turned out to be a malignant tumour. In January 2009, a consultant decided that he should have an urgent superficial parotidectomy, but that was not carried out prior to May 2009, when it was found that the tumour had invaded the facial nerve and there had been metastasis to the lungs, leading to the need for a total parotidectomy and the loss of the left facial nerve and inoperable lung cancer. In 2011, an open admission was made that there had been a breach of duty in failing to...
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Coroners, Consistency and Change - Simon Readhead QC, 1 Chancery Lane
28/08/14. Harold Macmillan is famously said to have observed that: “There are three bodies no sensible man directly challenges: the Roman Catholic Church, the Brigade of Guards and the National Union of Mineworkers”. To this list should perhaps be added the Royal British Legion.
The Coroners and Justice Act (CJA) 2009 contained legislation to reform the process of death investigation and certification in England and Wales to deal with the shortcomings of single doctor death certification identified in the Shipman Inquiries. It also created the new office of Chief Coroner (CC)...
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More Articles...
- Editorial: On Unreasonableness and Opportunism – Aidan Ellis, Temple Garden Chambers
- Walsall MBC v Millard - Matthew White, St John’s Chambers
- Instructing an Accountant in PI Cases Post-Jackson - Richard Formby FCA MAE, Experienced Accountancy Expert Witness & Partner at Monahans, Chartered Accountants
- Bullying, Confused Perceptions and Stress Claims - Liam Ryan, Ely Place Chambers
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