Advocate’s Advice: Update

Bill Braithwaite QC discusses the significant issues affecting the world of PI ‘It is all too easy to dismiss risks after the event, perhaps not realising that a secure result at assessment of costs does not mean that it always was easy or secure.’ The current rumour seems to be that the Lord Chancellor might …
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Review: A year in the life

Mark Fowles looks back at the year’s important personal injury cases ‘English law has always been nervous about dealing with issues of causation The modern test is a test of policy. The first test is predominantly factual. The second gathers up much of the traditional language that lawyers use in attempting to set a limit …
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Life Changes: Turning the tables

Simon Readhead QC explores what’s new in Ogden 7 ‘The use of updated mortality tables results in an increase in life expectancies for both males and females for all ages up to 96 for males and 98 for females. In some cases the increases are very significant.’ The new edition of the Ogden Tables (Ogden …
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Costs: A costly review

Paul Jones analyses the most noteworthy cases over the past year ‘A court still has a discretion to assess costs on the standard basis by reference to the sum that would have been recoverable on the small claims track if the case had been allocated to that track.’ The end of the year seems like …
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Sports Injury: Liability on the pitch

Cathrine Grubb considers the duty of care owed for concealed hazards ‘The RFU provides risk assessment guidelines and a checklist that includes a recommendation to check the ground for foreign objects.’While people around the world were enjoying the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand this year, rugby was also the focus of the Court of …
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Case Report: Broadfield v Meyrick Estate Management Ltd [2011] EWCA Civ 1135

Employer’s liability; Workplace Regulations 1992 ‘The relevant part of reg 12 of the Workplace Regulations 1992 impose a duty on the employer to provide a suitable and sufficient handrail on at least one side of every staircase that is a traffic route.’ This case provides important guidance on the proper construction of the words ‘suitable …
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Occupier: State of play

Following a wealth of decisions in 2011, Simon Cradick reviews an occupier’s liability ‘Anyone who has possession, or a sufficient degree of control, of premises, or an area within premises, may be an occupier.’ In 2011, we saw an unusual number of reported occupier’s liability claims, analysis of which provides a useful illustration of the …
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