Hotson v East Berkshire Area Health Authority [1988] UKHL 1 – Law Journals

Eye Injuries: Getting the correct treatment

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Rushmi Sethi examines clinical negligence claims concerning ophthalmic injuries ‘A doctor is not negligent if there is another responsible body of medical opinion who would have acted in the same way as the treating clinician.’The purpose of this article is to consider the recent case law relating to eye injury claims, considering in particular the …

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Causation: The sum of the parts

Matthew White weighs up the ‘but for’ test and material contribution in cumulative cause cases ‘The “material contribution” approach applies just as much to multiple factor cases as to single agency cases.’ An article in this publication in 2013 (‘Breach of duty and causation, where are we now?’ by Christopher Sharp QC and Matthew White, …

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Material Contribution: Causes for concern

Julian Matthews highlights a case that demonstrates the courts’ approach to contribution to injury ‘Even where there were multiple causes, if the defendant’s breach of duty had materially contributed to one of those causes and that contribution was material to the development of the condition overall, then the principles of material contribution applied, and causation …

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Clinical Negligence: Delay of reckoning

The material contribution test for causation in clinical negligence has been maintained and clarified following Williams and John. Suzanne Farg reports ‘The defendant appealed to the Privy Council on the basis that the Court of Appeal had been “led into error by a misinterpretation of ‘material contribution’ as sufficient for the purposes of causation.”’The recent …

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Advocate’s Advice: Keeping it simple

Bill Braithwaite QC highlights a judgment with clear findings on causation and material contribution ‘A claim will fail if the most that can be said is that the claimant’s injury is likely to have been caused by one or more of a number of disparate factors, one of which was attributable to a wrongful act …

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Negligence: Material contribution to damage

One of the more intellectually challenging concepts in the field of clinical negligence is that of material contribution. Julian Matthews highlights two recent cases which illustrate some of the issues which arise ‘A defendant cannot be held to be liable for loss or damage that it did not cause or to which it made no …

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Case Report: Christine Reaney v University of North Staffordshire NHS Trust (1) and Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust (2) [2014] EWHC 3016 (QB)

Negligent treatment of pre-existing paraplegia; establishing the appropriate counterfactual; whether credit should be given for care required in any event ‘One might say that the paradigmatic negligent act is to make that person worse. A court may well have sympathy with a vulnerable individual whose quality of life is reduced even further by those in …

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Burden Of Proof: Loss of chance

Suzanne Farg and Verity Danziger discuss the hurdles to overcome to establish a claim The importance of factual and expert industry evidence cannot be underestimated and, in this case, the quality of the factual evidence was vital in allowing the claimant to bring his loss of earnings claim fully. The method by which the courts …

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