Duty of care: Not responsible?

Rajkiran Barhey reports that in some circumstances the door may be open to claims by children against local authorities if they fail to protect them from third parties ‘The claimants argued that, in purporting to investigate the risk that the neighbours posed and in attempting to monitor the claimants’ situation, the council assumed responsibility for …
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Practice: When is the law not the law?

David Cook seeks certainty from the Supreme Court ‘Conventional wisdom and common practice over time had effectively distilled Lord Dunedin’s Dunlop tests into an unhelpful, over-simplified distinction.’ It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but it is no laughing matter that a recent run of Supreme Court cases serve to demonstrate that conventional …
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Case report: Khan v MNX [2018] EWCA Civ 2609

Informed consent; clinical negligence; the SAAMCO principle ‘In the event, the Court of Appeal in Khan distinguished Chester on the facts in order to apply the SAAMCO principles to the duty to give informed consent.’ Khan v MNX [2018] is an important decision clarifying that the SAAMCO principle, that losses are only recoverable if they …
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Human rights: Claims against the police post Robinson and DSD – part two

In the second part of a two-part analysis, John-Paul Swoboda outlines the decision in Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis v DSD and looks at the wider impact on claims against the police ‘The case for the claimants was that as the state has a duty under Art 3 to conduct an effective investigation into …
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Duty of care: Claims against the police post Robinson and DSD – part one

In part one of a two-part analysis of claims against the police, John-Paul Swoboda examines the decision in Robinson and whether the police are exempt from negligence claims ‘Lord Reed and the other Supreme Court justices recognised that not too high a standard ought to be imposed on the police, but those observations did not …
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Safeguarding: Child sexual abuse in sport

Philip MD Grundy and Paul Stewart consider who are the potential defendants in an action for damages and preventative measures for the future ‘It is arguable that a coach committing abuse has done so in the course of an activity for the benefit of the FA and the football club.’ Childhood sexual abuse in sports …
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Liability: Pure omissions and public authorities

Ruth Kennedy considers the basis upon which liability can be established ‘The general principle is that there is no liability for the wrongdoing of a third party, even where that wrongdoing is foreseeable.‘ This article focuses on liability for pure omissions in tort with a particular focus on public authorities. The general principle of the …
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Duty of care: It‘s a fair cop

Patrick West explores a recent Supreme Court case on police liability ‘Is there a general rule that police are not under any duty of care when discharging their function of investigating and preventing crime?‘ Everyone who has passed through law school will remember the case about the snail in the ginger beer. Poor old Mrs …
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