Shorter v Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust [2015] EWHC 614 (QB) – Law Journals

Psychiatric injury: Primary rules

Is a claimant for psychiatric injuries associated with their child’s birth a primary or secondary victim? Suzanne Lambert discusses ‘Where the claimant is a primary victim (who is involved in an accident, for example), as opposed to a secondary victim (who may be a mere witness to an accident), there should be no distinction made …

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Secondary victim claims: Is the tide turning?

Tom Gibson discusses case law – and settlements – in the complicated area of psychiatric injury claims by secondary victims ‘Tomlinson LJ’s fourth criterion – that a claimant must have suffered a diagnosable psychiatric illness that was caused by a “sudden shocking event” – tends to be the most difficult requirement for claimants to satisfy.’ …

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Psychiatric Injury: Victims of circumstance

Liam Ryan reports on claims by rescuers and secondary victims, and assesses the need for law reform ‘Is it not time to at least consider if people who provide more than “trivial or peripheral assistance” in the wake of a disaster should also be classed as rescuers in a new, and wider, concept?’ In recent …

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Liability: A catalogue of errors

In part two of his article, Robert Weir QC continues his compilation of the most significant cases involving liability decisions from the last year ‘The judge properly recognised that the burden of proof lay with the claimant and did not draw inference of negligence from the fact that the extrusion had been retained.’ Part …

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Psychiatric Damage: Problems for claimants

Edward Bishop QC sets out cases that demonstrate the instances in which a secondary victim claim might be successful ‘Claimants advisers must be alert to the need for psychiatric experts to attribute recognised illness to the shock of seeing a horrific event, rather than other factors.’Claims for damages for psychiatric illness suffered by those who …

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Nervous Shock: Secondary victims of clinical negligence

Julian Matthews looks at the recent case law on psychiatric injury for nervous shock, where there appears to have been a tightening of the relevant control mechanisms ‘Cases of clinical negligence present particularly difficult problems. The factual background of cases can be very different and often quite complex. The nature and timing of the “event” …

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Psychiatric Injury: Taking a look at secondary victim claims ‘de Novo’

Charles Bagot analyses a quartet of new cases produced in the period since December 2014 ‘Some of the decisions in the 21 years between Alcock in 1992 and Taylor in 2013 are difficult to reconcile with one another and have made it harder to find a consistent thread through this line of cases.’ This article …

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