Brain injury: Challenges for claimants

Deirdre Goodwin examines the pitfalls in quantifying brain injury claims ‘Careful investigation is required of the claimant’s pre-accident employment, not only evidenced by payslips but – in respect of the future – the likely career trajectory.’ This is a time of rapid change: the discount rate, appropriate accommodation claims methodology, as well as significant advances …
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Causation: Looking for answers

Paul Sankey examines the issues in Dr Sido John v Central Manchester and Manchester Children’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust ‘The “material contribution” test only applies in cases where it is impossible to attribute particular damage to a specific cause and therefore apportionment cannot be appropriate.’The recent case of Dr Sido John v Central Manchester …
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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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