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Apportionment of liability; psychiatric injury; pre-existing illness ‘The tone of Underhill LJ’s judgment is that it will be difficult to convince a court that apportionment is not going to be possible.’ This case revisits the vexed question of divisibility of psychiatric (and other) injury. It is an employment case of wide importance and application. The …
Continue reading "Case Report: BAE Systems (Operations) Ltd v Konczak [2017] EWCA Civ 1188"
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Charlie Cory-Wright QC and Sadie Crapper summarise government proposals for changing how the discount rate is set ‘The government believes the current assumption that claimants will only invest in very-low-risk investments is unrealistic and may produce significantly larger awards than provide 100% compensation.’ The moment we all were waiting for arrived on 7 September 2017 …
Continue reading "The Discount Rate: All change please"
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Helen Gill-Thwaites and Karen Elliott advise what to expect from your expert and assessors ‘While SMART is an assessment tool it is more accurately described as a “intensive investigative strategy” by examining the impact of all of the key principles as described in the RCP guidelines 2013.’ Accurate assessment of a client with prolonged disorders …
Continue reading "Prolonged Disorders Of Consciousness: Accurate assessment and investigation of clients"
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Geoffrey Simpson-Scott considers what is next for fixed costs in clinical negligence litigation ‘A useful rule-of-thumb is that the more expensive the average expert report is within a discipline, the more complicated that area of clinical negligence work is likely to be.’ Tremulously clicking the hyperlink to Sir Rupert Jackson’s Supplemental Report: Fixed Recoverable Costs …
Continue reading "Fixed Recoverable Costs: Apocalypse averted?"
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Darren Lewis reviews a recent Court of Appeal decision clarifying QOCS where there have been pre and post 1 April 2013 conditional fee agreements ‘Litigants were faced with two conflicting approaches: one based on an expansive definition of proceedings and one with a narrow definition of proceedings and a focus on the notional recovery of …
Continue reading "QOCS: Switching CFAs"
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Nicola Hall investigates whether treatment costs for drug addiction following an accident resulting in chronic pain can form part of a special damage claim ‘Doctors should make sure that their patients always follow the prescription medication directions carefully, be aware of the side effects and explain clearly to the patient that they should not increase …
Continue reading "Drug Dependency And Chronic Pain: Abuse of prescription drugs – is it a growing trend?"
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Patrick West highlights a recent credit hire case where the key issue was whether a hire organisation has immunity from a non-party costs order ‘The fact that a credit hire company promoted litigation for its own financial benefit was a factor which the court could take into account when considering whether it was just for …
Continue reading "Non-Party Costs Orders: A Pyrrhic victory avoided"
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Philip Turton examines Bussey, Williams and the problem of low-level asbestos exposure ‘It has been the period from 1965 to 1976 which has presented as the area of battle as to what, if anything, constituted “acceptable” or “reasonable” exposure at the time.’ If, as seems likely, the recent decision in Bussey v Anglia Heating [2017] …
Continue reading "Mesothelioma Claims: What is reasonable?"
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Paul Jones outlines the latest decision which concerns hourly rates ‘To depart from the approved budget, the court must be satisfied that there is a good reason and, in this case, the court found that there was a good reason.’ Of all the reforms implemented by Jackson LJ, costs budgets is the issue that continues …
Continue reading "Costs Budgets: The gift that keeps on giving"
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Costs, discount rate, alternative dispute resolution ‘A party who makes serious allegations of misconduct runs a significant risk of being subjected to indemnity costs if they prove unsuccessful.’ In part one, we reported on the judgment for this case, where the Ministry of Justice was found to be liable for a stress-at-work claim. We will …
Continue reading "Case Report: Marsh v Ministry of Justice [2017] EWHC 1040 (QB) (Part 2)"
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