Manual handling: Applying the threshold test

Jimmy Barber considers the importance of going ‘back to basics‘ when pursuing a manual handling claim ‘The “back-to-basics“ approach adopted by Hamblen LJ is a useful reminder of the lesson from Koonjul, that the first stage in any manual handling claim is always to consider whether there is a “real risk“ of injury.‘ In Stewart …
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Conditional fee agreements: The price of success

Dan Stacey and Theo Barclay highlight how the Court of Appeal permits recovery of success fees even if pre-LASPO CFAs have been subsequently transferred ‘The court was not prepared to prevent the claimant recovering a success fee simply because her claim had been transferred to a new firm of solicitors with her consent. That would …
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Appeals: Mind the gap – is perversity an insurmountable chasm?

Liam Ryan explores the recent Court of Appeal decision of Whiting v First/Keolis Transpennine Ltd and what it means more generally for appellants seeking to bring an appeal based on the difficult ground of perversity ‘The common-sense reality of the case was that once the evidence of Mr Stitt was accepted, Mr Whiting could not …
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EU motor insurance law: Incoming tide or tidal wave?

John McDonald examines recent motor insurance cases in the CJEU and their effect on UK law ‘EU law as interpreted in these judgments has been implemented in a number of English decisions, and is likely to be implemented in others, which may well have a radical effect on the legal framework underpinning UK motor insurance.‘ …
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Travel claims: Holidays from hell

In part two of their report on holiday damages, Kirsty McKinlay and Amy Rollings look at how to quantify losses after a non-package-holiday accident abroad ‘The expert evidence as to the applicable foreign law must be obtained at the outset, indeed, at the time of the very first notification of the claim and prior to …
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Conduct: Lying to the court

In the second of two articles, Suzanne Chalmers and Jack Macaulay report on dishonesty in the presentation of a claim ‘Claims that are entirely concocted are legally straightforward – if the truth is discovered, the claim will fail; if not, it will succeed. The law has had more difficulty in responding to claims where there …
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Costs: Provisional assessment – capped or fixed costs?

Paul Jones investigates a recent Court of Appeal decision which reaffirms that the cap on costs of provisional assessment continues to apply even when the receiving party has beaten their own offer ‘Capped costs were not the same as fixed costs: they were merely assessed costs capped at a certain level and, therefore, there was …
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Case report: Greater Manchester Police v Carroll [2017] EWCA Civ 1992

Importance of prejudice in limitation; judicial discretion; breach of employer duty; negligence ‘Claimants and defendants alike should bear in mind the evidential burden of showing prejudice when assessing prospects of a limitation defence.‘ In Greater Manchester Police v Carroll [2017], the Court of Appeal provides a compelling reminder of the importance of evidence of prejudice …
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