February 2019 #172 – Law Journals

Assessment of damages: Paying unfair

Catriona Stirling and William Latimer-Sayer QC look at some of the key areas of the law in relation to quantum of personal injury damages which they consider to be in need of reform ‘If a head of loss is pecuniary in nature, it should be open to all claimants to advance a claim for it, …

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Travel sickness claims: Ill-gotten gains

Dr Robert Whittock considers the causation hurdle faced in claiming for travel sickness on package holidays ‘Claimants who consume food or drink outside the package prior to falling ill are likely to find proving causation to be even more difficult.’ Over the last few years travel sickness claims have increased by 500% despite reports of …

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Costs management: Yirenkyi – providing much-needed certainty

Sam Hayman discusses the implications of the recent case of Yirenkyi and its effect on the costs management regime ‘Matters were not assisted by rounds of first instance conflicting decisions, and while this judgment does not extinguish all issues and ambiguity within the process it gives a robust framework to judges to operate within.’ Sir …

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Negligence: Who watches the gatekeepers?

Liam Ryan examines the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Darnley and its potential wider impact ‘There is a tendency in some courts to elide breach of duty and scope of duty issues with the concept of a duty of care (as had the majority in the Court of Appeal).’ There is an interesting …

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Costs: Part 36 offers – all or nothing?

Paul Jones explores whether all the penalties of a beaten Part 36 offer must apply or whether they can be severable ‘The matter arose from a clinical negligence case that had concluded in the claimant’s favour, including an order that the defendant pay the claimant’s costs on the standard basis.’ Once again, Part 36 offers …

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Case report: XX v Whittington Hospital NHS Trust [2018] EWCA Civ 2832

Clinical negligence; surrogacy; public policy and illegality; PSLA ‘It was argued on behalf of Ms X that the ratio of Briody was simply that the prospects of successful surrogacy in that case were so “vanishingly small” that the expenditure was not “reasonable” and, therefore, not recoverable as special damages.’ The defendant trust admitted negligence in …

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Bills of costs: Show your working out

Elliot Kay reports on a recent case that confirms you have to send a bill of costs to your client, even in fixed costs cases ‘Rule 17.2 expressly required a bill to be delivered or written notification to be given “first”, ie before the defendant took payment for its fees, and that had not happened.’ …

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