March 2020 #183 – Law Journals

Contempt of court: Committal where the die has already been cast

Anthony Johnson reports that judges will not tolerate dishonesty ‘The judge concluded that, having exercised the discretion under CPR 81.13(3)(a) afresh, the public interest in the case clearly militated in favour of committal proceedings being brought.’ The Court of Appeal’s recent decision in Zurich Insurance plc v Romaine [2019] is essential reading for any party …

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Costs orders: QOCS or not?

Do not assume QOCS automatically applies, warns Jasmine Murphy ‘Where a personal injury claim includes claims for other things like car repairs or credit hire for example, QOCS protection is not automatically given.’ It is easy to assume that qualified one-way costs shifting (QOCS) applies automatically to every personal injury case. However the most recent …

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Breach of duty: Assessing the standard of care: junior doctors

Does conferring with a consultant absolve a junior doctor? Rajkiran Barhey summarises a recent case ‘While at first blush it may seem unfair to require the same standard of care from junior doctors as their more senior colleagues, a number of considerations must be borne in mind.’ The Scottish case of Andrews v Greater Glasgow …

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Case report: Mackenzie v Alcoa Manufacturing (GB) Ltd [2019] EWCA Civ 2110

Noise-induced hearing loss; adverse inferences; noise surveys ‘In reviewing Garnham J’s decision, the court restated how cautious judges should be in overturning decisions of fact, particularly as they had not had the benefit of hearing what they referred to as the “sea” of evidence.’ Historic noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) claims are notorious for posing evidential …

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Costs: Assessment of fixed costs: a three-stage process

Paul Jones highlights a recent case that provides helpful guidance in an area where the rules are silent ‘The defendant’s submission was that CPR 36.20 gave rise to a deemed order for costs to be assessed by the court and, the claimant, therefore, should have sought a detailed assessment of those costs.’ One of the …

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NHS litigation fees: Reducing costs in clinical negligence cases

Lydia Barnett explores the causes of high costs and considers the improvements which are necessary ‘If the NHS and PALS worked more closely with patients and were open and candid about the nature of any mistakes at the outset, then this would reduce claims and the cost to the NHS.’ It has been widely reported …

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Practice: Read all about it

Jamie Hill reviews the latest Judicial College Guidelines ‘Between May 2017 and June 2019 there has been a continued period of inflation. Accordingly, nearly all the brackets have been increased by a factor of circa 7% to take account of RPI over the same period.’ On 26 November 2019 the fifteen edition of the Judicial …

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Deputyships: What’s passed, what’s current and what’s ahead?

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Christine Bunting and Tom Hall reflect on changes to the day-to-day running of deputyships and revisit the key reasons for ensuring that costs are carefully calculated ‘The OPG now requires professional deputies to estimate the amount of their activity within the course of a deputyship year, as well as the associated costs.’ In the July/August …

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