Blogs Archive

On 16 December 2020, Martin Spencer J handed down judgment in Young v Downey [2020] EWHC 3457 (QB), an interesting decision on secondary victims in nervous shock cases. In this blog post, Philip Turton and Katie McFarlane summarise and review the decision, which can be read here. Preamble Where a person suffers psychiatric as well as physical…

We are delighted to announce that Jayne Adams QC has been appointed a Master of the Bench of Gray’s Inn. Jayne’s appointment marks a recognition of her contribution to the law and her commitment to inclusion and social mobility. For more on Jayne’s practice, please click here.

The recent decision in Mathewson v Crump & Crump [2020] EWHC 3167 (QB) concerned a claim under the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957. In determining the claim, two particularly interesting features arose: First, there was the fundamental issue of whether the Defendants had control over the property which the Claimant was visiting at the material time…

The word “causation” needs a careful degree of unpacking. There is medical causation: what injury does the Claimant prove he or she has been caused. There is legal causation: is it proved that such injury would not have been caused but for the breach or breaches of duty established. Allied to the latter, there is…

Claimants often rely on medical records as evidence to corroborate their case as to the nature and extent of their injuries in personal injury litigation.  Conversely, Defendants often use a Claimant’s medical records against them where those records contain information that undermines the Claimant’s account as to their injuries. In either case, it is important to understand the…

On 16 December 2020, HM Assistant Coroner for Inner South London, Philip Barlow, concluded that “air pollution exposure” was a contributory cause of nine-year-old Ella Adoo Kissi-Debrah’s death in 2013. This is the first time that a coroner has recorded air pollution exposure as a cause of death, and is thought to be the first time that…

Since the pandemic, the issue of covert recordings of medical examinations has risen to the fore following the drastic increase in use of technology to deliver patient care (telephone consultations, video consultations), making covert recording easier than ever before. It is therefore relevant to revisit the most recent authority on the admissibility of covert recordings…

The Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (IIAC) has announced its intention to conduct a review of selected malignant and non-malignant respiratory diseases and their relationships with occupational exposures. The IIAC is the advisory body responsible for reviewing the Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB) scheme, which supports employees who are disabled as a result of an accident…

Followers of our Disease Blog may have noticed a slight trend in some of our posts which have focused on the potential for future claims for damages in respect of early onset dementia and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (“CTE”) for ex-sportsmen and sportswomen. In October, Alex Denton wrote about the decision of HM Senior Coroner John Gittens’…

The area of fatal accident claims is wide and occasionally very complicated. An understanding of the principles and the cases that historically have shaped the Court’s approach is necessary. It is an area in which once the statutory provision is understood, a ‘feel’ for what the Court will think appropriate in each fact-specific case is…

In R (on the application of (1) Aviva Insurance Ltd (2) Swiss Reinsurance Company Ltd) v The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2020] EWHC 3118 (Admin), the Claimants challenged the unintended and onerous consequences of the Compensation Recovery Unit scheme, particularly in respect of the Claimants’ liabilities for long-tail asbestos-related diseases. The High…

The seminal case of Bolton v Stone [1951] AC 850 concerned a Claimant on a residential side road who was hit by a ball struck by a batsman on an adjacent cricket ground. The claim ultimately failed. Some 67 years later, the Claimant in Lewis v Wandsworth London Borough Council was walking along the boundary path of a cricket…