My morning commute was brightened up this morning by an article in the Metro, (the staple free newspaper for London commuters,) entitled “Motorists sign up to a pothole warning drive”. I think the last word of the title should have read “Sign”. The article focused on a triangular warning sign depicting a lopsided rear view of a car with one wheel down a pothole. It is sugge... [Continue Reading]

The bare facts of Various Claimants v The Catholic Child Welfare Society and others [2010] EWCA Civ 1106 and the Court of Appeal’s decision have already been set out in an earlier post on 27 Oct 2010. Now in a recent case comment in the Journal of Professional Negligence entitled “Pushing at the boundaries of vicarious liability” (PN 2011 27(1) pp42-45), Paula Case analyses the j... [Continue Reading]

The Court of Appeal has overturned Warren J's decision in "C v D1 & D2". Question: was an offer headed "Offer to Settle under CPR Part 36" which was expressed to be "open for 21 days":- a) A time-limited offer and/or b) A Part 36 offer. The party making the offer argued it was a time-limited Part 36 offer. Warren J agreed it was time-limited, but held a time-limited offer was not a Part 36 off... [Continue Reading]

Another example of a claimant in a clinical negligence case failing to prove causation (this time,  against a dentist who was alleged to have caused the onset of infective endocarditis). In what looks like an important judgment, the court found that the treatment was such as a reasonable body of dentists could have recommended, so that it satisfied the test in Bolam and was therefore non-negl... [Continue Reading]

The implication of recent figures on life expectancy for claims for damages. [Continue Reading]

Don’t you love it when a judge mulls over two competing accident reconstruction reports, selects what he thinks is most probable, and then finds as a fact that that is how the accident happened….grrrrr.  Welcome to the fantasy land of the balance of probabilities. Continue Reading...