Personal Injury Blog Category

Cycle consultation offers perfect opportunity for government to stop back-pedalling on road safety

01^st December 2017

Our government recently announced its intention to consider forcing all cyclists to wear a helmet: transport minister Jesse Norman has said his compulsory helmet review will be based on available evidence. It seems the matter will be considered as part of a general government review on bike safety announced following a recent series of high-profile incidents involving cyclists killed or seriously injured on our roads.…

Law courts offer no place to hide for dishonest injury compensation claimants

13^th November 2017

A recent Portsmouth County Court ruling decided a compensation claim, which resulted from a low-speed car accident, was fundamentally dishonest – and the claimants are now likely to be ordered to pay the defendants’ legal costs. On appeal it was argued that in their defence the defendants should have clearly stated they intended to allege fundamental dishonesty but the appeal court disagreed. Our courts will…

Third party liability insurance – are you covered?

08^th November 2017

For some years now the Road Traffic Act 1988 has been in conflict with European directives on insurance and providing cover for third party liabilities but, notwithstanding this, successive UK governments have failed to implement these European directives. More recently, court cases such as Damijan Vnuk –v– Zavarovalnica Triglav (2013) and Delaney –v– the Secretary of State for Transport (2014) have repeatedly indicated that court…

George Ide lawyers pound Chichester’s pavements in aid of Headway West Sussex

08^th November 2017

The second Sunday in October this year saw a very healthy turnout for the 2017 Chichester half marathon – if you were looking closely you might have seen nine runners pounding round the 13-mile course in George Ide colours to raise much-needed funds for local brain injury charity Headway West Sussex. It was an exhilarating experience that I will remember for the enthusiasm and camaraderie…

Vicarious liability – when, and how far, can responsibility be extended?

03^rd November 2017

A recently reported Supreme Court case considered the plight of a claimant who was physically and emotionally abused by one of two foster carers and sexually abused by the other. Concluding the case, Armes –v– Nottinghamshire County Council, the judges decided by a majority to extend the doctrine of vicarious liability. This doctrine states that an employer – in this case a local authority –…

Learn to look out for sepsis – spotting the signs could save a life

06^th October 2017

Since I last wrote in this column there have been many healthcare stories that would merit more than mere acknowledgement here. Not least, Ian Patterson was convicted and sentenced for performing unnecessary cosmetic operations, giving rise to a High Court compensation award totalling some £30m and, in our own area, a report criticised the provision of mental health services by Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.…

Wanton and furious driving – as unacceptable today as it was in 1861

15^th September 2017

In this column and elsewhere we have previously written about the legal duty of care owed by road users to each other – be they drivers, cyclists or pedestrians. In November last year, national bicycle charity UK Cycling published figures confirming that 98 per cent of all pedestrian deaths or serious injuries between 2005 and 2015 were caused by motorists and, during this period, 852…

Mileage honesty makes the best motor insurance policy

04^th September 2017

The government has recently introduced a new online service that lets users view privately-owned vehicles’ MOT histories; all you need is the vehicle’s registration number, along with its make and colour. It is especially important for vehicle owners to note that viewing the DVLA-held information via this website may reveal how many miles a vehicle has done between its MOT tests – and this is…

Never Events – patients’ vigilance is key to unlocking safer hospital healthcare

21^st July 2017

The term ‘never events’ is so dramatic, so final, that it sounds hypothetical – apocryphal, even – but Never Events really do occur in our hospitals, and with alarming frequency. The term is used as a label by the NHS to describe entirely preventable serious incidents whose occurrence potentially, or actually, jeopardises patient safety. Not all Never Events result in serious patient harm or death;…

Can You Sue An Unidentified Person?

13^th July 2017

A recent Court of Appeal hearing seems to have provided a positive answer to this very question. The judges in Cameron -v- Hussain (May 2017) considered the case of a car crash victim attempting to claim damages against a driver who had left the scene before being identified. Before this landmark decision, road traffic accident victims were only allowed to claim compensation in court if…

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