Personal Injury/Clinical Negligence

Fixed recoverable costs for low-value clinical negligence claims – which were planned for this month – are now likely to come into force in October 2024, it has emerged.

A circuit judge has attacked the “little micro-industry of unknown and unknowable commissions or referral or arrangement fees” in personal injury claims.

The senior partner of a law firm who acted on a bogus whiplash claim arising from an accident in which he was also injured has been cleared of contempt of court.

It is “very difficult to explain” to claimants why they are receiving a “tokenistic tariff amount” for their whiplash injuries, APIL has told the government.

The government today launches a consultation on whether it should be easier to apologise in civil proceedings without admitting liability.

The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers has withdrawn its judicial review against the government challenging aspects of last October’s extension of fixed recoverable costs.

Claimant representatives have called for Official Injury Claim cases stayed pending yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling on mixed injuries to progress quickly now that there is certainty.

The Supreme Court has unanimously rejected the appeal and cross-appeal against the decision on how judges should value claims that combine both whiplash and non-whiplash injuries. It upheld the approach of District Judge Hennessy at first instance and then the… Read More

At least £284m has been unclaimed from accidents at work in 2023, with workers increasingly reluctant to seek compensation from their employer, according to National Accident Helpline.

The Ministry of Justice has rejected all but some technical changes to the Official Injury Claim portal put forward by both claimant and defendant representatives.

A circuit judge was entitled to make a wasted costs order against a firm of solicitors that failed to translate their client’s statement and pleadings for use at trial, the High Court has ruled.

The Court of Appeal has overturned a significant ruling last year that the costs of a fee-earner’s attendance at rehabilitation case management meetings are irrecoverable.

National firm Simpson Millar has rescued personal injury firm Novum Law out of administration, with the funder that owns the former also a creditor of the latter.

A High Court judge has refused to overturn a non-party costs order against a credit hire company, saying the firm “voluntarily assumed the risk” of the claimants turning out to be dishonest.

Medical negligence law firm Hudgell Solicitors is supporting calls for a parliamentary inquiry to be held into the ‘inadequate and dangerous’ state of bowel care for patients with spinal cord injuries in healthcare settings.