Dismissed NHS whistleblower who exposed safety concerns handed £1.22m – The Guardian

Posted February 5th, 2016 in damages, health & safety, hospitals, news, unfair dismissal, whistleblowers by tracey

‘An NHS whistleblower who was unfairly sacked after exposing concerns about patient safety has been awarded £1.22m in damages by a hospital trust.’

Full story

The Guardian, 4th February 2016

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Narcolepsy boy wins £120k swine flu vaccine damages – BBC News

‘A boy with a rare sleeping illness caused by a swine flu vaccine has won £120,000 in damages.’

Full story

BBC News, 3rd February 2016

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

UK consults on further changes to competition compensation law – OUT-LAW.com

Posted February 1st, 2016 in compensation, competition, consultations, damages, EC law, limitations, news by tracey

‘It will become easier for victims of competition law breaches to claim compensation when the EU Damages Directive comes into force in December.’

Full story

OUT-LAW.com, 29th January 2016

Source: www.out-law.com

Law firm to back clients’ litigation after £50m deal with hedge fund – Legal Futures

Posted February 1st, 2016 in budgets, damages, fees, hedge funds, law firms, news, solicitors by tracey

‘Cardiff-based Capital Law has today launched a £50m fund – backed by a hedge fund – to help its clients pursue litigation, in a first for a law firm.’

Full story

Legal Futures, 1st February 2016

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

Court of Appeal slashes award in law firm sale dispute – Legal Futures

Posted January 29th, 2016 in appeals, contracts, damages, economic loss, law firms, misrepresentation, news by tracey

‘The Court of Appeal has reduced by almost two-thirds the balance awarded to the seller of a law firm by the High Court, after ruling that – among other things – the trial judge had been wrong not to award the buyer damages for misrepresentation of the firm’s finances.’

Full story

Legal Futures, 29th January 2016

Source: wwww.legalfutures.co.uk

Claimants and lawyers warned over damages repayment risk in RTA protocol cases – Litigation Futures

Posted January 22nd, 2016 in damages, negligence, news, personal injuries, repayment, road traffic, solicitors by sally

‘A claimant who receives less at stage 3 of the RTA protocol than was offered at stage 2 has to reimburse the difference, a circuit judge has ruled.’

Full story

Litigation Futures, 21st January 2016

Source: www.litigationfutures.com

Judge criticises Sports Direct in Rangers legal case – The Guardian

Posted January 20th, 2016 in confidentiality, damages, news, remuneration, sport by sally

‘Sports Direct has “abused” the legal system, according to a high court judge presiding over the embattled retailer’s bitter legal battle with Rangers football club.’

Full story

The Guardian, 19th January 2016

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Court of Appeal : LiPs can benefit from ‘without prejudice’ rule without knowing what it means – Litigation Futures

‘Litigants in person (LiPs) can benefit from the ‘without prejudice’ rule even if they do not know what it means, the Court of Appeal has made clear.’

Full story

Litigation Futures, 19th January 2016

Source: www.litigationfutures.com

Cavendish win on penalties: Supreme Court makes finger-tip save of ageing doctrine – RPC Built Environment

Posted January 13th, 2016 in contracts, damages, news, parking, penalties by sally

‘The Supreme Court has provided long awaited clarification of the law on penalty clauses and liquidated damages, upholding the “penalty rule” but further limiting its utility in a commercial setting. In the adjoined appeals of Cavendish Square Holding v Talal El Makdessi and ParkingEye Limited v Beavis the Supreme Court created a new authority for consideration of the penalty rule doctrine, termed by Lordships Neuberger and Sumption to be “an ancient, haphazardly constructed edifice which has not weathered well”.’

Full story

RPC Built Environment, 6th January 2016

Source: www.rpc.co.uk

Cook v Virgin Media Ltd; McNeil v Tesco plc – WLR Daily

Cook v Virgin Media Ltd; McNeil v Tesco plc [2015] EWCA Civ 1287; [2015] WLR (D) 538

‘The English court had power to apply the doctrine of forum non conveniens in a purely domestic context, exercising the court’s wide general case management powers in CPR rr 3.1(2)(m) and 3.3, and therefore could strike out or stay proceedings brought in England where Scotland was the natural and more appropriate forum.’

WLR Daily, 14th December 2015

Source: www.iclr.co.uk

Phone Hacking and the Level of Damages – Panopticon

Posted December 21st, 2015 in damages, interception, media, news, privacy by sally

‘It is panto season, and everyone loves a good villain. This Christmas’ Wicked Stepmother is the Mirror Group who, when asking ‘Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who is the most liable of them all?’ has received the answer from the Court of Appeal that they are and must pay the consequences.’

Full story

Panopticon, 17th December 2015

Source: www.panopticonblog.com

‘Plebgate’ and the protection of journalistic sources – Panopticon

Posted December 18th, 2015 in damages, interception, investigatory powers, media, news, police, privacy by tracey

‘It has been a mixed day for the media’s entanglements with the judiciary. Chris Knight posted earlier today about the unhappy outcome for Mirror Group Newspapers before the Court of Appeal in the Gulati privacy damages litigation arising from phone-hacking. News Group Newspapers, however – together with Sun journalist claims Tom Newton Dunn, Anthony France and Craig Woodehouse – had a happier outcome in another case about telephone privacy, though this time with the media as victim rather than perpetrator of the interference.’

Full story

Panopticon, 17th December 2015

Source: www.panopticonblog.com

Phone hacking: Mirror Group loses appeal over damages – BBC News

Posted December 18th, 2015 in appeals, damages, interception, media, news by tracey

‘Mirror Group Newspapers has lost its appeal over damages paid to eight victims of phone hacking.’

Full story

BBC News, 17th December 2015

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Moorjani v Durban Estates Ltd – WLR Daily

Posted December 14th, 2015 in appeals, compensation, covenants, damages, housing, landlord & tenant, law reports, repairs by sally

Moorjani v Durban Estates Ltd [2015] EWCA Civ 1152; [2015] WLR (D) 509

‘In a case in which a residential tenant claimed to have suffered loss arising from the landlord’s breach of its repairing and insuring obligations, which had caused disrepair to his flat, the loss lay in the impairment of the amenity value of the tenant’s proprietary interest in the flat, and discomfort, inconvenience and distress were only symptoms.’

WLR Daily, 4th December 2015

Source: www.iclr.co.uk

Intentional infliction of harm in tort law – OUP Blog

Posted December 14th, 2015 in compensation, damages, news, personal injuries, psychiatric damage by sally

‘The tort of intentional infliction of harm would seem to encapsulate a basic moral principle – that if you injure someone intentionally and without just cause or excuse, then you should be liable for the commission of a tort – in addition to any crime that you commit. Occasionally, judges have held that there is such a principle, which is of general application: eg, Bowen LJ in Mogul Steamship v McGregor Gow & Co (1889). While this principle is now uncontroversial in cases of the intended infliction of physical harm (see Bird v Holbrook [1828]), the position has been unclear in so far as it concerns the causation of psychiatric harm. The most important case on intended infliction of psychiatric harm (IIPH) was Wilkinson v Downton (1897). But that case has long been doubted because the defendant had been playing a practical joke upon the claimant, telling her that her husband had been involved in an accident and was lying ‘smashed up’ at Leytonstone. Wright J could find no actual intention to harm, but held that an imputed intention to harm was sufficient to create liability.’

Full story

OUP Blog, 14th December 2015

Source: www.blog.oup.com

Disrepair miscellany: Good, bad and ugly – Nearly Legal

Posted December 14th, 2015 in appeals, damages, housing, landlord & tenant, local government, news, repairs by sally

‘Perhaps illustrating the need for the Court of Appeal to deliver the judgment in Moorjani (see preceding post), the December 2015 issue of Legal Action has Beatrice Prevatt’s excellent annual “housing repairs update”. We have covered many of the cases noted in the update already, but there are some county court cases unreported elsewhere, remarkably this time including some Councils taking cases to trial. As ever, our thanks to Beatrice Prevatt and Legal Action.’

Full story

Nearly Legal, 13th December 2015

Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk

Phone hacking: 10 years of resignations, cover-ups and convictions – The Guardian

‘It began in December 2005 when the Metropolitan police started an investigation into the hacking of Prince William’s phone and has ended exactly 10 years later. In the intervening period, hundreds lost their jobs and many more reputations were both shredded and made, mainly on the legal benches.’

Full story

The Guardian, 11th December 2015

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Serious Personal Injury Litigation – A Quantum Update – Byrom Chambers

‘We are now bombarded with case reports by email and over the Internet. The reporting of 1st instance quantum decisions used to be a comparative rarity before 1992 and the PIQR. Even then there was a time lag in publication and many decisions were never covered. On one level, we are immensely fortunate now to be able to discern how the best counsel and 1st instance judges set about their respective tasks in serious personal injuries litigation; but with that opportunity comes the obligation on the serious practitioner to take the time really to get to grips with the lengthy judgments. It is not easy. This paper, evolving since the autumn of 2007, is an exercise in the on-going fulfilment of that obligation.’

Full story

Byrom Chambers, 7th December 2015

Source: www.byromstreet.com

“Sexting” damages case: the legal issues – Halsbury’s Law Exchange

‘The award of damages to a victim of ‘sexting’ grabbed the attention of the media on at the beginning of December 2015. Given that the judgment appears to have been delivered in September 2015, it isn’t clear why it had not made it in to the news until this week, but such is the way of the media sometimes.’

Full story

Halsbury’s Law Exchange, 3rd December 2015

Source: www.halsburyslawexchange.co.uk

Defence of tender before claim – Law Society’s Gazette

Posted November 30th, 2015 in civil procedure rules, damages, defences, news, payment into court by sally

‘The common law defence of tender before claim is a defence that, before the claimant commenced court proceedings, the defendant had unconditionally offered the amount due to the claimant.’

Full story

Law Society’s Gazette, 30th November 2015

Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk