Rural crime in Britain hits seven-year high – The Guardian

Posted August 5th, 2019 in agriculture, gangs, insurance, news, statistics, theft by tracey

‘Rural crime has hit a seven-year high, costing the UK £50m in 2018, a report says. In its annual study of offences against farmers and rural businesses, the insurer NFU Mutual found rural crime in 2018 was up 12% on the previous year.’

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The Guardian, 5th August 2019

Source: www.theguardian.com

CA ruling on ATE and proportionality “a victory for access to justice” – Litigation Futures

Posted July 19th, 2019 in costs, insurance, news, proportionality by tracey

‘Yesterday’s Court of Appeal decision on proportionality and the recovery of after-the-event (ATE) insurance premiums was “a triumph for access to justice”, according to the insurer whose policy was under scrutiny.’

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Litigation Futures, 18th July 2019

Source: www.litigationfutures.com

Gauke sets new discount rate at -0.25% – Litigation Futures

Posted July 15th, 2019 in compensation, indexation, insurance, interest, news, personal injuries by tracey

‘Lord Chancellor David Gauke announced this morning that he is to change the personal injury discount rate from -0.75% to -0.25%, a lower figure than was widely anticipated.’

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Litigation Futures, 15th July 2019

Source: www.litigationfutures.com

Case Comment: Sveriges Angfartygs Assurans Forening (The Swedish Club) and others v Connect Shipping Inc and another [2019] UKSC 29 – UKSC Blog

Posted July 11th, 2019 in insurance, news, repairs, shipping law, ships, Supreme Court by sally

‘John Butler is a senior associate in the insurance and reinsurance group at CMS, specialising in maritime disputes. John is dual-qualified in Hong Kong and England & Wales, and regularly acts for international clients in Hong Kong litigation and international arbitration, particularly in international trade disputes under charterparties, bills of lading, letters of credit and contracts of affreightment.’

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UKSC Blog, 10th July 2019

Source: ukscblog.com

Revealed: Children to be exempt from whiplash portal – for now – Legal Futures

‘Children and protected parties are to be exempt from the increase in the small claims limit and the new whiplash portal – at least for now – Legal Futures can reveal.’

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Legal Futures, 8th July 2019

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

Property damage “will be covered” by whiplash regime – Legal Futures

‘The whiplash portal for litigants in person will cover claims for property damage, in addition to personal injury and uninsured losses, the Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB) has confirmed.’

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Legal Futures, 2nd July 2019

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

Anger with MoJ over whiplash reforms begins to boil over – Legal Futures

‘Both the claimant and defendant representatives have expressed frustration with the progress of the government’s whiplash reforms, and doubted it will be ready for April 2020 as planned.’

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Legal Futures, 26th June 2019

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

Insurers agree to be bound by ADR in new whiplash system – Legal Futures

‘Defendant insurers have agreed to be bound by the outcome of the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) process being built into the new whiplash system, it has emerged.’

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Legal Futures, 13th June 2019

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

A missed opportunity – Haberdashers and subrogation – Practical Law: Construction Blog

Posted June 11th, 2019 in construction industry, contracts, insurance, news by tracey

‘Earlier this year I found myself waiting for the Court of Appeal to bring the next instalment in a series of interesting decisions regarding subrogation claims in insurance disputes (not a contradiction in terms, I promise!), which I and my colleague John have been taking it in turns to blog about (see Joint insurance and rights of subrogation revisited and Co-insurance and subrogation rights revisited (again!)). Unfortunately (though perhaps not for those involved) the case in question (Haberdashers‘ Aske’s Federation Trust Ltd v Lakehouse Contracts Ltd and others) settled. But it feels as though there’s been a missed opportunity to answer a question that was left entirely open in Gard Marine and Energy Ltd v China National Chartering Company Ltd: where there is a co-insurance policy in place and a sub-contractor causes loss, if the co-insurance policy (for whatever reason) does not cover the sub-contractor, can the insurer bring a subrogated claim against the sub-contractor or, does it first have to prove the sub-contractor is liable for the loss?’

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Practical Law: Construction Blog, 11th June 2019

Source: constructionblog.practicallaw.com

‘Spiking’ of mesothelioma reinsurance claims not permitted – OUT-LAW.com

‘Insurers are not permitted to “spike” mesothelioma-related reinsurance claims arising under employers’ liability policies, the The Court of Appeal in the UK has ruled.’

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OUT-LAW.com, 6th June 2019

Source: www.out-law.com

MIB has to pay out for injury suffered on private land, says CA – Litigation Futures

‘The Court of Appeal has upheld a ruling that the Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB) has to pay compensation to a man injured by an uninsured vehicle, even though it was on private land.’

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Litigation Futures, 5th June 2019

Source: www.litigationfutures.com

Graduate gets £60k payout over ‘false advertising’ claim – BBC News

Posted June 4th, 2019 in advertising, compensation, insurance, negligence, news, solicitors, universities by sally

‘A graduate who sued her university over her “Mickey Mouse” degree has received a £60,000 out-of-court settlement.’

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BBC News, 2nd June 2019

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Financial regulators focus on climate change risk – OUT-LAW.com

‘In early May the UK government became the first in the world to declare an environment and climate change emergency. The impact of climate change will affect every aspect of daily life, and generates a number of significant financial risks.’

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OUT-LAW.com, 21st May 2019

Source: www.out-law.com

Judge spikes PI claim from ‘disabled’ victim over fundamental dishonesty – Law Society’s Gazette

‘The High Court has thrown out a personal injury claim – without letting the case go to full quantum trial – after the litigant presented an ‘egregiously untrue picture’ of his disabilities.’

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Law Society's Gazette, 16th May 2019

Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk

Barristers can act as deputies, Court of Protection rules – Legal Futures

‘Barristers can act as professional property and affairs deputies for people who lack mental capacity, although it is not seen as a legal service, the Court of Protection has ruled.’

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Legal Futures, 26th April 2019

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

CFA success fees abolished in privacy & defamation cases – Panopticon

Posted April 9th, 2019 in costs, defamation, fees, insurance, news, privacy by sally

‘So after many of months of GDPR-related anguish, finally some good news for data controllers: with effect from last Saturday (6th April), conditional fee agreement (CFA) success fees will no longer be recoverable from defendants in privacy or defamation proceedings, at least where the relevant CFA was entered into after 5 April.’

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Panopticon, 8th April 2019

Source: panopticonblog.com

CA upholds challenge to routine 100% success fee in low-value PI – Litigation Futures

‘Solicitors handling low-value personal injury claims since LASPO should have undertaken risk assessments before setting success fees – rather than just applying 100% across the board – the Court of Appeal has ruled.’

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Litigation Futures, 3rd April 2019

Source: www.litigationfutures.com

Solicitors can recover VAT on full MRO fee, says appeal court – Litigation Futures

‘A solicitor does not have to investigate whether a medical reporting organisation (MRO) is right to charge VAT on the whole of its bill, the Court of Appeal has ruled in a case that it said affected “thousands” of others.’

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Litigation Futures, 3rd April 2019

Source: www.litigationfutures.com

Cameron (Respondent) v Liverpool Victoria Insurance Co Limited (Appellant) – 39 Essex Chambers

‘The Supreme Court has unanimously held in Cameron v Liverpool Victoria Insurance Co Ltd that the driver of a car, who was not anonymous but could not just be identified, cannot be sued under a pseudonym or description.’

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39 Essex Chambers, 21st February 2019

Source: www.39essex.com

Bungled Litigation and Costs – 4 New Square

Posted March 12th, 2019 in costs, damages, fees, insurance, negligence, news by sally

‘In principle, costs and funding should be taken into account when determining the value of litigation which has been lost by lawyers’ negligence. The Courts by and large purport to do this,[1] but the reported cases mostly do not do so adequately, and as a result considerably overvalue lost claims. I will attempt in this paper to show why, backed up by some simple calculations. In particular, the possibility of losing any trial makes a very great impact on the value of a claim.’

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4 New Square, 28th February 2019

Source: www.4newsquare.com