Controlling the Controllables - the importance of risk assessments

Cleveland Fire Authority recently pleaded guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety At Work Act 1974 after the Health and Safety Executive found that they had not assessed the risks posed by a training exercise in which a firefighter sustained significant injuries to his legs.

The crew were engaged in a training exercise and setting up a simulated road traffic collision in which the vehicle was on its roof. In the process of moving the vehicle into position, the vehicle fell onto the firefighter causing several fractures to his legs and feet.

Litigation Risks in Renewable Energy

When American Scientist Charles F Brush invented the first turbine to harness the power of the wind to generate electricity, he might not quite have appreciated that, over 130 years later, hundreds of migratory birds would meet their doom by absent-mindedly piling into the blades of modern iterations of his machine.

Workplace COVID, Inquest ruling and implications for civil claims

Whilst UK citizens have largely sought to move forward and live with Covid, by putting the control measures that were in place during the pandemic period between 2020 to 2021 behind them, an Inquest finding has brought home the reality of the efforts made by front line employees during this unprecedented episode.

As reported in The Law Society Gazette1 (20/1/23), a Senior Coroner at a recent Inquest in South Wales has concluded that two nurses who were exposed to and who went on to contract the Covid-19 virus, died as a result of "industrial disease."

What impact does the coroner’s finding have for potential Covid claims ?

As Ridwaan and Lucy helpfully outline in the previous article, it is the coroner’s duty to establish how the deceased involved died and not to attribute liability.

Court of Appeal hold that section 20 voluntary accommodation agreements can be used for established long-term placements

The Court of Appeal has granted two appeals allowing children to be voluntarily accommodated under Section 20 of the Children Act 1989 on a long-term basis, where the placement and care plan are supported by the children’s parents.

In Re S (a child) and Re W (a child) [2023] EWCA Civ 1, Lady Justice King, with whom Lord Justice Warby and Lord Justice Arnold agreed, deliberated whether and in what situations, the threshold criteria having been proven and there being in place an agreed care plan, the Court should decline to make an order under Section 31 Children Act 1989 in accordance with the 'no order' principle.

Mixed Injury Claims - Court of Appeal offers (limited) guidance

The motor claims handling world was waiting anxiously for the decision in Rabot v Hassam: Briggs v Laditan and APIL and MASS (Interveners)(2023) EWCA Civ 19 which was handed down this week. But it has not provided the clear guidance that the motor claims world wanted.

The basic principle in assessing general damages for pain and suffering and loss of amenity (PSLA) in personal injury claims is to return the claimant to the position they would have been in had they not been injured. There is often an overlap in symptoms when multiple injuries are sustained, such that a simple valuation of each injury, followed by then aggregating them might not result in the correct level of compensation. As such it was established in the case of Sadler v Filipiak in 2011 that the court should stand back once injuries have been valued and check the overall total sum and assess if it should be adjusted up or down.

The Civil Liability Act 2018 (the 2018 Act) introduced a tariff for general damages for PSLA for whiplash injuries, but the problem the Court of Appeal was addressing was how to deal with calculating overall damages for PSLA in a claim where there are both fixed tariff injuries as well as other non-tariff injuries sustained by a claimant in a motor accident, and an overlap of symptoms concurrently caused by both the tariff and non-tariff injuries.