High School Fined Over Child's Locker Death - HSE Pleads for Urgent Review of Equipment on School Premises

A secondary school in Chelmsford has been fined £16,700 and ordered to pay costs of £12,000 following an accident that saw an unsecured locker unit fall and fatally injure a young boy.

Chelmsford Magistrates' Court heard that on 23 May 2019, nine-year-old Leo Latifi had been attending an after-school swimming lesson at the sports centre of Great Baddow High School in Chelmsford, Essex.

Forbes at Trial - Lynn O'Hanlon v Bury Council 

Claimant fails to persuade judge of adverse weather conditions

Forbes recently successfully defended a claim brought by a claimant under the Occupiers' Liability Act 1957. She said that she had slipped on the steps of a Council building that was hired out for a wedding and that the defendant council had not discharged its duty to her as a visitor to see that she was safe in using the premises. 

Forbes at Trial - Was a depression in block paving a danger?

The judgment in this tripping claim showed the importance of accurate measurements when defending tripping on the highway claims.

The claimant brought a claim as a result of allegedly stumbling and falling due to a depression in block paving on a pavement.

Ofsted Rapid Review into safeguarding and the new inspection criteria for Sept 2021

As readers will know, Ofsted was asked by the UK government to carry out a rapid review of sexual abuse handling in schools and colleges following mounting concerns about student and staff welfare, highlighted by large-scale disclosures on the 'Everyone's Invited' website.

Voluntary accommodation of a child and the common law: YXA v Wolverhampton CC 2021 EWHC 1444 (QB) 28 Jul 2021 - Article from Forbes Solicitors

YXA v Wolverhampton follows HXA v Surrey CC and DFX v Coventry and further examines the duty of care owed to children in a social care context. All three have been determined in favour of the Local Authority in question.

The detailed exposition of caselaw in YXA is important as it carefully examines the extent of common law liability in circumstances where a Local Authority actively takes steps to improve a child's welfare by arranging short periods of Local Authority arranged accommodation with parental consent pursuant to s20 Children Act 1989. 

Are Claimants Limited to Fixed costs in Portal Claims where settlements are in excess of £25,000?

CPR Part 45 section IIIA provides that claims which are initially submitted to the MOJ protocol but then exit the process are subject to fixed costs.

This remains the case even if settlement is agreed in excess of £25,000 provided the matter has not been allocated to the multi-track as made clear in the landmark decision in Qadar & Ors v Esure Services [2016].

Forbes at Trial - Claimant's roller coaster evidence fails to establish his claim

Forbes recently successfully defended a claim brought against our client, Brean Theme Park. The claimant was employed as a ride operator and was working on a roller coaster when he said his accident occurred. He alleged that he was required to slow the ride carts down by hand to stop them crashing into each other at the end of the ride, and that whilst doing so he fell through a gap in the platform he was standing on that was next to the rails that the roller coaster ran on.

As of 1 March we will centralising our post systems

Our new PO Box number is 686, Blackburn BB2 9QY

and our DX is 17952, Blackburn 1

Please only use these numbers going forward.