The Practical Lawyer

An expert witness undoubtedly owes a duty of care to the client (who is instructing the expert), and there is an overriding duty to the court. But, there is no duty to the opposing party. However, CPR entitles a party to apply for costs against a non-party – which then raises the question of whether that power could be used against the other side’s expert.

Suppose an employer is sued on the basis of vicarious liability for the behaviour of an employee. If the employer settles that claim without the consent of the employee, is that a potential breach of the duty of implied trust and confidence between employer and employee?

In January, the MIB published a new Untraced Drivers Agreement, and a revised version of its Uninsured Drivers Agreement, with the changes coming into effect on 1 March 2017.

There has been much publicity about the reduction in the discount rate to -0.75%. The change came into force on 20 March 2017. As a note from Stephen Gold put it: ‘withdrawn any claimant CPR Part 36 offers lately?’ [2017] LJ 10 March 17.

For all accidents occurring after January 2009, Rome II sets out which country’s laws should apply (ie the ‘applicable law’). Clause 4 sets out three principles:

One of the most important personal injury cases of 2016 was Broadhurst [2016] in which the CA decided that Part 36 trumps the fixed costs regime (in Part 45). Previously, defendants had argued that claims begun in the portal should only get fixed costs – whatever the outcome. Since that decision we can see a much greater use of Part 36 offers by claimants, and a greater willingness by defendants to take those offers seriously. In simple terms, a claimant who beats an earlier Part 36 offer at trial will normally get indemnity costs, which are likely to be several times more than the fixed costs that would otherwise have been available.

The CA has confirmed that a highway authority’s lack of resources is irrelevant when considering its defence under s58 HA 1980.

It is not uncommon in highway cases for the frequency of inspections to be challenged by a claimant who says the highway ought to have been inspected monthly, but with the highway authority having only done so every three months. If the court decides that a monthly inspection was required, then the s58 ‘reasonable care’ defence is unlikely to be available to the highway authority.

A holiday maker was raped by an employee in an Indian hotel, so she sued the tour operator that had organised the package holiday.

There are relatively few examples of successfully establishing negligence following a horse accident. Such cases are notoriously difficult to win, with the risk of injury being viewed by many as inherent in riding.