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Accidental malice

14 May 2009 / Helen Wolstenholme
Issue: 7369 / Categories: Features , Personal injury
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Helen Wolstenholme reports on genuine accidents & deliberate contempt

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April was a good month for defendant personal injury practitioners:

      
      ●     The Court of Appeal gave judgment in favour of the defendant to a personal injury claim in two cases where the key issue was the standard of care owed by one individual to another; and

      
      ●     in an unusual case and the first of its kind, an individual was found to be in contempt of court as a result of false statements which she had made during the course of personal injury proceedings which had been compromised after the disclosure of surveillance evidence.

In Orchard v Lee [2009] EWCA Civ 295, Mrs Orchard appealed against a decision of HHJ Iain Hughes QC, sitting at Poole County Court, dismissing her claim for personal injury against a 13-year-old schoolboy. Mrs Orchard was a lunchtime supervisor at the school, and was injured when the boy was playing tag with another boy and ran backwards into her. The accident happened

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Hugh James—Phil Edwards

Hugh James—Phil Edwards

Serious injury teambolstered by high-profile partner hire

Freeths—Melanie Stancliffe

Freeths—Melanie Stancliffe

Firm strengthens employment team with partner hire

DAC Beachcroft—Tim Barr

DAC Beachcroft—Tim Barr

Lawyers’ liability practice strengthened with partner appointment in London

NEWS
Tech companies will be legally required to prevent material that encourages or assists serious self-harm appearing on their platforms, under Online Safety Act 2023 regulations due to come into force in the autumn
Commercial leasehold, the defence of insanity and ‘consent’ in the criminal law are among the next tranche of projects for the Law Commission
The Bar has a culture of ‘impunity’ and ‘collusive bystanding’ in which making a complaint is deemed career-ending due to a ‘cohort of untouchables’ at the top, Baroness Harriet Harman KC has found
Lawyers have broadly welcomed plans to electronically tag up to 22,000 more offenders, scrap most prison terms below a year and make prisoners ‘earn’ early release
The ex-wife of a Russian billionaire has won her bid to bring her financial relief claim in London, in a unanimous Court of Appeal decision
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