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14 May 2009 / Helen Wolstenholme
Issue: 7369 / Categories: Features , Personal injury
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Accidental malice

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

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

WSP Solicitors—David Ashcroft & Jessica O’Shea

WSP Solicitors—David Ashcroft & Jessica O’Shea

Commercial property and child law teams expand with senior hires

Duxton Hill Chambers—Lucas Bastin KC & Joshua Hiew

Duxton Hill Chambers—Lucas Bastin KC & Joshua Hiew

Set expands London and Singapore offering with senior international disputes hires

Gilson Gray—Gregor Duthie & Stephen Forsyth

Gilson Gray—Gregor Duthie & Stephen Forsyth

Firm strengthens real estate and litigation teams with partner promotions

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Uber has built a formidable strategy for insulating itself from liability for drivers’ conduct, but the legal terrain differs sharply between the US and England and Wales
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The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2026 marks a constitutional watershed by severing the centuries-old link between hereditary titles and automatic membership of the upper chamber
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