The majority of appeals in contributory negligence cases focus on what the appropriate discount should be, despite judicial guidance that this is a matter of discretion for the court.
According to an Oxford University study of contributory negligence in the Court of Appeal, “Contributory negligence in the twenty first century”, conducted by James Goudkamp and Donal Nolan, 56% of Court of Appeal cases are on the appropriate discount while 46% are on whether the claimant was guilty of contributory negligence.
Writing in NLJ this week, Goudkamp and Nolan say: “This finding is noteworthy because the judicial guidance in this context emphasises that apportionment in cases of contributory negligence is a highly discretionary exercise and that appellate courts should be particularly slow to intervene on this issue.”
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