A foreign affair

• What evidence is needed in practice to assess a claim for personal injury damages under a foreign applicable law?
• How should you go about gathering this evidence in a foreign applicable law case?

It is well over two years since the Court of Appeal gave judgment in Wall v Mutuelle de Poitiers [2014] EWCA Civ 138, [2014] 3 All ER 340, but questions remain as to the appropriate approach to obtaining expert evidence in English court proceedings for personal injury damages when a foreign applicable law applies under Article 4.1 of Rome II (Regulation (EC) No. 864/2007).

The decision in Wall v Mutuelle de Poitiers

Mr Wall sustained a serious spinal cord injury following a motorcycling accident in France. The parties could not agree on how expert evidence should be provided to the English court under Rome II. Mr Wall argued for the plethora of experts (10 in total) one would