header-logo header-logo

Full compensation & the discount rate (Pt 2)

13 October 2017 / Julian Chamberlayne
Issue: 7765 / Categories: Features , Personal injury
printer mail-detail
nlj_7765_chamberlayne

Julian Chamberlayne discusses the factors that need to be considered when setting the new discount rate

 

  • Longevity, prices and earnings inflation all compound the investment risk that claimants face under the MoJ’s planned change to setting the discount rate.

On 7 September 2017, the Lord Chancellor, David Liddington, laid draft legislation before Parliament incorporating a proposed new methodology for setting the discount rate by which future losses for those with long-term injuries will be compensated. In the first of this two-part series I considered what proportion of seriously injured claimants should we as a society be prepared to accept will be under compensated while still claiming to maintain a framework of laws that provide for 100% compensation. Here, I look at some of the key factors beyond investment risk that ought to be considered by the Lord Chancellor when setting the new rate.

The Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ’s) new methodology is said to be based on how claimants actually invest, derived from evidence gathered during the consultation. However,

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

FOIL—Bridget Tatham

FOIL—Bridget Tatham

Forum of Insurance Lawyers elects president for 2026

Gibson Dunn—Robbie Sinclair

Gibson Dunn—Robbie Sinclair

Partner joinslabour and employment practice in London

Muckle LLP—Ella Johnson

Muckle LLP—Ella Johnson

Real estate dispute resolution team welcomes newly qualified solicitor

NEWS
Solicitors are installing panic buttons and thumb print scanners due to ‘systemic and rising’ intimidation including death and arson threats from clients
Ministers’ decision to scrap plans for their Labour manifesto pledge of day one protection from unfair dismissal was entirely predictable, employment lawyers have said
Michael Zander KC, emeritus professor at LSE, revisits his long-forgotten Crown Court Study (1993), which surveyed 22,000 participants across 3,000 cases, in the first of a two-part series for NLJ
Getty Images v Stability AI Ltd [2025] EWHC 2863 (Ch) was a landmark test of how UK law applies to AI training—but does it leave key questions unanswered, asks Emma Kennaugh-Gallagher of Mewburn Ellis in NLJ this week
Cryptocurrency is reshaping financial remedy cases, warns Robert Webster of Maguire Family Law in NLJ this week. Digital assets—concealable, volatile and hard to trace—are fuelling suspicions of hidden wealth, yet Form E still lacks a section for crypto-disclosure
back-to-top-scroll