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14 March 2019 / Vijay Ganapathy
Issue: 7832 / Categories: Features , Personal injury , Procedure & practice
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Getting it right by playing by the rules

Vijay Ganapathy provides an update on the importance of procedure and practice in and out of court

  • Applying the three-stage test in Denton v White.
  • Should a defendant be allowed to rely on statistical life expectancy expert evidence?
  • Carey v Vauxhall Motors Limited—the first English court decision in a secondary exposure case.

So far this year we have seen the courts addressing a variety of issues. Starting with procedure, an issue that keeps coming back to the courts for consideration is the sanctions that ought to be applied when a party fails to comply with court orders, rules or practice directions.

Denton v TH White Ltd [2014] EWCA Civ 906, [2015] 1 All ER 880 sets out the three-stage test for considering when such a party should be granted relief from sanctions. This test requires consideration of the following: the ‘seriousness or significance’ of the breach; whether a ‘good reason’ has been demonstrated for this; and ‘all the circumstances of the case’, which in

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NEWS
Children can claim for ‘lost years’ damages in personal injury cases, the Supreme Court has held in a landmark judgment
The cab-rank rule remains a bulwark of the rule of law, yet lawyers are increasingly judged by their clients’ causes. Writing in NLJ this week, Ian McDougall, president of the LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation, warns that conflating representation with endorsement is a ‘clear and present danger’
Holiday lets may promise easy returns, but restrictive covenants can swiftly scupper plans. Writing in NLJ this week, Andrew Francis of Serle Court recounts how covenants limiting use to a ‘private dwelling house’ or ‘private residence’ have repeatedly defeated short-term letting schemes
Artificial intelligence (AI) is already embedded in the civil courts, but regulation lags behind practice. Writing in NLJ this week, Ben Roe of Baker McKenzie charts a landscape where AI assists with transcription, case management and document handling, yet raises acute concerns over evidence, advocacy and even judgment-writing
The Supreme Court has drawn a firm line under branding creativity in regulated markets. In Dairy UK Ltd v Oatly AB, it ruled that Oatly’s ‘post-milk generation’ trade mark unlawfully deployed a protected dairy designation. In NLJ this week, Asima Rana of DWF explains that the court prioritised ‘regulatory clarity over creative branding choices’, holding that ‘designation’ extends beyond product names to marketing slogans
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