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Hitting the headlines

17 April 2015 / Mark Solon
Issue: 7648 / Categories: Features , Expert Witness , Profession
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Mark Solon provides a whiplash update

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) continues its crusade to curb the country’s alleged compensation culture and rid the UK of its title of the whiplash capital of Europe by implementing the second part of its “whiplash reform programme” last month.

Meanwhile, the soft-tissue injury has had the Hollywood treatment. It has become a BAFTA-winning film about a college drummer and his ferocious conductor and infamous pop legend Madonna told Jonathan Ross that she had suffered the condition after a wardrobe malfunction that caused her to tumble while performing at the Brit Awards.

The government’s long-awaited reforms, introduced on 6 April, are far less entertaining. They follow a four-week consultation last autumn, and mean that all medical reports in whiplash claims will now have to be commissioned through a single online portal ( www.medco.org.uk ).

Medical experts must be fully trained and registered with the company behind the hub, MedCo Registration Solutions, in order to provide £180 fixed fee medical reports. They are required to pay an

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Slater Heelis—Chester office

Slater Heelis—Chester office

North West presence strengthened with Chester office launch

Cooke, Young & Keidan—Elizabeth Meade

Cooke, Young & Keidan—Elizabeth Meade

Firm grows commercial disputes expertise with partner promotion

CBI South-East Council—Mike Wilson

CBI South-East Council—Mike Wilson

Blake Morgan managing partner appointed chair of CBI South-East Council

NEWS
The House of Lords has set up a select committee to examine assisted dying, which will delay the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
The proposed £11bn redress scheme following the Supreme Court’s motor finance rulings is analysed in this week’s NLJ by Fred Philpott of Gough Square Chambers
In this week's issue, Stephen Gold, NLJ columnist and former district judge, surveys another eclectic fortnight in procedure. With humour and humanity, he reminds readers that beneath the procedural dust, the law still changes lives
Generative AI isn’t the villain of the courtroom—it’s the misunderstanding of it that’s dangerous, argues Dr Alan Ma of Birmingham City University and the Birmingham Law Society in this week's NLJ
James Naylor of Naylor Solicitors dissects the government’s plan to outlaw upward-only rent review (UORR) clauses in new commercial leases under Schedule 31 of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, in this week's NLJ. The reform, he explains, marks a seismic shift in landlord-tenant power dynamics: rents will no longer rise inexorably, and tenants gain statutory caps and procedural rights
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