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20 February 2013 / Dominic Regan
Issue: 7549 / Categories: Opinion , Personal injury
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Keep your chin up

Dominic Regan remains optimistic about the future of injury litigation

The depressing news that a greatly respected major claimant road traffic firm was consulting upon mass redundancies no doubt confirmed the anxious fears of many. While it is as obvious as it is inevitable that claimant injury practices are going to be squeezed, it is by no means the end of the world for a variety of reasons.

Good news

I was elated to learn that the futile extension of the portal regime, so as to embrace employers’ liability (EL) claims, has been postponed. If wisdom prevails it will be quietly abandoned. It is wrong on so many fronts. There is no database of insurers as in road traffic accidents (RTAs) and the law can be mightily complex. I see no benefit in constructing an expensive and elaborate portal in an area where the majority of cases supposedly caught will exit. Since the simple RTA portal loses about 50% of cases I would anticipate that at least 80% of EL matters would

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Freeths—Rachel Crosier

Freeths—Rachel Crosier

Projects and rail practices strengthened by director hire in London

DWF—Stephen Hickling

DWF—Stephen Hickling

Real estate team in Birmingham welcomes back returning partner

Ward Hadaway—44 appointments

Ward Hadaway—44 appointments

Firm invests in national growth with 44 appointments across five offices

NEWS
Criminal juries may be convicting—or acquitting—on a misunderstanding. Writing in NLJ this week Paul McKeown, Adrian Keane and Sally Stares of The City Law School and LSE report troubling survey findings on the meaning of ‘sure’
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has narrowly preserved a key weapon in its anti-corruption arsenal. In this week's NLJ, Jonathan Fisher KC of Red Lion Chambers examines Guralp Systems Ltd v SFO, in which the High Court ruled that a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) remained in force despite the company’s failure to disgorge £2m by the stated deadline
As the drip-feed of Epstein disclosures fuels ‘collateral damage’, the rush to cry misconduct in public office may be premature. Writing in NLJ this week, David Locke of Hill Dickinson warns that the offence is no catch-all for political embarrassment. It demands a ‘grave departure’ from proper standards, an ‘abuse of the public’s trust’ and conduct ‘sufficiently serious to warrant criminal punishment’
Employment law is shifting at the margins. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ this week, Ian Smith of Norwich Law School examines a Court of Appeal ruling confirming that volunteers are not a special legal species and may qualify as ‘workers’
Refusing ADR is risky—but not always fatal. Writing in NLJ this week, Masood Ahmed and Sanjay Dave Singh of the University of Leicester analyse Assensus Ltd v Wirsol Energy Ltd: despite repeated invitations to mediate, the defendant stood firm, made a £100,000 Part 36 offer and was ultimately ‘wholly vindicated’ at trial
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