Losing out on the lost years

• Argues that child claimants should be able to recover damages for loss of earnings (lost years).

Few aspects of the law relating to damages for serious personal injury have caused as much confusion and are as poorly understood as claims for ‘lost years’. In such cases, damages are awarded to a living claimant whose life has been shortened by a tort, for the loss of earnings in the time where, but for the tort they would have been alive. The law as it currently stands has evolved in an uncertain fashion, so that at present adult claimants are able to recover such damages while child claimants cannot. This situation is illogical to the degree that it verges on bringing the law into disrepute. Both the Court of Appeal and an increasing number of High Court decisions have lamented it, but the Supreme Court has yet to have an opportunity to consider the