Personal injury update

PERIODICAL PAYMENTS

In Lee Thompstone v Tameside & Glossop Acute Services NHS Trust [2006] EWHC 2904 (QB), [2006] All ER (D) 333 (Nov) the court was asked to determine the most appropriate index to be applied.

The claimant, aged seven at the date of judgment, was a sufferer of spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy. Both parties agreed this was as a result of anoxia at birth. The NHS trust admitted liability and causation, leaving only quantum to be determined.

Although the amount and cost of future care Thompstone would need over the course of his lifetime had been determined at a previous hearing, no agreement could be reached about the proper form of award. Mr Justice Swift was asked to decide whether an order for periodical payments in respect of the costs of future care should be varied either by reference to the retail price index (RPI), pursuant to s 2(8) of the Damages Act 1996 (DA 1996), or whether pursuant to s 2(9) the order should