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Personal Injury Update

11 October 2007
Issue: 7292 / Categories: Features , Personal injury
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CLAIM FOR DEPENDENCY >>
INTERPRETATION OF FAA 1976 >>
HARASSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE >>

FATAL ACCIDENTS: SETTLEMENT PRIOR TO DEATH A BAR TO RECOVERY

In Thompson v Arnold [2007] EWHC 1875, [2007] All ER (D) 38 (Aug) Mr Justice Langstaff, sitting in the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court, re-emphasised an important potential pitfall for those advising claimants whose injuries are such that they might lead to death in the near future.
It has been well established, since the case of Read v The Great Eastern Railway Company (1868) LR 3 QB 555, that a dependant will be precluded from pursuing a claim for dependency under the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 (FAA 1976) in circumstances where the deceased has settled his or her outstanding claim for damages against the defendant tortfeasor during his or her lifetime. This follows from the wording of the FAA 1976 which, by virtue of s 1(1), permits a dependant to maintain an action for damages under that act only if the deceased would (if death had not ensued) have been entitled to maintain

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Firm strengthens international funds capability with senior hire

Gilson Gray—Jeremy Davy

Gilson Gray—Jeremy Davy

Partner appointed as head of residential conveyancing for England

DR Solicitors—Paul Edels

DR Solicitors—Paul Edels

Specialist firm enhances corporate healthcare practice with partner appointment

NEWS
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
Writing in NLJ this week, James Harrison and Jenna Coad of Penningtons Manches Cooper chart the Privy Council’s demolition of the long-standing ‘shareholder rule’ in Jardine Strategic v Oasis Investments
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