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15 February 2013 / Nicholas Bevan
Issue: 7548 / Categories: Features , Insurance / reinsurance , Personal injury
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On the right road? (Pt III)

Nicholas Bevan explains why national law shouldn’t be permitted to undermine the effectiveness of Community law

Uninsured drivers are an unpleasant hazard of modern life. Not only are they statistically more prone to accidents, but their inconsiderate approach to insurance puts their victims in jeopardy of being denied their compensatory entitlement.

We have seen from the first two articles in this series, highlighting how the government is failing to compensate RTA victims, that the primary source of law in this area of practice are the six Motor Vehicle Insurance Directives (MVID) and the European Court of Justice (ECJ) rulings that interpret and apply them (see NLJ, 1 February 2013, p 94 and NLJ, 8 February 2013, p 130).

The first MVID was adopted by the Community and became law in 1972. The last consolidating MVID was adopted in 2009. Both the MVIDs and the ECJ rulings have precedence over both our national legislature and judiciary. Between them, they serve as a blueprint to enable the UK to transpose

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Thackray Williams—Lucy Zhu

Thackray Williams—Lucy Zhu

Dual-qualified partner joins as head of commercial property department

Morgan Lewis—David A. McManus

Morgan Lewis—David A. McManus

Firm announces appointment of next chair

Burges Salmon—Rebecca Wilsker

Burges Salmon—Rebecca Wilsker

Director joins corporate team from the US

NEWS
What safeguards apply when trust corporations are appointed as deputy by the Court of Protection? 
Disputing parties are expected to take part in alternative dispute resolution (ADR), where this is suitable for their case. At what point, however, does refusing to participate cross the threshold of ‘unreasonable’ and attract adverse costs consequences?
When it comes to free legal advice, demand massively outweighs supply. 'Millions of people are excluded from access to justice as they don’t have anywhere to turn for free advice—or don’t know that they can ask for help,' Bhavini Bhatt, development director at the Access to Justice Foundation, writes in this week's NLJ
When an ex-couple is deciding who gets what in the divorce or civil partnership dissolution, when is it appropriate for a third party to intervene? David Burrows, NLJ columnist and solicitor advocate, considers this thorny issue in this week’s NLJ
NLJ's latest Charities Appeals Supplement has been published in this week’s issue
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