News Category: PI Industry Articles

As expected, the Ministry of Justice published its consultation on the discount rate last week. Titled The Personal Injury Discount Rate – How it Should be Set in the Future, it contains 32 questions over more than 50 pages which require detailed answers, as well as a lengthy questionnaire seeking the respondent’s views on periodical […]

Since the announcement of a review, seven years ago no less, news of the Lord Chancellor’s decision to dramatically reduce the 2.5% discount rate down to -0.75%, still came as a surprise to many involved in personal injury litigation. Finally, we have a decision based upon the economic realities of investing damages in low/no-risk investments, […]

Today’s announcement by the Lord Chancellor of a very significant reduction in the discount rate from 2.5% to -0.75% will be reflected by greater awards of personal injury damages for future losses. The change will take effect from 20th March 2017. The sheer scale of the change can be illustrated by reference to Table 28 […]

Andrew Sands and Nick Leech, specialist financial advisers and directors of Nestor, discuss what is involved in setting an investment strategy, aimed at ensuring awards of damages last as intended. It is not entirely straightforward, but proper financial planning should commence pre-settlement and include consideration of personal injury trusts, where appropriate; and of course, periodical […]

I am an expert witness dealing with personal injury clients and their transport requirements.  I was recently instructed to visit a client; a young girl we will call “A”. A has four limb cerebral palsy and is reliant on others for all her daily needs; she is totally wheelchair dependant.  She lives at home with […]

Brexit is taking the blame for much that is negative in the news, often for political purposes. However, the result of the recent referendum may well have thrown into doubt, established case-law, and the ability of the Court to make an order for periodical payments in certain circumstances. Nick Leech and Andrew Sands, specialist financial […]

Andrew Sands and Nick Leech advocate greater use of periodical payments aided by case law, old and new.

A car accident resulted in Lauren Stacey losing her mother and suffering a brain injury that makes her life challenging

Consultant neuropsychiatrist, Dr Bruce Scheepers, has considerable experience in brain injury rehabilitation and currently works full-time providing expert medical opinions in personal injury and clinical negligence claims. His opinions are widely published in scientific journals and, here, he shares some insights into the difficulties of legally defining mental capacity. This article is available to read […]

Nigel Poole QC is head of Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence at Kings Chambers and a specialist in clinical negligence acting in a whole range of cases, from obstetric negligence resulting in cerebral palsy to delay in diagnosing cancer, from cosmetic surgery to cauda equina syndrome. At the Nestor/Kings Chambers Brain Injury Conference 2014, he […]