In a ruling which serves as a reminder that employers are unlikely to be held vicariously liable for accidents that occur as a result of workers' frivolous behaviour, a car repair company has fought off a six-figure compensation claim by one of its workers who was recklessly set on fire by a colleague as a shop [...]
A barrister who specialises in representing medical negligence victims was cursed by a similar fate to many of his clients when doctors made a catalogue of errors whilst operating to remove his appendix. He suffered long-term consequences, for which the High Court has awarded him more than £2 million in compensation. What should have been a [...]
The thought that friends or family members might be passing their later years in a care home which is unsafe is a disturbing one for anyone, so the recent announcement by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) that a care home in Hertfordshire has been fined £85,000 for a breach of the Health and Safety at [...]
A pedestrian who suffered fractures to her right ankle and knee when she tripped on the edge of a path has been awarded £30,000 in damages from her local authority. The 60-year-old woman had been visiting her elderly parents in council-owned sheltered accommodation. She had taken just two or three steps when she lost her footing [...]
The public interest in open justice has trumped individual privacy rights in a case in which lawyers sought to protect child beneficiaries of a very substantial family trust from the glare of publicity – which it was feared would undermine their security and expose them to 'false friends' interested only in their money. The creator of [...]
The basis on which stamp duty is charged is being changed in a move that will benefit most purchasers of property. The old system applied a single rate of stamp duty to the sale price, based on the value of the purchase. Because of the way in which this was tiered, it led to some creative [...]
When cohabiting couples break up, failure to have legal rights clearly laid down can often lead to a dispute, as a recent case illustrates. It involved a claim by a woman for a share in the value of the house she had occupied with her partner for ten years. The woman's ex-partner, a 'shrewd' businessman, insisted [...]
A pensioner who was paralysed owing to a rare spinal infection has won millions of pounds in compensation from the NHS because her suffering was made far worse by dreadful pressure sores she developed whilst being treated in hospital. The woman was in her 60s and enjoying an active life before she developed a spinal cord [...]
In a cautionary tale for those who care for elderly relatives, the heirs of a dementia sufferer are in danger of losing their inheritance after failing to convince a Land Registry Adjudicator that the value of the man's home should be protected against being eroded by care home charges built up during the final four years [...]
In a case which reveals that the law can work fast in coming to the aid of negligence victims, a pensioner who was left wheelchair dependent by a motorcycle accident will be able to move into a suitable home of his own after a judge awarded him a £500,000 down payment on the compensation due to [...]
