There has been a flurry of recent court decisions where judges have struck out personal injury claims on the basis of fundamental dishonesty in accordance with Section 57 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, which provides the court with the power to strike out the entirety of a claimant’s claim for fundamental dishonesty for cases issued post 13 April 2015.

Hill Dickinson is delighted that its national health practice was named Legal Services Provider of the Year, at the 2018 Health Service Journal Partnership Awards last night.

The Department of Health and Social Care has published a response to its consultation on introducing fixed recoverable costs in lower value clinical negligence claims, those worth £25,000 or less. The response sets out the next steps on the path to implementing these, including convening a Civil Justice Council working group on the subject. It is accompanied by a report by Nottingham University Business School Professor Paul Fenn, which includes his proposed fixed recoverable costs figures. Our partner and chair of the clinical negligence sector focus group for the Forum of Insurance Lawyers, Mike McKenna, reviews this development. 

The recent decision to erase Dr Bawa-Garba, a trainee paediatrician, has attracted significant attention, both in the mainstream and industry press. A number of clinicians have publically voiced their support for Dr Bawa-Garba and we understand that consideration is being given to appeal the High Court’s decision.

International commercial law firm Hill Dickinson continues to grow its national health practice with the recruitment of seven associates and a legal administration assistant to its London office in re

International commercial law firm Hill Dickinson is thrilled to announce that Kiran Bhogal, partner and head of healthcare - London, has been named in The Lawyer’s prestigious Hot 100 list for 2018.

The recent Court of Appeal decision in FB -v- Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust [2017] reviewed the standard of care the law ought to apply to junior doctors. Lord Justice Jackson states that it reflects an ‘imperfect compromise’, designed to achieve a balance between the interests of the patient (who may have played no part in the choice of their treating doctor) and fairness to the individual accused of negligence, bearing in mind the skills that they possess and what can reasonably be expected of them.

Hill Dickinson is proud to announce that its national health practice celebrated a double awards success at Wednesday's prestigious Eclipse Proclaim Personal Injury Awards, held at the Hilton Deansgate, Manchester.

In NHS 24 -v- Pillar UKEATS/0005/16/JW, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) decided that an employment tribunal was wrong to find a dismissal unfair because the investigation report included details of previous incidents which had not resulted in disciplinary proceedings. The EAT found that the tribunal's decision perverse given that the tribunal also decided that the dismissal was reasonable based on the information available to the dismissing officer, which included the details of the previous incidents.

A report entitled ‘Five years of cerebral palsy claims’ has been published by NHS Resolution. Its focus is on two important areas for improving practice:

Today has seen important developments in relation to the cost of clinical negligence claims, with the publication of a report from the National Audit Office and an announcement in relation to the mechanism for setting the discount rate used to calculate special damages.

During the summer, the National Audit Office is due to publish its report, ‘managing the cost of clinical negligence claims,’ focused on work undertaken by the Department of Health and NHS Resolution, formerly known as the NHS Litigation Authority.