Author: Imogen Hildred

R (Chidlow) v HM Coroner for Blackpool and Fylde & Others [2019] EWHC 581 (Admin) Human bodies being such complex things it is unsurprising medical causation is often extremely complicated. Legal causation of medical injury is a minefield for clinical negligence lawyers to navigate: “indivisible injuries”, “multifactorial causation”, “material contribution”, “loss of a chance”, etc. […]

Read More… from Considering the Consequences of Delay when Cause of Death is Unknown:

The case is (to my knowledge) the first reported clinical negligence claim arising from the well known Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board[2015] AC 1430 principles since last year’s Duce v Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust[2018] EWCA Civ 1307 and Khan v MNX[2018] EWCA 2609, and provides a useful illustration of the complexities of factual causation […]

Read More… from Advice on medication, Montgomery and causation: Hazel Kennedy v Dr Jonathan Frankel [2019] EWHC (QB)

The Claimant – a Consultant Radiologist – jumped from a balcony in an apparent suicide attempt and sustained serious injuries. He is now confined to a wheelchair. He alleged being let down by a number of psychiatric practitioners who, he said, had failed to admit him to hospital when he should have been admitted in […]

Read More… from Assessing lay evidence: lessons learnt from Owens -v-South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

The Court of Appeal in XX v Whittington Hospital NHS Trust [2018] EWCA Civ 2832 has overturned the High Court’s decision ([2017] EWHC 2318 (QB)) by awarding damages to an infertile claimant for the costs of commercial surrogacy in California. The first instance decision In a previous blog post from September 2017 entitled ‘Surrogacy: The […]

Read More… from Damages for the costs of commercial surrogacy: public policy is not rigid

When is a doctor responsible for losses suffered after they have given bad advice? According to the Court of Appeal, if the loss is “coincidental”, it’s not recoverable. On 23rd November 2018 the Court of Appeal handed down judgment in the case of MNX v Khan [2018] in which it considered the extent to which […]

Read More… from Scope of the duty – Avoiding the avalanche