Supreme Court corrects injustice in fatal claims
- 09.03.2016
- JeremySmith
- Personal-injury, Opinion, Personal-injury, Opinion, Personal-injury, Opinion, Personal-injury, Opinion
In the tragic circumstances where someone has died as a result of an accident or act of clinical negligence, any dependent relative bringing a claim for the loss of the deceased person’s income or services has for many years had to suffer an injustice in the way their losses are calculated.
In two cases in 1979 and 1983 the House of Lords, who were then the highest court in the country, set a precedent that the multipliers, which are the arithmetical figures used to calculate the losses into the future, had to be taken from the date of death.
This was in contrast to the practice in all other claims where the multipliers were taken from the date of trial.
Claimant solicitors, like PotterReesDolan, have for many years argued that this is wrong because it meant that any delay in a case coming to trial reduced the amount of damages that could be awarded.
Finally the Supreme Court has had the chance to correct this injustice and in the recent case of Knauer v Ministry of Justice they have done so. Of course no amount of money can ever compensate for the death of a loved one but this decision at least brings some fairness to these claims.