Nicholas Bevan considers the treatment of personal injury claims in the final article of the 44th update to the CPR
From April 2005, under the Damages Act 1996 (DA 1996), s 2(1) the courts have had the power to order, in any personal injury case that includes a claim for future pecuniary loss, that the compensation be awarded in the form of periodical payments; as opposed to a capitalised lump sum. Furthermore, a court must consider whether to exercise this power when making an award for such loss. The procedure relevant to periodical payments is governed by r 41(4) to (10).
PERIODICAL PAYMENTS
Rule 36 was first modified to accommodate this power by the insertion of a new r 36.2A together with a number of ancillary amendments that implemented the new periodical payments regime. These provisions are largely copied over into the completely redrafted CPR Pt 36, which has been in force since 6 April 2007, and survive as r 36.5. The amendments themselves and the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) guidelines make it abundantly clear that periodical payments are not intended to be
