Vijay Ganapathy discusses some key decisions in personal injury which will provide important guidance for future cases
- Whether a local authority was vicariously liable for abuse perpetrated by a foster carer related to the victim.
- Whether a claim should be stayed unless the claimant underwent medical testing.
- Whether to give a claimant permission to seek damages from the police for an injury he sustained when he was apprehended by them.
Since the last update, a variety of issues have made their way to trial. One is vicarious liability, which has shown a pattern of expansion since the start of the century.
This is particularly so for cases involving abuse; for the recent ruling in DJ v Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council and another [2024] EWCA Civ 841, the Court of Appeal considered whether the local authority was vicariously liable for abuse the claimant (DJ) suffered as a child by a foster parent who was also his uncle. The lower court’s judgment of this case was discussed in ‘Personal injury update: 22 September 2023’, 173
