A former Commonwealth Games cyclist, Manny Helmot, has been awarded £14m—believed to be the largest sum ever granted in a personal injury case in the UK.
A former Commonwealth Games cyclist, Manny Helmot, has been awarded £14m—believed to be the largest sum ever granted in a personal injury case in the UK.
The award, by Guernsey’s Court of Appeal last month in Helmot v Simon followed a previous hearing at which Helmot was awarded £9m. However, Mourant Ozannes partner Gordon Dawes, who represented Helmot, successfully argued that the “discount rate” used to calculate the total lump sum awarded was unfair and did not accurately reflect Guernsey’s retail price index, the impact of wage inflation or the losses incurred by Helmot through loss of future earnings and the cost of care.
Robert Shepherd, managing partner of Mourant Ozannes, says Helmot had secured the UK’s largest ever personal injury compensation payout, an outcome with implications for future personal injury hearings in the Channel Islands and the UK. “This is a highly technical area of law and a landmark case that brings into focus the problem with lump sum damages
