Personal Injury
Injury and Negligence
September 25th
Glasgow
Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence Case Workshop
September 25th
2 - 5pm
Speakers: Iain Nicol and Ann Logan
In this fast moving, two–part interactive session, Iain Nicol and Ann Logan from Balfour Manson, will take you on a practical tour of the current landscape within both areas of law.
With particular focus on their own personal caseload and experience and through examination of recent decisions, this seminar will give you the opportunity to discuss recent developments with your peers within the profession and also to identify risk and avoid any potential pitfalls.
Part 1- Personal Injury Workshop
Road traffic accidents, work accidents and public liability claims are the bread and butter of many personal injury practitioners, even those with accredited specialisation. Whilst there are underlying basic principles for the handling of these types of claims, they can throw-up unusual issues in terms of liability and causation. We will look at a number of case studies where delegates, working in small groups will consider the issues and come up with views on prospects of success and potential difficulties which are likely to be encountered in pursuing or defending each claim.
Part 2 : Current issues in Clinical Negligence litigation in Scotland
The success of a clinical negligence case depends to a large degree on the expert evidence obtained from healthcare professionals and this requires careful instruction of the correct expert. I will consider the duties of an expert, the role of an expert witness, what the expert needs in their instructions, what documents to submit for consideration, how the report should be set out and the use of documentation to support the expert opinion.
A solicitor may instruct a number of different types of report and I will consider each in context, focussing on the role experts still have in consent cases and how to instruct such reports.
I will examine the further role of the expert during the court process, up to giving evidence and include recent case law on how the courts treat expert evidence.
I will also provide a review of recent decisions in Scotland and England. This will look at whether there has been any refinement of the test for medical professionals set out in Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board. This will examine issues of consent, and how judges treat causation and the acceptance of evidence by a pursuer as to what they would have done had they been properly consented.
Recent cases of interest also include those concerning the duty of care of doctors and other non-medically qualified staff, the standard of care of inexperienced doctors, and the recoverability of damages for psychiatric injury in primary and secondary victims of negligence during clinical procedures.
The event begins at 2pm. Delegate registration is open from 1:30pm.
Iain Nicol LLB, DipLP, NP graduated from Aberdeen University in 1990 and has worked almost exclusively in the field of pursuer reparation since then.
Iain is a Litigation Partner with Balfour+Manson LLP in Edinburgh. He is an accredited specialist in both Personal Injury Law and Professional Negligence Law. He has a varied case load dealing primarily with high value and complex claims in the Court of Session as well as the All-Scotland Personal Injury Court.
Iain was a Member of the Scottish Civil Justice Council Costs and Funding Committee between 2014 and 2017. He sits on the Law Society of Scotland’s Civil Justice Committee. He is also a Peer Reviewer for the Law Society under the Civil Legal Aid Quality Assurance Scheme and is a founding member of the Law Society’s Pursuer’s Panel providing specialist advice on claims involving solicitors. Iain regularly delivers seminars to the legal profession on developments in Personal Injury and Costs and Funding and was invited to Beijing in 2015 to train Chinese Lawyers on Quality Assurance.
Ann Logan LLB (Hons), MMLE, DLP, NP, graduated from Edinburgh University and then completed a Masters in Medical Law and Ethics at King’s College London. After completing her legal training in Glasgow and Edinburgh she worked in London and Hong Kong, becoming qualified to practise in all 3 jurisdictions.
Since returning to Balfour + Manson in 1993 Ann has specialised in pursuing clinical negligence claims in the Court of Session. She has extensive experience of dealing with birth injury cases and a wide range of claims against hospitals, GPs, cosmetic and dental professionals as well as related health and complementary medicine practitioners. She has been Clerk to Lothian Health Board Service Committee hearings, and was a member of the No Fault Compensation Review group. She has contributed to publications on birth trauma, consultations on the proposed No Blame Redress Scheme and Clinical Negligence pre action protocol.
Ann lectures to a variety of legal and medical audiences. She is an accredited clinical negligence specialist with the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, and the Law Society of Scotland and is ranked in Chambers 2018 guide as a Leader in the Field, and named in the Legal 500’s “Leading Lawyers” 2017 Guide for outstanding lawyers nationwide.
