THE KEY CASES IN FATAL ACCIDENT DAMAGES 2025: WEBINAR 3rd JULY 2025

In a recent case the court observed the importance of working from the established cases when considering how fatal accident damages should be assesessed.  When allowing an appeal from an “unconventional” means of assessment by the trial judge it was observed that each case had to be determined on its own facts. However…

… this does not mean that the court should start from scratch and ignore the tools that earlier cases have provided to accomplish a task which is necessarily based on counter-factual and hypothetical speculation about what would have happened if the fatal accident in question had not occurred. The point of actuarial and statistical tools such as those based on the Ogden tables and of the two thirds / one third rule of thumb is that they counterbalance the uncertainties that would exist in a single case, were it to be looked at in isolation, by averaging over countless examples from other similar cases in order to produce a result which is reliable notwithstanding the uncertainties of the case. It is precisely because the task is difficult and speculative that these tools have been developed, and are of such value. They are not, lightly, to be discarded, especially if an unconventional approach leads to a result which does not seem correct or fair.”

Price v Marston’s PLC [2024] EWHC 1352 (KB)  Mr Justice Griffiths

WHAT YOU DO NEED TO KNOW

The means of assessment of fatal accident damages is not set out in the Fatal Accident Act, but is set out in a series of cases which, as the above quote shows, the courts cannot lightly disregard. Proper representation of a claimant, or Defendant, depends on the lawyer knowing, in some detail, how the courts approach fatal accidents dependency.  Booking details for the webinar are here.

THE WEBINAR

This webinar looks at the key cases on the assessment of dependency claims and covers:

• Financial dependency
• Loss of a carer
• Loss of a partner
• Will the courts award damages for dependency following loss of a child?
• The type of evidence needed
• Section 4 and what matters are ignored.

—