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Simmons 10% Judgement revisited

The Court of Appeal has amended its decision in Simmons v Castle by deciding that the 10% increase in general damages due to come into effect on 1 April 2013 should not apply to those claimants whose cases are funded by a CFA which was entered into before 1 April 2013.

The Court accepted the ABI’s contention that it would be unfair for claimants to be able to recover success fee and ATE premiums after 1April 2013 but to also benefit from the increase in general damages that was designed to compensate claimants for not being able to recover success fees and ATE premiums.

The Court stated: “it is hard to challenge that contention: such claimants would have the penny and the bun”.

Conversley, the Court decided that those claimants whose claims are funded on a conventional should benefit from the increase regardless of when the claim began.

The Court noted:“If the amendment is rejected, there could be cases where a Part 36 offer was sufficient at the time it was made but was insufficient after the 1 April; no such difficulties would arise if ABI’s proposal was accepted. Similarly, if ABI’s proposal is rejected, there could be cases where defendants try to accelerate the trial and claimants try and delay it. We do not think that these problems are considerable, but they tend to favour ABI’s case.”

Although this a result for the ABI (broadly speaking), the Court has decided to delete paragraph 19 from the earlier judgment and replace paragraph 20 with the following:“Accordingly, we take this opportunity to declare that, with effect from 1 April 2013, the proper level of general damages in all civil claims for (i) pain and suffering, (ii) loss of amenity, (iii) physical inconvenience and discomfort, (iv) social discredit, (v) mental distress, or (vi) loss of society of relatives, will be 10% higher than previously, unless the claimant falls within section 44(6) of LASPO. It therefore follows that, if the action now under appeal had been the subject of a judgment after 1 April 2013, then (unless the claimant had entered into a CFA before that date) the proper award of general damages would be 10% higher than that agreed in this case, namely £22,000 rather than £20,000.”

Therefore, the Court has now taken the opportunity to extend the 10% increase to claims other than those in tort, such as claims in contract. potentially, this will therefore cover holiday claims.

Simmons v Castle revised judgment: http://po.st/QwJh3N

Posted on by kaweb

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