Liability
Find out more about DWF's employers and public liability team

Court of Appeal finds vicarious liability for violence of managing director during aftermath of company's Christmas party
Earlier this month the Court of Appeal handed down judgment in Bellman v Northampton Recruitment Ltd (2018). Samantha Chambers and Paul Donnelly consider the implications of the judgment which…
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Vicarious liability and independent contractors
Vicarious liability has regularly been under the spotlight recently. Sheryl Bignell and Paul Donnelly look at the Court of Appeal's decision which clarifies that following repeated extensions to the…
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When an accident is just an accident: first judicial guidance on ERRA
Seema Bains Partner in DWF's London office and Nigel Lewers of 12 King's Bench Walk acted for an employer and their insurers, in what we believe to be the first reported case to consider the…
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Workplace regulations: policing the overlap between regulations and curtailing the impact of Hide v Steeplechase
The Chief Constable, and the company responsible for maintaining a police station, were not liable for injuries caused when a police officer trapped her thumb in an electronically operated door when…
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Investigation into suspected exaggeration helps QBE defeat £150,000 claim and recover costs
DWF, Cunningham Lindsey t/a Sedgwick, and QBE have successfully obtained a finding of fundamental dishonesty against a claimant who exaggerated the nature and extent of the injuries he suffered in an…
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Claimant avoids finding of fundamental dishonesty by the court attributing blame instead to his expert
In the third in a series of recent High Court decisions grappling with the concept of 'fundamental dishonesty' in relation to section 57 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 ("Section 57"), DWF…
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Court of appeal costs guidance where claimant fails to use MOJ portal
William MacKenzie outlines the findings in the recent Court of Appeal decision in Williams v The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (2018)
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Consequences for the defender
There are of course certain circumstances where such offers are almost certainly of immediate value, straightforward cases where only a single issue is in dispute and all relevant material has been…
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Common sense prevails: accidents can just happen
In the recent appeal in Pook v Rossall School, the High Court considered the nature of the duty schools owe to their students and the circumstances in which the courts should interfere with the…
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Local authority: the Court of Appeal decision in CN v Poole Borough Council
The Court of Appeal recently handed down its judgment in CN v Poole Borough Council, a ground breaking case for local authorities.
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