Overview

This webinar provides a practical and detailed examination of claims for care and assistance in personal injury and clinical negligence litigation. It explores the legal principles underpinning such claims while focusing on how they should be properly prepared, evidenced, and presented.

Drawing on recent case law—including judicial observations highlighting the need for greater analytical rigour in care claims—the session addresses common shortcomings in expert evidence and schedules of loss. It considers the scope of what constitutes “care,” from informal assistance provided by family members to professional care regimes, and examines how such claims are quantified both with and without expert input.

The webinar also explores specific and often misunderstood areas, including claims for medical and hospital expenses, the role of public healthcare, household assistance, and claims arising from a claimant’s lost ability to care for others. Practical guidance is given on structuring schedules of loss and identifying the evidential requirements necessary to support different levels of claim.

To support practitioners in day-to-day practice, the session includes structured checklists tailored to minor, moderate, and catastrophic cases, ensuring a consistent and thorough approach to care claims across a wide range of scenarios.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Understand the legal principles governing claims for care and assistance
• Identify what constitutes “care” for the purpose of a claim
• Assess whether claimants are required to rely on public healthcare or may claim private treatment costs
• Quantify care claims with and without expert evidence
• Evaluate care claims in minor, moderate, and catastrophic injury cases
• Understand the legal treatment of household assistance claims
• Assess claims for loss of ability to care for others
• Critically analyse expert evidence and identify common weaknesses
• Prepare and structure care claims effectively within a schedule of loss
• Apply practical checklists to ensure all relevant issues are considered in care claims

Useful Quotes

“There is a danger that because comparatively few personal injury/clinical negligence cases reach a hearing where the issues of care/aids and equipment are contested, and as a result few reminders are given by the Courts of the correct approach to be adopted, that some reports will fail to approach the analysis of what should be claimed/funded with sufficient rigour”

(Mr Justice Cotter in Muyepa v Ministry of Defence [2022] EWHC 2648 (KB).)