Overview

Written and presented by expert practitioners, professional presenters, APIL Senior Fellows, and JPIL case digest editors Brett Dixon and John McQuater, this session will help you stay ahead of the curve with APIL’s Personal Injury Update.

The APIL Personal Injury Update is a comprehensive full-day course designed to deliver the most current insights into personal injury law, covering key developments in practice, procedure, and case law.

Led by leading expert practitioners, this session provides practical guidance and early awareness of sector trends, empowering your team and strengthening your firm’s capabilities in a rapidly evolving legal landscape. With limited places available, we urge you to book onto the event as soon as possible to ensure you don’t miss out.

The content

By the end of the training, participants will walk away with valuable, up-to-date knowledge, enabling them to deliver improved client service and maintain a competitive edge. 

Keeping pace with evolving regulations, legal standards, and procedural updates is not only crucial for success, but also vital for ensuring ongoing compliance and reducing legal risk.

This event will cover:

Road Traffic Collisions & Product Liability

• Limitation & Police Investigation Failures: Disapplying s.33 Limitation Act 1980 where police failed to pursue witness statements, establishing triable issues of misfeasance in public office.
• Vehicle Product Liability: Claims against vehicle manufacturers under the Consumer Protection Act 1987 focusing on seat belt design and vehicle safety features.
• OIC Portal Admissions: The binding effect at trial of pre-action insurer part-admissions made on the Official Injury Claim (OIC) portal when pursuing full liability.

Employers’ Liability & Workplace Claims

• Occupational Stress & Workload: Employer duty of care regarding excessive workloads, unadapted misconduct investigations, and psychiatric relapse following explicit medical notice.
• Workplace Safety & Machinery: Assessing blameworthiness, risk assessments, and contributory negligence near running machinery, alongside pre-Brexit EU Work Equipment Directives and acoustic shock claims against state emanations.
• Vicarious Liability & Workplace Conduct: Boundaries of vicarious liability for workplace pranks, off-duty horseplay on barracks premises, and independent personal excursions using industrial equipment.
• Industrial Disease & Group Litigation: Military noise-induced hearing loss quantum, diagnostic audiometry, and mesothelioma exposure apportionment.
• Workplace Investigations & Cross-Border Logistics: Managing workplace accident scene investigations, fundamental dishonesty allegations, and jurisdictional challenges for cross-border transport workers.

Occupiers’ & Public Liability

• Occupiers' Duty & Self-Inflicted Harm: Duties under OLA 1957 concerning obvious self-inflicted risks from recreational activities or off-duty, intoxicated horseplay on barracks premises.
• Public & Emergency Authority Duties: Local authority duties regarding market trader footpath obstructions, plus vicarious liability for police control room errors and officer safety protocols.
• Clinical Negligence & Regulatory Standards: Clinical negligence claims, duty of care, and applying regulatory standards of care in medical practitioner liability claims.

Procedure

• Part 36 Offers & Fixed Costs: Engaging CPR 36.17 costs consequences (e.g., 90:10 liability splits) and navigating fixed vs. standard costs on late-accepted offers or pre-action vehicle damage claims.
• Privilege, Surveillance & AI: Legal professional privilege risks with draft expert reports, covert surveillance, private intelligence deception operations, and deploying AI tools with confidential client documents.
• Fundamental Dishonesty & Fraud: Disapplication of QOCS protection under the Ivey test in non-freezing cold injury (NFCI) claims, plus freestanding insurer civil proceedings for fraud and deceit.
• Evidence, Disclosure & Court Compliance: CPR Part 24 summary judgment on discrete causation, non-party disclosure for social services and family safeguarding records, BTE insurance advice, and strict court fee deadlines.

Damages & Quantum

• Interim Payments & Financial Loss: CPR Part 25 high-value interim payments for residential property purchases and preserving the level playing field.
• Fatal Accidents: Dependency valuations for loss-making family agricultural businesses, financial support calculations, and replacement management costs.
• Quantum Assessment & JC Guidelines: Personal injury quantum assessment, application of the Judicial College Guidelines, and general damages for pain, suffering, and loss of amenity.