Blogs

In Campbell v Advantage Insurance Co [2021] EWCA Civ 1698 the Court of Appeal has given guidance on the assessment of passengers’ contributory negligence in drink-driver cases.  The Facts Dean Brown had driven the claimant, Lyum Campbell, and Dean’s brother, Aaron Brown, to a club. All three consumed significant quantities of alcohol and in the…

Findings of contributory negligence against passengers who fail to wear a seatbelt and those who voluntarily get into a car with a driver under the influence of alcohol or drugs are commonplace. This blog aims to set out the underlying principles for quantifying the appropriate deduction to make in either case and to consider the…

Travel back seven decades: the Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act 1945 was given Royal Assent on 15 June 1945; three years later, on 5 July 1948, the NHS was founded. At the level of principle, the statute effected a radical change in the law by abolishing the position at common law by which any negligence…