In each issue, where we can’t cover cases in full, we attempt to cover them in brief. Below are cases covered in brief in Issue 1, May 2019.

Diamond v Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust [2019] EWCA Civ 585 – Informed consent – concerns: (a) principles applicable to appeals (rationality test); and (b) informed consent (a failure to warn of a risk, without more, does not give rise to a freestanding claim in damages). 

David Price v Cwm Taf University Health Board [2019] EWHC 938 (QB) – Informed consent – concerns: (a) principles applicable to appeals on a finding of fact; and (b) informed consent (is it limited to a failure to warn properly about risks of harm when that harm was then sustained, or does it extend to a failure to inform properly as to the absence of a benefit and as to non-compliance with NICE Guidelines). 

Mills v Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust [2019] EWHC 936 (QB) – Another informed consent case: failure to advise as to reasonable alternative or variant treatments. 

Buckley v Guys & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust [2019] 4 WLUK 104 – Application to vacate a trial date granted in circumstances where the evidence showed that the claimant’s imminent transfer to secondary school was a watershed event that could have a significant effect on his long-term prognosis and future needs. 

PXW v Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust [2019] EWHC 840 – CP case in which the Claimant failed on breach of duty and causation. Underlines the importance of selecting appropriate experts and explains how a Root Cause Analysis report which was critical of the midwifery care had to be understood in the context that it was directed at different issues to those which must be established in an action for negligence. 

Inglis v MOD [2019] EWHC 1153 (QB) – PI claim from a Royal Marine discharged early, now earning more than he would have done had he not been prematurely discharged due to MOD’s negligence. The court found that it was appropriate to make a deduction from the Claimant’s future loss of earnings award.