Consent and Factual Causation – Two Recent Cases

Watts v North Bristol NHS Trust [2022] EWHC 2048 (QB) Snow v Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust [2023] EWHC 42 (KB) Two cases from the past year illustrate the importance of factual causation as an issue in litigation concerning consent to treatment and provide various reminders on points…

Cosmetic surgery abroad – whose contract, whose law?

Clarke v Kalecinski [2022] EWHC 488 (QB) Lisa Pal v Dr Luc Damen, Belgo International Research, Applications and Development NV [2022] EWHC 4697 (QB) Two cases (Clarke v Kalecinski & ors [2022] EWHC 488 (QB) and Pal v Damen & ors [2022] EWHC 004697) illustrate some of the difficulties faced by claimants in…

Montgomery and “Reasonable Alternatives”

Malik v St George’s University Hospitals NHSFT [2021] EWHC 1913 (QB) This was a claim about spinal surgery, specifically whether a revision decompression at T10/11 was appropriately advised and whether the Claimant had been adequately advised of reasonable alternative or variant treatments to the surgery which ultimately worsened rather than…

Medical Treatment Claims under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974

Introduction Where medical treatment has been paid for on a credit card, a dissatisfied patient may have recourse against the credit card provider under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (“CCA”).[1] This provision gives consumers who have been the victim of a misrepresentation or breach of contract by…

Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board: 5 Years on – an Impact Assessment in Numbers

This article originally appeared in Issue 6 (September 2020). Introduction  On 11 March 2015 the UK Supreme Court gave judgment in Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board [2015] UKSC 11. For both medical professionals and lawyers practising in the field of clinical negligence it is a landmark judgment and the first…

Coroner’s Investigations, Inquests and Covid-19

The coronial jurisdiction has been particularly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Death referrals to coroners are up significantly throughout the county, as much as fivefold in some jurisdictions. It therefore comes as no surprise that the Chief Coroner has rapidly brought out further guidance to assist coroners in this unprecedented…