Causation Archives - The QMLR Archive

Stroke prevention

Watson v Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust [2022] EWHC 148 (QB) Pickering v Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust [2022] EWHC 1171 (QB) Both of these cases were stroke cases involving issues of causation. Both were decided by Mr Justice Andrew Ritchie. General As those with experience of stroke…

By Cara Guthrie May 2, 2023Clinical negligence, Issue 12Causation

Clinical negligence Issue 10

Determining Causation in a Bacterial Meningitis Case

Davies v Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust [2021] EWHC 169 (QB) This was a claim brought by the widower of a woman who died of bacterial meningitis. She had been admitted to hospital two days earlier with a history of severe headache and middle ear infection. The Defendant admitted that…

By Shaheen Rahman KC January 19, 2022Clinical negligence, Issue 10Causation

Inquests Issue 9

Testing the Boundaries of Causation in Mesothelioma Deaths

Wandsworth BC v HMC for Inner West London [2021] EWHC 801 (Admin) Mesothelioma deaths arising from asbestos regularly come before coroners. This case, though, is of particular interest because it tests the boundaries of causation in relation to mesothelioma deaths – what evidence is needed to show that asbestos exposure led…

By Caroline Cross July 5, 2021Inquests, Issue 9Causation

Clinical negligence Issue 8

Cauda Equina and Causation

Hewes v West Hertfordshire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust and 2 Others [2020] EWCA Civ 1523 The Court of Appeal dismissed a challenge to a first instance decision of the High Court that two NHS Trusts and an out-of-hours GP were not liable to the Claimant for alleged failings in the…

By Matthew Flinn April 15, 2021Clinical negligence, Issue 8Causation

Inquests Special Issue

Covid-19 and Causation

One key factor that is driving the Government’s response to COVID-19 is the number of deaths. Those are deaths ‘from’ COVID-19, the number of deaths ‘with’ COVID-19, and the number of those who have died with or from COVID-19 who are ‘likely’ to have died within a certain period of…

By Dominic Ruck Keene July 22, 2020Inquests, Special IssueCausation, Coronavirus

Clinical negligence Issue 5

Causation – No Need to Prove a Specific Mechanism?

Schembri v Marshall [2020] EWCA Civ 358 This article originally appeared in Issue 5 (May 2020). Somewhat surprisingly, the Court of Appeal has upheld the controversial judgment of Stewart J (covered in Issue 3) that the Claimant’s wife would not have died if she had been referred to hospital, despite…

By Dominic Ruck Keene May 1, 2020Clinical negligence, Issue 5Causation

Issue 4 Personal injury

Relationship Between Criminal and Civil Liability under the Occupiers’ Liability Act and Causation

Mrs James v The White Lion Hotel [2020] 1 WLUK 39 This article originally appeared in Issue 4 (March 2020). The facts The Deceased fell out of the sash window of a second-floor hotel room in the middle of the night and died. The sill of the window was much…

By Cara Guthrie March 1, 2020Issue 4, Personal injuryCausation

Clinical negligence Issue 4

Damned Lies: Risk, Statistical Association and Causation

Clements v Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust [2018] EWHC 2064 AB v East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust [2019] EWHC 3542 (QB) This article originally appeared in Issue 4 (March 2020). We are all familiar with the challenge of proving that a given breach of duty was causally relevant to injury…

By John Whitting KC March 1, 2020Clinical negligence, Issue 4Causation, Statistics