This fully updated virtual one day course, presented by Warren Collins will cover:

Getting the right cases

• Avoiding the limitations of the portal, fixed recoverable costs and proportionality
• Avoiding missed injuries and negligence claims
• Meeting your client – when, how and where?
• Understanding medical records and stop acting as a post-box
• Key medical issues – articulated fractures, basic neurology and basic psychology
• Identifying the disciplines of experts and its impact on presentation
• The Rehabilitation Code
• The letter of claim – throwing out your standard letter and why this is key
• Risk of degeneration and implications to the claim
• Provisional damages
• Impact of disability and what you need to know about earnings multipliers
• Issue of proceedings – timing and costs budgeting strategies in road traffic collisions

Motor insurance

• BTE Insurance for drivers and passengers
• Policy excess and storage claims
• Credit hire claims – evidence of impecuniosity
• MID database searches and police information
• Indemnity and Uninsured motorists:
  • The Motor Insurers Bureau: Notices and knowledge of passengers
  • RTA Insurance – Article 75
• S151/152 RTA notices
• Untraced motorists – identifying other defendants – the 1% rule
• Insurance reserves and collaboration
• Foreign defendants: Jurisdiction and insurance issues

Liability issues in motor collisions

• Securing evidence at an early stage – how when and why
• Visiting the locus and visiting the scene
• Detective work – dash cam footage, interrogating mobile phone, sat nav and onboard data – seeking disclosure and impact of spoliation of evidence – need for early letter of claim or pre-letter of claim request
• Facebook, Twitter, Instagram – and old school surveillance in relation to liability
• Police accident reports and what you can get and when.
• Highway Code
• Allegations for letters of claim and pleadings
• Police prosecutions – understanding standards and burdens of proof
• Animals on the Highway – the Animals Act and unpacking Mervahedy v Henley
• Contributory negligence of:
  • Drivers
  • Passengers – seatbelts
  • Cyclists – helmets
  • Pedestrians
  • Children
• Impact of contributory negligence on claim generally
• Multiple vehicle collisions – picking out the bones of liability issues
• Costs implications of picking on the wrong defendant – discontinuance of proceedings and negotiating Tomlin Orders

Claims against the Highway Authority

• Highways Act 1980
• Who is correct highway authority?
• What is a defect? – Is 1 inch a rule?
• Evidence – photos and measurements
• Duty to inspect – what is sufficient?
• Duty to maintain – what does this mean – when and how?
• Trips and slips
• Potholes, road surfaces and highway furniture
• Snow and ice – winter weather policies and evidence from the Met office
• Utility companies: drains, manhole covers and road works
• Maintenance records and reports of previous collisions
• Reviewing the medical records – paramedics and hospital as well as GP records
• Contributory negligence
• Blind and disabled claimants

Strategic tips

• Timing of issue of proceedings
• Getting the right experts – disciplines and experience
• Selecting counsel
• Witness statements
• Disclosure
• Video surveillance and social media – responses and fundamental dishonesty
• Schedules of loss – some key tips – telling the story
• Forms of award – lump sums vs PPOs
• JSMs and trials