Interesting that it's a 2004 accident- is suit just being brought? Props on the statute of limitations, merry old England!

Here is the deputy judge, John Leighton Williams QC ("John is a leading personal injury silk who has appeared in a number of the leading personal injury cases in recent years including Wells v Wells and Heil v Rankin. John also appeared in the 3 landmark cases, Callery v Gray, Sarwar v Alam and Re Claims Direct, which arose from the introduction of Conditional Fee Agreements and After the Event Insurance").

Can judges practice law in the UK?

Interesting. I am a personal injury lawyer, I -hate- slip-and-fall cases and typically don't take them. The ones that are really bad though are -trip- and fall cases- where people fell over something that was lying out on the floor in the open. "Why did you not see it?" "I don't know." Oh, great.

Usually you can settle a slip-and-fall case for some amount of money, but it is generally on a comparative-fault basis- i.e. the same injury that would be worth $10,000 if it was a rear-end auto accident, will be settled for (say) between 3 and 7 grand. To fix it where the client gets any decent recovery you have to reduce your own fee, then convince the doctors to reduce their bill so everyone gets paid. Not really worth it.

Shagbert: mama's_tasty_foods:

Can judges practice law in the UK?


Yes. The Prosecution QC in the trial of my Nephew's killers at the Old Bailey was a circuit judge simultaneously hearing cases at Reading Crown Court, and was chummy with the judge we had at the time to the point of giving him advice in the middle of the trial - including more than once at the request of some of the defendants barristers!

As to the age of the case - proceedings would have started ages ago if this is at a high court now.. If nothing else it takes anything up to a year or more to get some cases listed. A recent personal injury case I brought took a year of discussion (between my solicitor and the insurers for the company whose door took the tip of my finger off) before they'd even admit any liability. Every communication in each direction gets 21 or more days leeway for a reply, and the insurance companies always, always stretch it to the limit.

This could also be a retrial or an abandonment or something, since there's nothing shown in the listings to state that a previous trial has occurred. We had two retrials and a thankfully unsuccessful appeal trial in the murder case before (hopefully) final convictions, and the jury in all of them were not allowed to know there had been any previous hearings, to prevent tainting their judgment.

Fascinating. According to Wiki, England has a 2-year statute of limitations for torts. One day perhaps I'll learn, not from personal experience, how the personal injury system works in Britain.

Sorry about your nephew; I am glad to see they appear to have gotten a conviction that will finally stick.