Marcus Grant delivered a lecture to 110 APIL delegates

31/01/2023

Marcus Grant delivered a lecture to APIL entitled:

“mTBI – What themes emerge from the reported cases of Long, Stansfield and Palmer that assist litigators in the future?” & “How to respond to allegations of FD in high value injury claims”

The lecture sought to harness some of the themes from the three 2021/22 QBD mTBI judgments in which Marcus appeared for the claimants, namely:

1. Palmer v. Mantas & Liverpool Victoria Insurance [2022] EWHC 90 delivered by Anthony Metzer KC sitting as a judge of the High Court,
2. Stansfield v. BBC [2021] EWHC 2638 (QB), delivered by Mrs Justice Yip and
3. Long v Elegant Resorts Limited [2021] EWHC 1330(QB) delivered by His Honour Judge Pearce sitting as a judge of the High Court.

In two of the cases, allegations of fundamental dishonesty were pleaded. In the third, credibility was put in issue, and the adequacy of the medicine underpinning the mTBI and audiovestibular diagnoses was challenged.

The central theme to the talk was that the answer to these cases invariably lies in the medicine.

Instruct the right experts who apply the right methodologies and get the medicine right and the answer drops out.

These cases are nuanced and the medicine is “cutting-edge”, as was reflected explicitly in the Palmer judgement.

Also, a theme emerged that allegations of fundamental dishonesty are sometimes influenced by the opinions of experts who stray from the role as an independent expert, providing an opinion to the court into advocacy.